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You’ve probably heard the expression, “Have you been living under a rock or something?” a time or two in your life. If you believe the new data released by Yahoo! Search Trends, apparently the question should be posed to today’s teens.

Following President Barack Obama’s announcement that 9-11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American forces on Sunday evening, Internet search engines were bombarded with questions asking who Bin Laden was, primarily from kids under the age of 17.

Yahoo! said searches about Bin Laden surged 100,000 percent following the news – with 40 percent of searches for “who killed osama bin laden” coming from people ages 13-20.

While most in this age group would most likely have been too young in 2001 to understand what took place when Bin Laden executed the attacks on the United States, it is difficult to believe that with the past ten years’ manhunt for Bin Laden and the ongoing battle against terrorism, that today’s youth would appear to be so out of sync with current events.


so do you think this is indicative of an ignorant generation of mush heads?

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here's the real incriminating stat though. 66% of searches for "who was osama bin laden" have been made by kids 13-17.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
here's the real incriminating stat though. 66% of searches for "who was osama bin laden" have been made by kids 13-17.

Well, these kids would barely have been in the school system for 9/11, so  to them Osama Bin Laden and the attack on the WTC is pretty much as "ancient history" as Hitler and Pearl Harbour, and just as relevant to their lives.... Saw this in an article today about student's reactions to the killing:

"Among those barely able to remember the attacks, there was still ambivalence. Margaret Chavez, a 16-year-old sophomore at East High School in Denver, said it was difficult to fathom the significance of a man who to her seemed as much a figure of the distant past as Hitler."

(article at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/us/04youth.html, if you're interested....)

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Originally Posted by Kieran Colfer:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
here's the real incriminating stat though. 66% of searches for "who was osama bin laden" have been made by kids 13-17.

Well, these kids would barely have been in the school system for 9/11, so  to them Osama Bin Laden and the attack on the WTC is pretty much as "ancient history" as Hitler and Pearl Harbour, and just as relevant to their lives.... Saw this in an article today about student's reactions to the killing:

"Among those barely able to remember the attacks, there was still ambivalence. Margaret Chavez, a 16-year-old sophomore at East High School in Denver, said it was difficult to fathom the significance of a man who to her seemed as much a figure of the distant past as Hitler."

(article at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/us/04youth.html, if you're interested....)

but at least we still teach about hitler and pearl harbor. i guess kids are too sensitive these days to discuss events from 10 years ago. i remember when i was in school during the 90s, our history books went up at least until 5 years prior to present day. the cold war wasn't too scary of a topic to discuss, put it that way. seems like we're too mired in political correctness and moral relativism to actually teach about good and bad in this world anymore.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
so do you think this is indicative of an ignorant generation of mush heads?

Yeah, but its our fault.  Bush was so intent on Americans living normal lives that he never really impressed upon the people that we were really in a war.  And Pres. Obama has continued this policy.  I mean really...compared to Veitnam, and WW2, does it really feel like we have been at war?  Pretty much only the families of the troops have had to deal with the fact that we are at war on a daily basis.  the rest of us have been going shopping, watching movies, going to concerts, going on vacations etc.  Nothing really changed except gas prices and the price of goods.  That doesnt really make one think of war though...especially when the fault lies with things unrelated to war for the most part.

So teens (who were small children on 9-11) cant really be faulted for being ignorant of who Bin Laden was.  They know who Charlie Sheen is though.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
You’ve probably heard the expression, “Have you been living under a rock or something?” a time or two in your life. If you believe the new data released by Yahoo! Search Trends, apparently the question should be posed to today’s teens.

Following President Barack Obama’s announcement that 9-11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American forces on Sunday evening, Internet search engines were bombarded with questions asking who Bin Laden was, primarily from kids under the age of 17.

Yahoo! said searches about Bin Laden surged 100,000 percent following the news – with 40 percent of searches for “who killed osama bin laden” coming from people ages 13-20.

While most in this age group would most likely have been too young in 2001 to understand what took place when Bin Laden executed the attacks on the United States, it is difficult to believe that with the past ten years’ manhunt for Bin Laden and the ongoing battle against terrorism, that today’s youth would appear to be so out of sync with current events.


so do you think this is indicative of an ignorant generation of mush heads?

I wish I could say that this is wrong, but tragically its not.  My fiancee is doing her final student teaching at a local high school and has two junior US History classes and two senior government classes.  She said many of the students in all four courses didn't know who he was or didn't understand the significance of his death.  Given that these are the kids that couldn't get into the AP version of these courses, but still!

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as if the they'd be better off with AP indoctrination.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
as if the they'd be better off with AP indoctrination.

Indoctrination?  How so?  Its just a more difficult class that allows HS students a chance to get college credit.  If anything these courses require students to be more analytical of their material and challenge it if necessary.  In other words, unlike far too many college prep courses, the AP actually force you to think and come up with arguments.

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Advanced Placement classes can be interesting.  We didnt have that when I was in high school.  We had what was called 'College Prep' classes...and they werent very good.  Well, the math classes were ok.

But I do know that I didnt really learn many of the interesting in-depth stories behind the whys and whatfors of historical events until I got into college.  The stuff they taught us in high school was like reading the Cliff's Notes version of what we learned in college.  Unfortunately, college classes so often today are polluted with far left liberal biase.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
as if the they'd be better off with AP indoctrination.

Indoctrination?  How so?  Its just a more difficult class that allows HS students a chance to get college credit.  If anything these courses require students to be more analytical of their material and challenge it if necessary.  In other words, unlike far too many college prep courses, the AP actually force you to think and come up with arguments.

advanced placement, or associated press?

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Sorry. I thought yall were talking about Advanced Placement classes.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
as if the they'd be better off with AP indoctrination.

Indoctrination?  How so?  Its just a more difficult class that allows HS students a chance to get college credit.  If anything these courses require students to be more analytical of their material and challenge it if necessary.  In other words, unlike far too many college prep courses, the AP actually force you to think and come up with arguments.

advanced placement, or associated press?

Advanced Placement.  Sorry, I failed to realize the potential ambiguity.

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lol, i feel like a total tool now.

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Help me out fellas...what WERE yall talking about???

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advanced placement i assume.