The data from this Thursday's reading was really interesting. I don't think any of us were surprised from how most Americans our age answered those survey questions. In fact, I thought it was pretty funny. Do you think you would have answered them similarly? What would have been different? Also, in assessing our generation, I wonder how we got here. What are some of the contributing factors to this generation's lack of accountability and abundance of entitlement? What does that mean for the direction of our future political life?
Most of those results held true for me, but my number one goal in life is definitely not to be rich or famous, and I am certainly not pro-business. But the rest of it - my heroes are people I'm close to, I'm pretty optimistic of the future, I have piercings and dye my hair, I'm totally more left than my grandpa - I completely identify with. All of this reminds me of a particular TIME magazine article...
Diya, I completely agree with you about this weeks readings with the statistics about our generation. It is obvious with the technological advancements have greatly altered the way we interact with one another. I also agree that I would answer similarly to many of the questions: my hero is my father, I am optimistic about the future, and I am democratic. One of the aspects of the findings that I find problematic, however, is the way the questions were approached. They asked the audience to compare how they are to how they perceive their parents to have been- I think that it is difficult to assume how the previous generation was because obviously we weren't there. I'm pretty sure I don't know the full extent of what my parents did when they were my age- so I don't think I am in the place to draw a comparison. What do you guys think? Would there be a better way to get this data?
ReplyDeleteYeah, most of the survey results don't surprise me, and I identify with some of them. My mentor and sisters are my role models, and I remain close contact with fam, but i'm not keepin in touch with my sisters for $ (not consciously, anyway), and i'm hesitant to believe the outsourcing of jobs helps American workers (not sustainable for workers these jobs are going to, too). I also don't like how the report phrases that Gen Nexters are likely to agree that "the growing number of immigrants have helped and not hurt American workers," because who's to say immigrants aren't these American workers? Who are these American workers as defined by the Pew Research Center? That' a different issue, though, but I'm just really hesitant to believe this research, that or maybe I'm missing out on the fact that most of Nexters are satisfied with their lives? Okay, okay, on to answering some of yalls questions:
ReplyDeleteI mean, just goin' back to what we been learning, i think the type of teaching practices in the classroom affect youth's perception of what they're accountable and entitled to. I've talked with other people, and this similar idea keeps poppin up in our conversations where as little kids we're always asking why and stating how things are unfair, but as we get older we accept the conditions we're subjected to because oftentimes throughout our lives we are continually told that whatever context we live in exists as it is JUST BECAUSE. Like really, if we keep tellin kids that things are just the way theyre supposed to be, how the hell we gonna help them grow to be creative and innovative leaders of our society?! Like what I been reading in my two other class totally resonates: it's because our schools are designed, consciously or unconsciously, to be these factories that mass produce brainless zombies meant to just fill work roles (Gatto refers to Inglis and Mencken's ideas on education in his essay titled Against School). Okay, i got more to type but this comment is gonna turn out to be like a response paper soon.
And Milly, I guess I can't really think of another way to get this data. I guess yeah, we didnt exist during our parents time, maybe I think providing lots and lots of context to explain these differences between generations might help? I mean, does it seem wrong for there to be drawn comparisons? I think comparisons are okay, as long as context and history are provided, because I think our society ain't black and white, our generation is not "better" than our parents', or vice-versa. It's just that there are different factors and different developments happening during different times. We may be relatively be "better" or "worse" than the previous generation, but I guess stuff like low voter participation rates matter not because they're relatively lower in comparison, but because it seems if they're higher than it's likely that our society is upholding a democracy. I think ideally, like what was cited in our previous Dewey reading, is that we want to be void of a society that adopts democracy when it's convenient for us (using it's derived ideas to solve immediate issues, instead of just upholding all its values in favor of the people).
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