News media and apathetic Zombie Generation

By Peter Zakin

Courtesy of UWire

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, my mother stocked our house with gas masks, anti-anthrax pills, duct tape and water bottles. She was sure the world was tumbling toward its end and convinced my sister and me that the gas masks would save us even if that bin Laden guy knocked on our door for a personal visit, like a Girl Scout selling anthrax-flavored cookies.

Though there is a greater threat of terrorism now than there was before we invaded Iraq, a general calm has descended upon our country since those days.

Our growing resistance to fear is normal. Fear stirs quickly, and then, with time, we get over it. Israelis haven't stopped taking buses, and eventually, vacationers won't think twice about hotels in India.

But I propose that, while people have generally always been able to distance themselves from disasters and go on with their lives, our generation and future generations will do so to an unprecedented degree.

Mass media, which was supposed to bring us closer to the world around us, is in fact drawing us away from it.

We have been brought up with an accessibility to media that is unparalleled by any other generation.

Tom Alderman, a media analyst, has called our generation the "ADD Generation," making the case that mass media has propagated Attention Deficit Disorder behavior among all of us. It is the qualification of a culture of channel-changing and multitasking, which results in more information piling onto the same highway, only to get backed up in bumper-to-bumper mental traffic.

I agree with Alderman that our generation is exhibiting especially ADD-like behavior, but I would take it yet a step further. The reign of 24-hour news and the emergence of the blogosphere are taking the media in a direction that is unintentionally coupling accessibility with redundancy.

The terrorist attacks in India deservedly became a media obsession last December, but the constant coverage had a curious effect: Eyes, once transfixed, became bored.

We began to see the attacks as just another atrocity, one we could add to the towering heap of horrific things that had preceded it. So we got bored and sought a new story of interest.

How did the media respond? They recognized our boredom and satisfied our need for fresh news.

This reaction is normal, understandable and human. But regardless, our old news is becoming old too early, and we gorge all of it, swallowing rather much, digesting rather little. That's why this apparent calm is going to persist among those our age and younger -- even as they age and enter the workforce.

Despite everything there is to fear, our generation, more than any other, remains calm. There is a terrorist threat, and there is a cause for immense concern. Our economic situation has all of the makings of a national disaster, but until those we know personally lose their jobs and we are fighting on the streets for odd jobs, we will insulate ourselves from the fears we really should harbor.

We are the Zombie Generation, and we will cling to apathy, living our lives as if business were usual, even if it isn't. If terrorists are looking to inspire fear to advance a political agenda, the Zombie Generation will prove a strong adversary. And while the media can be credited with producing an apathetic survivalism, our indifference to the world makes us a bit less human. Mass media will always save us all from fear and panic, but are we worth saving?

Peter Zakin is a columnist for The Daily Princetonian. This article is courtesy of UWire.