Jake’s Weblog

   It would seem that in today’s world, America is a well-advanced nation with state of the art technology and well-educated citizens, but the truth is that compared to the rest of the world, Americans are lazy and ignorant, and I’m as guilty as the next man.  A bag of rocks probably has a higher IQ than the nation as a whole.  Seriously, look at the rest of the world – they may not all be as advanced technologically as us, but they have a much better idea of who they are and what is going on in the world around them – therefore I have to side with the sentiments of N. Abramovitz and Guilio A. De Leo from the Taking Sides reading.  America is increasingly becoming a nation undereducated, and in the end only we will pay the price for it.  As the world around us grows more technologically advanced and up-to-date, our remaining ignorant to something as simple as the underlying principles in our Constitution will only pose problems.  So no, I do not believe that people are better informed in the information society.

   Wade Roush gives the argument of a newer and better internet called “PlanetLab” as leading the way to a new age of information.  I fail to see how this applies to people being better informed in the information society, as it is merely streamlining the process even more and making it even more effortless.  This automatic virus-destroying technology and easy formatting may seem like a blessing, but it does nothing to help the average American become on-par with global standards of up-to-datedness.  The fact that many of my countrymen probably don’t know James K. Polk was once the leader of their country is a little disturbing, considering we’ve only been around for 200 years and there’s not even 50 Presidents to remember.  It’s sad, but we’re spooned so much pop culture that we barely even know who we are as a nation – how can we be considered “informed?”