Can the disconnect be stopped or is it too late?
Nov 7th, 2008 by spaceagesage
A few points to note:
1) Perceptions
I caught The Daily Show the other night with Jon Stewart talking with FoxNews personality Chris Wallace. Jon noted the difference for him about Obama (versus conservative politicians) is that they are on the same page. In their discussion, Jon said of Obama (paraphrasing), “For the first time someone is speaking in a manner that matches my sensory perception.” Jon also added this explanation about his disconnect with the news at the more conservative Fox (still paraphrasing): “I would go outside, and it would be 60 degrees, with a light breeze, a lovely day … then I would go in and turn on some Fox affiliate, and they would say, ‘It’s snowing,’ and I’d think ‘Wow that doesn’t match my perceptive reality’.”
2) Values
One pollster, Frank Luntz, said many young voters picked their candidate this election primarily because the candidate agreed on the same issues as they. Character was listed lower on the scale and Experience was last on the younger voters’ list. Older voters put Experience and Character closer to the top.
3) Technology gaps
And then this from Wikipedia:
Generation Y (who were born between 1979-1994 and grew up in the 1990s and 2000s) has a nearly intimate connection to technology. In their 2007 book, Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today’s Students, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa found that in a survey of 7,705 college students in the US:
- 97% own a computer
- 97% have downloaded music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
- 94% own a cell phone
- 76% use instant messaging and social networking sites
- 75% of college students have a Facebook profile and most of them check it daily.
- 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod
- 49% regularly download music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
- 34% use websites as their primary source of news
- 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
- 15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week
- 14% use online purchasing to buy tobacco related products
- 8% have confessed to having an online gaming addiction at some point in their life
I see Obama has his work cut out for him. I imagine him walking into a cactus patch where it is hard not to get stuck by one needle or another. Not only must he face tough economic times, a capitol filled with partisanship, and security threats, he must try and stop the divisions between liberals and conservatives, between the generations, and between the tech-savvy and the unplugged (or the never-plugged-in).
I don’t want to start political battles over this post, but rather, I would like to know — How can we help the future of this country in our daily lives?
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Photo credit: speech path girl
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My friends and I have had conversations for years about the world and how it’s “going in the toilet” in many ways (that’s not a political dig, it’s just our perception) and we feel powerless at times. We keep coming back to the same solution: the positive values we believe in, live by, model for and pass down to our children. Hopefully a more tolerant and caring generation will emerge . . . . I certainly have my fingers crossed.
One of my main aims in life is to make my little corner of the world a friendlier and more loving place. There are small actions we can take every day to do that.
Hi Linda,
Powerlessness drains, but your solution keeps the fires going — good for you!
Hi Jean,
Our little corners of the world need all the love they can get! I’d love to hear about your top five “small actions.”
My top three right now are
1. Helping to get animals at the local shelter find good homes. I make weekly videos (musical slide shows) of the animals for the local public access TV station.
2. I also add a sing-a-long showing a woman who entertains at the local senior center every Wednesday. I taped a lot of the songs and added the words so anyone viewing can follow along. I include one song a week on the tape I give to the station.
3. I’ve been dealing with a lot of red tape and I stay friendly and appreciative instead of getting frustrated.
Hi Jean,
Thanks for sharing those. I can see those small steps reaping big rewards for the animals, the viewers, and your relationships!
From an outsiders point of view, I live in Australia.
In our daily life it is about building coalitions for mutual benefit. Usually it is easiest to start with friends. The next step is to include more people who we don’t know. Eventually finding commonality even with those we strongly disagree with. Hope this makes sense.
🙂 I just received a Kreativ Blogger Award and am passing the award on to some of my favorite bloggers. You’re on the list. See http://stresstopower.com/blog/2008/11/09/kreativ-blogger-award/
Lori
I think we can only ever really act in our own back yard. Dream big and act small. And stay as positive as you can about where the country’s headed. maybe it will rub off on others. In Australia, our last government was in for 10 years and I absolutely hated what our Prime Minister stood for. Many of the actions he took were so against my sense of ethics and justice I was ashamed to be Australian. So I could only keep moving forward without being depressed if I kept my focus on creating the ‘change I wanted to see’ and looking forward to what wanted in a government without rallying against the government I had that I couldn’t stand.
I think my nation under our new government is much more settled and less divided than it was for the prior 10 years, so I hope for the same for your country.
See it in your mind and who knows one day you might see it in your life.
Kelly 🙂
Hi Evan,
Hello and welcome!
Building upon your base and reaching out from there to find common bonds makes sense.
Hi Jean,
Thanks!
Hi Kelly,
Actions speak louder than words, so we shall see what happens here in this nation. But for better or worse, I agree, we act most powerfully among our friends and neighbors.
“Let there be peace, and let it begin with me.”