I found Wednesday’s article “Young people snub print, look to Web” by James T. Madore interesting. What was more interesting to me than what was written, though, was what Madore did not say.
He did not say, for instance, that something like 72 percent of high-school students do not know who our vice president is, that more than 30 percent of that same group do not even know who our president is. I wonder how many of the “coveted” 16- to 34-year-old group watched President Bush’s entire State of the Union address and understood its implications?
It is not that young people have switched to other forms of getting their news, really; it’s that they do not stay informed at all. Being a 16-year-old high-school junior, I am immersed in this total disregard for world events often. I find it sad that our generation will grow into young adults — and even later adulthood — this way.
I don’t know that there is anything to do, short of adding a four-year current-events credit requirement in schools. I just want people to know that not even making the news “entertaining” will cause young people to stay informed. I do not think anything will.
Sarah Fowler
Groveland
