The Ideological Malaise: Why Retreating to Screens is Partaking in the System
I saw a post supposedly by an educator expressing frustration about a lack of interest amongst students, and an inability to think without leaning on the internet's instant answers. There were many people in the thread discussing it, blaming a lack of economic prospects and/or capitalism. I will respond to this similarly to how I did to one commenter who claimed kids aren't 'buying into' the propaganda anymore.
It's overly simplistic to chalk up a lack of intellectual curiosity or the inability to think to just capitalism or to students not 'buying into' the message of success. While economic struggles are real, acting like the effects of screens aren't even worse for much of the younger generation is ignoring a massive problem.
I know screens are an issue because I’ve been affected too. When I was a child, it was actually much easier to finish a book. Now, many children won't even do that. Why do that when you can have the addictive dopamine from short clips? Notice how many in the younger generations don’t like movies anymore either? That is long-form entertainment, and viewing it correctly requires attention throughout—something that is being lost.
At the same time, I know school as an institution doesn’t exactly inspire. A lot of times, it beats the curiosity out of you rather than facilitating it. They f*cked up by teaching with examples like, 'learn this so you don’t have to be a janitor.' They didn't encourage virtues, the good life, or the value of learning in itself.
The 'Protestant work ethic' that left-wing commenters blame, I'll admit, is part of the problem here because kids receive the message that nothing matters unless it is toward some monetary goal. If you receive the message that it’s all about a career, and that end seems like something that cannot be relied on as easily anymore in reality, or is seen as being vapid and lacking in meaning, then you will tune out and get further into the screens. Screens lack meaning as well, but at least they provide the dopamine kick and sometimes simulate community or meaningful activity.
Not to be overly critical of a generation or anything, but I'm not about to praise them as 'not buying into it.' The issue of screens and attention is real, and the issue of tuning out is too. I don't think of it as 'not buying into the propaganda.' I think of it as an unfortunate and inevitable response to buying into the message received (the propaganda) combined with a subjective encounter with material realities. Those realities are these technologies, our engagement with and reliance on them, as well as our relationship to school, family, and the economy.
I also don't think it's as simple as the conclusion the complaints of some educators lead people to. I doubt it's a generation doomed or a whole generation tuning out. It sounds overblown. I don't work with students or know many. But, as much as it's a trend I see complained about, a left-wing response to ignore problems and praise the kids as 'not buying into the system' appears to be just praising social malaise to me and making a virtue out of a reality.
The reality is probably that we are neck-deep in ideology, not that we are awoken or not buying into it. The malaise and tuning out (into screens) I think of as an internalized symptom of larger trends wherein there is cognitive dissonance, not virtue.
This isn't a generation that has stopped buying into the propaganda; it is a generation that still fully believes the messages but processes that belief differently. Retreating into screens isn't 'opting out' of the system; it is partaking in it.
