Last week we talked about the partnership between education and entertainment and how it is shaping the way we see educational shows. Whereas this week, we are looking into the field of general knowledge, questioning whether is there abundance of proper information or is it just a voice in a huge crowd.
"Is this Hitler guy still alive?" were the words said by a young college student.
Should we blame the youth of today for these kinds of mistakes? Even Hitler, the most infamous tyrant of the Second World War was unknown as if history was falling into deaf-ears. An example of how the advancement of technology and the information boom has affected the youth of today.
Gone were the days when information were fed to us, spoon by spoon as we were once all so dependent on information given to us. In the world today, we no longer take information as literal as we used to, we make choices and decide what kinds of information we want at any given time.
Here are the 5 Reasons to this dilemma:
The Age of Google
The biggest reason of all, as most facts are found through googling and it is a fact that we all do it. The problem lies in the fact that after the information is easily looked up, it is also easily discarded, not retained. When given a factual question - who is Hitler? People would Google it, without a second thought and probably look through Wikipedia; understand the information presented and answer. Actually knowing the fact, committing it to memory, does not seem to be the consideration.
Change in Education System
Learning in school 50 years ago was a whole lot different than what we learn today. In the old days, emphasis was given to learn about the capital of other countries, world history, the atlas and even world geography. But in today’s standard, we would learn about our country's capital, our country's history, and atlas? We don't even bother - there is Google Earth for that!
Lack of Emphasis
Emphasis is not given to learn about general knowledge, but instead learning to pass exams are given more attention to. It is not strange to hear this fact as most of the younger generation focus more on memorizing for exams rather than understanding the content they are reading. Education has increasingly becoming exam orientated and it is a fact if you take Malaysia's education into account.
Lack of a Dynamic Syllabus
The subjects we take today are more focus than it used to be. Even in the Form 6 syllabus, a lot of content and facts have been taken out and revised to make it simpler for the students. The Drawback being students are not encouraged to think outside the box more often than not. Even in high school, our syllabus does not include classic English literature, or even classical music, for one to learn these subjects it must be outsourced from outside of the school.
Selective Information and Content
There is simply too much information out there for a person to absorb. Therefore people have become more selective of their content, picking what kind of information they would want to pay attention to. An excellent example would be this - would you rather watch Music Television (MTV) or The History Channel? Like it or not, we choose what we want to watch.
At the end of the day, general knowledge is dwindling as we progress forward to the future, it is in plain view. Are so powerless to stop this force at work, no amount of complaint would suffice, like how parents can stop their children from playing video games.
So before we despair, stay tuned for next week’s topic: Shows That Recharge Your Brain Juice!
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