Essay (final)

Omar Stevens
11A – Social Studies
Ignorance in today’s society
We are currently living in an age where our society revolves around digital technology. We have become dependent on the digital technology available to us. We use digital representation devices for practically all of our daily activities. Our digital lifestyle has provided us with easier access to information, unlike anything ever before. The ability to learn and gain a great amount of knowledge is much easier than in the past. Yet, it is a growing trend that each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. We are less aware and have thorough knowledge on current events and issues such as our economic failure and the war that we are in. We are now less aware of the true problems of our world and the reasons why our society is the way it is. Many people blame the growing ignorance of our society on the growing amount of electronics and digital representation devices around us. Although digital representation devices consume an enormous amount of the average Americans life, it is not the cause of our mass ignorance. The ideas of this country that are pushed through pop culture and the digital media are the cause of our ignorance. These ideas teach us to value only ourselves and to go about life in the most convenient way possible. Our desire for convenience and short cuts have led to major set backs intellectually as well as physically. Our current ways of life have proved to be disastrous and can only lead to more harm. The dominant ideas of our society, which are selfishness and individualism, and a false sense of happiness are what drives our society and determines the way we function as individuals and as a society. These are the ideas that people have been taught to believe in and they have shown to be ideas that lead to failure in thoroughly and effectively educating us to critically think about the world we live and how we can better it and ourselves. Our digital developments have provided us with more opportunities but our ideas have restricted us. Digital representation devices have given our society less of an excuse for its substantial amount of ignorance.

Our society has taught us to be intensely concentrated on pop culture. In turn, the priorities of people have been completely disordered. It is very easy to blame an individual for their desire to follow pop culture as well as their ignorance. It is equally uncomplicated for someone to blame it on our digital advancements. The true problem and explanation for the significant amount of ignorance in people lies within the dominant ideas of society. Through digital representation devices and many other ways, the ideas of pop culture are spread to the masses. We are taught to value ourselves and only things that affect us or the ones we love. We are taught how to be happy, we are taught how to be successful, and we are told to try our best and work towards fulfilling these false ideas of success and happiness. We are told to be different and unique but at the same time we are told how to live our lives. We are taught to conform to lifestyles that keep us ignorant. We have been taught to seek the lives that celebrities live and focus on materialistic things. We have been taught to constantly buy things and get happiness from spending money. We have been distracted from the issues such as the lack of jobs and the scandals going on in big businesses. We are taught to value meaningless and pointless things and in turn we are distracted from the truly significant and important issues that affect our lives, the lives of other, and the world we live in.

The Internet, which provides us with endless possibilities, is hardly if ever used for a positive purpose. Many people today use digital networking sites such as Facebook as a pastime. Facebook has been a widely used social net working site that people go on to connect with friends. People on Facebook spend time talking about meaningless things while it could be used to spread knowledge on current events or talk about the important issues we are currently facing. Unfortunately this is not how it is used. It is not uncommon for someone to go on Facebook for hours. Facebook has “over 300 Million users”(Facebook.com), and “50 percent of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day”(Facebook.com), finally “800 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily (worldwide).”(Facebook.com) It is quite obvious that Facebook is one of the major distractions, and similar to everything else it will eventually die off and something new will come and replace it, and the people will spend there time distracted on this new meaningless website. “The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older. The statistics on the usage of Facebook also show us how pop culture and the value of fake happiness are ideas that have been a round for a long time and are pushed through society. These ideas affect young children, teenager, and adults. These ideas have been constantly taught to people of all ages. In the last 15 years there has been a great leap in the amount digital representation devices available to us as well as the capability of them. The fact that the largest growing demographic of Facebook users are over 35 years old (Facebook.com) shows that it is not the tools or devices we have but it is what we are taught to use them for.
Digital representation devices do not change our priorities or the basis of our thinking they simply give us different ways to go about our lives, although we may be, essentially doing the same thing we did prior to them. Digital representation devices are ways of people conforming to pop culture. The reasons for our societal failures and mass ignorance lie within the ideas conveyed by pop culture. One of the main priorities of people today is fitting in with whatever is new or cool at the moment. Pop culture and celebrities are what people follow to feel as though they are fitting in. The majority of people conform to the ideas of individualism and selfishness although there are different things to conform to essentially they are the same. People find it easier to be interested in things that are meaningless and pointless instead of figuring out and learning about many significant problems we currently face, such as the war, economic problems, and most importantly the cause of the problems we face. It is much more convenient to look at something that a celebrity wrote on twitter than to do research and learn about current events a spend time thinking about the significant problems that affect our world.

Twitter is a social networking website in which small messages called “tweets” are displayed for everyone to see. These are usually short messages saying what you are currently doing. Mostly this website is used for people to follow the lives of celebrities. Although the number is not as big as Facebook it is still excessively large at 1 million active users. (Michael Arrington, page 1) People feel much more comfortable looking at things that have no real significance. The over whelming numbers of people using these purposeless although amusing websites show that people simply do not want to learn and face the real problems in our world. No matter what site people are being distracted by and wasting their time on nothing will change unless the ideas of what is most important and the priorities of society change. The dominant ideas of society are what determine how people live their lives; a change in these ideas is the only thing that can change people’s lifestyles.
It is arguable that new digital technology causes us to distance ourselves from other people. The Internet has caused us to have fewer connections with other people around us. “The Internet also alienates the person from his social self.”(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/45919/negative_effects_of_internet_usage.html?cat=9) It is also arguable that the Internet has cause drops in reading and physical activity. It is arguable that the Internet has caused reading levels to drop “from three-quarters to 70 percent over the last six years.”(Helen Legatt, pg.1) It is very standard for people to blame the Internet for the ignorance of our society and the lack of education. However, this reasoning is wrong. It is not what we are using but it is how we are using it and what we are taught to do with the materials or tools given to us. The fact that the age range of the highest users of twitter are around 54 years old, and the highest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years and older, shows that it is not that new digital technology has caused more ignorance and an overall societal failure but it is the ideas that cause this. Digital representation devices provide another distraction for people. People can use things such as the internet to either expand their knowledge or spend time on pointless things such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Although many people have not realized the immense amount of ignorance amongst people today and possibly their own ignorance it is something that affects all people. It is essential that people change their ways, because nothing good can come from an increasing amount of ignorance. Our lack of knowledge on the issues in the world today keeps us from ever making any significant changes. It is impossible to make change if you do not have a deep knowledge of what you are trying to change. We do not live in a perfect world; our world is very far from perfect. It is essential to make changes to better the world for ourselves and the future generations. Being aware of what causes our lifestyles and ignorance is a step towards figuring out how to better our selves and the things around us. The only way to counter and diminish the mass ignorance of our society is to change the ideas our society teaches people to believe in.

The digitalization of our society has opened up many doors for us. It has also given us less of an excuse for the mass ignorance of current society. A change in the dominant ideas of society is essential in making any progress towards the elimination of the massive ignorance and failure of society. Society has been headed in the wrong direction. We are currently dealing with economic failures, mass unemployment, war, and many other problems. A change is necessary in saving the people and the world we live in. We are the only ones who can save our world and ourselves and a major shift in the major ideas of this society is the only thing that will change us. We need to use our digital technology to our advantages instead of letting it distract us and affect us negatively.











Bibliography
1. www.Facbook.com/statistics
2. Michael Arrington, page 1, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers
3. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/45919/negative_effects_of_internet_usage.html?cat=9
4. Helen Legatt, Internet users reading less print)