by Isabel Paterson ‘12

Watching television during the past few years, it seems almost every channel is littered with environmental advertisements. Messages such as, “Going green is easy,” “If you save energy, you are saving our earth,” “Every person counts, make a difference in our environment,” are engraved into our brains. Not saying this is a completely bad thing; in fact, it is clear we need to change our ways environmentally. But these mandates are meaningless unless tangible steps are taken, and it seems that trendy issues, like the environment, come and go without any real action happening.

The newest trend is public education reform. NBC is doing a series called “Education Nation” that describes education problems but offers no permanent solution. It offers its “commitment” to “providing quality news and information to the public,” but honestly, what is that going to do? And what is defined as quality? Under the recent news articles provided by NBC in “Education Nation,” one article is entitled, “Proposed Texas Bill Would Allow Guns On Campus” and right underneath is another article called “Teen Group Aims to End ‘Fat Talk.’” These are the important issues in education? Seriously?

The environment is not the only thing we have obsessed over, and education surely won’t be the last. The peace movement in the 1960s, the antipoverty campaign in the 1970s, the “Say No to Drugs” program in the 1980s, and then anti-smoking in the 1990s are all movements that previously drew attention. And just in the past few years, there have been bandwagons to jump on related to saving Darfur, fighting breast cancer, and standing up to intolerance and bullying. The attention to these worthy causes eventually fades away, not completely, but enough that the issues do not get the attention they need to get solved. Instead, an issue gains publicity only in the short time period that it is popular as people become aware of the problem and promise to make a difference. And there are handfuls of people that do actually get involved, helping out when they can and making sure others do too.

On the other hand, the popularity of this or that cause leads to superficial involvement as these problems become more like marketing tools. The problems that are more sellable than others get the most attention. Nobody finds it cool to wear a shirt saying “Cut the deficit!” Probably 50 percent of teens don’t even know what deficit means. But catchy slogans can flourish. Aforementioned slogans like “Go Green” are seen everywhere.

There is no quick solution to this problem. There may not even be a completely effective solution to be found, but there are some ways that we could improve how problems in our nation are approached. As previously mentioned, the media is one of the biggest influences in our nation. We need to improve the amount of reliable facts being reported on MSNBC, FOX and other news channels. Political bias is not getting us anywhere. As a new generation is emerging, it is clear that almost everyone in it relies on technology and the media for knowledge. There are many different programs in schools teaching how to work with technology, but what about how to work with what you find in these technologies? A class devoted to media—good media and bad media and how to tell the difference—would greatly improve the views of this new generation on what is truly important information and how to truly make a difference.