College Students More Knowledgeable About Politics Than American Idol

You read that right, it's actually the opposite of what is generally though.

The stereotype of the self-involved, culture-obsessed U.S. college student is wrong, according to a new study.

American college students today are actually very engaged in politics to the point that they are much more likely to know the names of their U.S. senators or congressional representatives than the names of winners of "American Idol," says political scientist Kent E. Portnoy of Tufts University.

His analysis of a national survey of 1,000 non-military men and women ages 18 to 24 included equal mixes of college students and non-college students and drew upbeat conclusions about the youngest cohort of potential voters.

SOURCE:
LiveScience.com

This is very good news to hear.
I actually sort of figured that this was more or less true, as the idea
that the majority of college kids are self-absorbed culture whores
never exactly sat right with me, considering I have seen so many
examples of quite the opposite.


Comments, Opinions?

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[edit on 12-4-2007 by chissler]

I don't believe it. As a college student myself, I can tell you that the vast majority of the students not only do not know anything about politics, they don't care. It's rather sad really. Most of them that I have come into contact with don't see how it does or ever will have any impact on their lives and think I am a "nerd" for telling them it does.

Nah, I think the great majority of not only college students, but the population in general, know more about mundane matters such as "American Idol" and Anna Nicole Smith than they do about politics or any other subject that is actually worth thinking about.

Well I have seen quite the opposite myself, not only in college level
individuals, but even in High Schoolers.

Perhaps it depends on the college.

Originally posted by iori_komei


Perhaps it depends on the college.

Well, I have been to three different ones... While at the University level the students are a bit more involved, it still isn't as it should be. At the local Community College level... forget about it.

It's not really a knock on the students... Hell, it's our culture. We are taught that it's "uncool" to know and learn about brainy things,and cool to be an "expert" on music,video games and movies.

Your figures may be correct.. I don't know. However, if they are, it is a change of guard as best as I can tell.





[edit on 12-4-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

[edit on 12-4-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about

College students fail civics test
By Chrissie Thompson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 27, 2006


Fewer than half of college seniors tested in a study knew that the Declaration of Independence contained the phrase "all men are created equal."
Intercollegiate Studies Institute released results yesterday of a history and institutions test given last year to seniors and freshman, stating both groups failed the exam.
On average, seniors scored 1.5 percent higher than freshmen did on the test, which included questions about American history, government and international relations. The survey, administered by the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy, tested 14,000 randomly selected freshmen and seniors at 50 colleges and universities in the United States.

Nope...Don't think College Students Know Much About Politics

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[edit on 12-4-2007 by chissler]

I agree with SpeakerOfTruth, heh, I also attended three different universities. Even amongst students whose major is "political science" their political acumen is not particularly strong (poli sci was one of my majors.) - most of them just saw poli sci as a more meaningful and respectable undergraduate degree than pre-law for law-school.

My last year my Social Cognition (soc psy was my second of three majors) professor asked our class if we considered ourselves "liberal" "conservative" "moderate" or "don't know." This was the first time I had ever experienced such a thing, and in a social psychology class no less! I assumed everybody was as interested in politics as I was (I had even volunteered almost a thousand hours during high school on political campaign work), and I was shocked that 14 of the 18 people in the class responded "don't know."

Now, this was by no means a scientific study, but it was a survey of students with above-average education (18 university seniors, I'd say aged 21-26 with a few older outliers) at one of what the media calls "most liberal" universities in the country.

As far as American Idol, well, I can name my representative (state and US), senators (state and US), and govenor... but the only American Idol contestant I can name is Kelly Clarkson, but that's only because she's cute and was the first.

Alpha, as I stated, it's not only with college students does this lack of knowledge exist, it's with the general population. We are living in a society where 60% of the population has admitted to having never read a book. Twenty percent of the population is functionally illiterate. That means, of a hundred people you meet, 20 of them don't know how to read or write.What does that say about today's society? Well, to me, it signifies not only a lack of intelligence, but also a short attention span. Surprise,suprise.

Sad state of affairs. Sad,sad state of affairs.

I've seen the 60% number for people who have never read a book, but I'd like to know more about that number because I mean, come on, didn't we all have to write monthly book reports starting what, in 1st grade? I assume it means that 60% of people do not read books regularly outside of what's required by school/work. The 20% number for folks that are functionally illiterate, I can see that. It's shocking to see what some people come up with when asked to write simple compositions. I've been tasked to grade some research papers submitted for a class I was TAing and... it's heart-breaking to fail people... but I simply could not believe some of those folks could even pass a 4th grade composition class.

I don't think it necessarily signifies lower intelligence, but I agree it definitely indicates shorter attention spans. And values, those are screwed up too - by and large kids don't take school seriously for love of learning, they just want that piece of paper so they can hopefully get another zero added to their compensation package. We're all about instant-gratification and want to be constantly stimulated. Just as I'm typing this I'm playing a game of chess in another window, IMing with friends, and watching Judge Judy on the television, lol. Consequently, I'm scattered and doing none of those things particularly well at the moment. But I'm certainly not bored, or under-stimulated!

Just look at text-messaging and that terrible idea that was the subject of another thread a few months back about a school district in New Zealand that began allowing students to use txtspk on their written exams. Simply mind-boggling, and you're so right about these being sad times. I've also been informed by one of my buddies that he was able to get most of his textbooks for this semester in audio format. Wonderful!

Originally posted by AlphaHumana

I don't think it necessarily signifies lower intelligence, but I agree it definitely indicates shorter attention spans.

Well, I am someone who tends to measure intelligence with book smarts. So, I tend to think that a person who doesn't read is not as intelligent as one who does. That's just a personal opinion,but one that I feel has merit. Of course, I am talking about reading things of substance,not the "funny" paper or something like that.

[edit on 13-4-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

[edit on 13-4-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]