“Malaria kills more than 1 million kids a year,” says the lead on the nothingbutnets.net website. One would think in this day and age that such a thing is unthinkable, but there we are. It’s a statistic, big, rude and scary. As students we can often feel that such things, should they be real, are far out of our reach to control but the current generation of human beings on the planet have tools to rally and inform that just didn’t exist twenty years ago and, perhaps, a responsibility to use them.
A recent study I noted through the Associated Press in an article by Martha Irvine (http://www.newsarama.com/games/ap-080916-survery-kid-videogames.html) cited some statistics of interest to me. Though with a somewhat smallish sample size, a national survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/263/report_display.asp) shows that the vast majority, around 97 percent, of young Americans between twelve and seventeen years of age (that were part of the survey) play video games in one form or another. But let’s not allow that to be the end of the point. The fact of the matter is that many play with someone through the Internet, roughly 27 percent, and many more play with someone next to them in the room, about sixty-five percent. The study sums it up as, “Video gaming is pervasive in the lives of American teens-young teens and older teens, girls and boys, and teens from across the socioeconomic spectrum.” Some might try to claim that this is alarming, that it is no better, or even worse than a couple of kids zoning out in front of the television but the study would seem to differ.
The most striking discovery to come from the survey was in regard to civic engagement. Among teens that play with others in the room nearly two-thirds of them go online to get information about politics. Likewise, similar percentages have raised money for charity and are committed to civic participation. And according to the survey results, “Teens who take part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, are more engaged civically and politically.” Such activities include civil and political protest, discussing politics with a mind toward persuading others how to vote in an election, raising money for charity, and, at the least, staying informed about current events.
While it would be interesting if such a study had been done a decade ago, to gage such things in regard to the majority of today’s Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) students, it is probably safe to say that our extended generation had experienced a fair number of the same elements that shape the sample group in the above survey. Perhaps one of the main difficulties in this age of overwhelming choice is finding some good places to start to direct the energies and urges we all have toward being civic-oriented citizens of the world.
One such place would be to look toward assisting in the efforts of organizations such as nothingbutnets.net and their fight against the devastating Malaria epidemics worldwide. To be effective you might have to shell out ten bucks or, at least, convince someone else you know to do so or, better yet, both. But surely skipping one movie, concert or dinner out is worth the life of a fellow human being. No one is expected to save the planet on their own but everyone could do a little bit more and make a huge difference.
Many students are unaware of fairly easy and cost-free ways to become more active politically without becoming dyed in the wool pundits for what are perceived as two sides of the same political coin. If someone finds themselves to be interested in cause-oriented activism that is willing to sometimes straddle the aisle in an effort to bring about positive results for the greater good, they can do little better than to check out ONE.org.
So while we are out there surfing the Internet, often with a chatroom window or AIM or some other interface open with a friend, I think it behooves all of us to share some of these above-mentioned sites and try to do a little, if simple, good to make the world a better place for those in need and for ourselves while there is still the time and possibility to do so. Opportunities aren’t always lost because someone takes them away. Sometimes they are lost because we just let them slip through the cracks due to our inaction.