Our parents and their generation as a whole accuse our generation of a host of things; we're too lazy; we're disrespectful and lack courtesy; too reckless and rash; we're inclined towards crime and a long list of other things. We usually argue vehemently about how wrong they are and we, misunderstood. We counter their arguments with one of our own insisting that it's they who are uptight about everything.
As a member of the accused group, I've had cause to put up a defence against more than one of the accusations as I'm sure you have too ( there's no need to be coy). But lately, I've been thinking along a line that lends credence to one and maybe all of the accusations.
I've heard the Baby Boomers accuse us of being an ignorant generation, a people that generally do not quest for knowledge. Our automatic reason, as always, is "That's a lie!" But is it really?!
In the course of my research, a friend recalled that in his growing days, his father always woke up early enough to listen to the 4am broadcast of the BBC news and return to sleep afterwards. This same man would pause family devotions whenever they stretched into 9 O' clock so he could catch that hour's broadcast of the NTA's Network News. More than one person made reference to their fathers' ever present battery-powered radio. I personally know about the woe that befalls anyone who dares to tune my father's car stereo away from Radio Nigeria before the news is read.
How many of such avid news followers do we have in our generation? I got a few retorts about reading the newspapers (ALMOST) every morning, but the truth is that most of these people only read papers when their office or colleagues buy a copy. Our fathers probably had a newspaper budget. Even on days when my father's indoors all day, he asks anyone venturing out to buy him his daily dosage and in the event that no one has a mission out, he sends someone out just for the papers. I wonder how much longer the newspaper companies will be able to hold on for dear life, after the Baby Boomers pass on?
Ironically, ours' is the generation that has available to it an array of news sources; there's the good old TV, there is the radio which we can access on-the-go on our phones. Above all, there's the internet where a number of sources (including the newspapers) offer us the news for fee! In the light of all of this evidence, it seems rather glaring that we are what they say we are; an ignorant generation that shun's information and knowledge (except it relates to ShowBiz and other fluff). Yet we wonder why we are not at the helms of affairs!
Picture source here
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