Not a care in the world...

Despite offering all sorts of convenience to mankind, technology has failed to induce the basic sense of civic awareness among youngsters today.

While education is moulding them on one level, they are slithering into a world of ignorance on the other. Many people lack civic awareness about the simple things that are bogging our society, be it violating traffic rules, honking unnecessarily or protecting the environment and our surroundings. The lack of interest and enthusiasm to update oneself with these issues and act against them is probably the reason behind this indifferent behaviour. Although technology and social media have had a great impact on young minds, these agents of change seem to be dormant when it comes to eliciting a response from the youngsters.

Says Maneesha Sharma, a student of journalism, “Due to easy availability of technology and gadgets, we tend be on the move always. It is neither complacency nor lack of awareness but just the carefree attitude that has crept into us. We want everything to be done in the spur of a moment and look for short cuts to achieve things. So we don’t see any point in learning something new or implementing it because it just fades away within no time and becomes stale.”

Yeshaswini Vishwanath, another student, is of the opinion that while things have been taken for granted by everyone, there is no point in fighting for them alone. “The carefree attitude has been so deeply ingrained in us that we don’t really care to implement what we study in school or college. There is no hard-and-fast rule that we have to follow rules and this is why we take things for granted and ignore following rules.”

“All of us have become so self-centred that we don’t even spare a thought about these issues and just ignore them as yet another nuisance. We are not ready to shoulder responsibility on ourselves or take an initiative to bring about a change in the attitude. Instead we only crib about the system and let it slither to even lower standards,” says Divya, a student of psychology.

On the contrary, there are few people who are aware of civic issues. “With the social media creating a revolution like never before, we surely can spread awareness about a lot of issues that bog our society like littering, spitting on the streets and not violating traffic rules. I think we can make a difference by doing our bit as individuals. This will make people follow rules and work towards the betterment of the society,” sums up Karthikeyan, an IT professional.