Last night, my friends and I treated ourselves to a dinner at Flat Top Grill. Overall, we had a great time. It was great food, great atmosphere, and great company. Though, one part of the night really ticked me off. It was while we were waiting to be seated. There was a lull in conversation, so I brought up the Penn State scandal. To my astonishment, none of my friends knew what the Penn State scandal was. Perhaps the biggest scandal of college football, and not one out of the five of them had ever even heard of it.
This caused me to start wondering about how many other American teens are unaware of current events. My research led me to a study done by Harvard regarding how many American teenagers pay attention to the news. The study states that some "28% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 said they pay almost no attention to daily news, and 32% said they pay only casual attention to one news source a day".
This statistic genuinely alarmed me. In my point of view, one needs to be educated in current events in order to be a functioning member of society, even if one is only a teenager. So, I began to question why such a low number of teenagers read the news. The only teenagers I knew for a fact didn't read the news were these five friends from Flat Top. After talking to them, I realized that the news is just not a priority for them. Their lives are too much wrapped up in homework, after school activities, college searching, work, friends, family, facebook, and sleep to pay attention to the news.
But really, I don't think the news is that difficult to keep up with. If a teenager just takes 20-30 minutes out of everyday to focus on current events, they will most likely have a good basic knowledge of current world happenings.
The study also states that: "Among people age 18-30, 48% said they pay attention to daily news, and only 23% of older Americans said they largely ignore news." So luckily, eventually in life, the news does become a priority for most. Teenagers will mature into functioning members of society after all.
Nonetheless, on Monday, I will begin schooling my friends on current events during our fifth period lunch whether they like it or not.
If you want to learn more about the Harvard study click HERE.
This caused me to start wondering about how many other American teens are unaware of current events. My research led me to a study done by Harvard regarding how many American teenagers pay attention to the news. The study states that some "28% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 said they pay almost no attention to daily news, and 32% said they pay only casual attention to one news source a day".
But really, I don't think the news is that difficult to keep up with. If a teenager just takes 20-30 minutes out of everyday to focus on current events, they will most likely have a good basic knowledge of current world happenings.
The study also states that: "Among people age 18-30, 48% said they pay attention to daily news, and only 23% of older Americans said they largely ignore news." So luckily, eventually in life, the news does become a priority for most. Teenagers will mature into functioning members of society after all.
Nonetheless, on Monday, I will begin schooling my friends on current events during our fifth period lunch whether they like it or not.
If you want to learn more about the Harvard study click HERE.
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