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Generation X

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Submitted By mlovejoy
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Many young people will claim that they aren't an apathetic generation. I used to be one of those young people but my opinion has changed as I researched this topic. As I did my research and debated with a few of my friends I see that my judgement was blocked only because I am apart of this generation and I didn't want to be called apathetic. Research shows that young people are now more apathetic towards politics. It has changed from the 60s to now because this generation has become external, believing that their lives are not controlled by themselves but by others of higher power. If an issue doesn't directly affect young people lives they just don't care about it.

It is easy to prove that this generation a apathetic towards politics with the low voting turnouts among young people. According to Twenge "and despite the recent talk about young people getting involved in political campaigns through the internet, the vast majority of young people couldn't care less about politics". We have become more cynical about politics because no good has been seen in the politics. The political candidates are seen as actors trained to appeal their voters which makes them very untrustworthy. These young people start to feel like whether they are interested or not they can't change anything in the political world. In one of my classes my professor had asked how many of us had voted in the past election in our towns. One of my classmates responded that he had not voted nor kept up with the candidates because his vote doesn't count. Many of us felt the same as him. We felt like the political issues didn't relate to us even though it does but not directly at this moment.

Only 39 states in the US now require civic classes to get a high school diploma. Civic classes are classes that educate students on the government and their role as citizens. "The generational gaps in civic knowledge, attitudes and participation are greater than they have ever been. The baby boomers, the world war 2 generation and our schools have failed to teach the idea's of citizenship to young people" ( Karl Kurtz of NCSL( CNN news)). Young people have become more external then past generations because they aren't being taught the fundamentals of being a citizen

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