This is just sad

[Team Adam's]

DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 10:49 AM on 4th May 2011

 

 

Teenagers hadn't heard of Osama Bin Laden before he was killed

 

It has been an end to biggest terrorist manhunt in recent history.

But it seems that apart from the millions of people who celebrated Osama Bin Laden's death, there were still a few who were more than a little confused.

 

The internet was flooded with searches from confused teenagers under the age of 17 asking the desperate question 'Who is Bin Laden?'

Scores more turned to Twitter to pose the question, before they were quickly embarrassed by other users for their lack of knowledge.

One youngster wrote: 'Who is Osama Bin Laden and why should I care?'

Another added: 'Is he famous?'

 

A young Twitter user wrote: 'Who is Osama? And why is it so good he died?'

Another poster refereed to the terrorist leader as 'Ben' Laden.

 

Many of the teenagers would have been no older than toddlers when Bin Laden orchestrated the terrorist attacks on September 11.

 

Thousands of innocent people perished when two planes were deliberately crashed into New York's World Trade Centre. Two more hijacked planes were crashed - one into the Pentagon and another came down in a field in Pennsylvania.

 

Yet despite ten years spent searching for Bin Laden and a 'war on terror', teenagers appear to be oblivious to what is actually happening in the world.

The internet search engine Yahoo! reported a 10,000 per cent increase in search traffic in the hours surrounding President Obama's announcement on Sunday evening.

 

66 per cent of the searches for 'who is Osama Bin Laden' came from teenagers aged 13 - 17 after Obama's announcement on Sunday

According to Yahoo!, 40 per cent of searches on Sunday for 'who killed osama bin laden' were from people ages 13-20.

 

But teenagers aged 13-17 made up 66 per cent of searches for teh question 'who is osama bin laden?'

 

Bizarrely, the eight most popular search term from Yahoo! was 'How tall is Osama bin Laden?'

 

The figures give a revealing insight into the lack of current affairs and general knowledge among teenagers.

 

Critics will use the evidence to suggest that young people are spending too much time on 'frivolous' pursuits instead of studying.

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383379/Who-Osama-Bin-Laden-Clueless-teenagers-flood-search-engines.html#ixzz1LNpukRNV

[Bill-V8V]

WOW, that is beyond sad. Wonder if they know who Hitler was ????

[Chewy]

This WAS in the UK though right? I bet they don't talk about it in history classes over there.

 

Chris

[Chris@Adams]

WOW, that is beyond sad. Wonder if they know who Hitler was ????

No way!

[Marylander]

Even stranger since OBL/AQ was behind some of the more recent terrorist attacks in Britain, right? Subway bombings, the airport bombing, and also the train attacks in Spain, right? Those kinds ought to know about OBL, regardless of whether they're American or British. I wonder, are a lot of parent's "shielding" their kids from this stuff?

[Team Adam's]

Read this one at your own risk. The stupidity contained within almost made my head explode:

 

http://whoisosama.tumblr.com/

 

-Note: That is a series of screen captures from twitter the night the news broke. Its pathetic that less than 10 years from the single largest terrorist act ever committed our countries youth probably knows more about whats happening on Jersey Shore than they do about 9/11. When this much of our 'future' is so ignorant of the world no wonder we're slowly losing our place as the most powerful country in the world.

[JJ1o87]

I'm pretty sure this represents the <10% of the population. I heard a similar thing on Howard Sterm but when you heard the person speak it was evident that their parents successfully mated with vegetables to have that kid.

[Chewy]

My kids will know about it... I think this all goes back on the parents IMO. Too many rely solely on the school to teach their children.

[Flash Gordon]

I wonder if this is teenagers in general (worldwide) or American teenagers

[3PedalMINI]

 

kids these days are so stupid, i walk around college passed two girls in the hallway complaining on monday because everyone is talking about this osama and dont know who the hell he is.(i would say they were 19-21) and then the one girl responded "Maybe hes a foreign movie star"

 

It took everything in me to not turn around, flip out on them and then knock some sense into their heads. I could not believe what I was hearing. Honestly, i think its american teens/young adults. This country is going to hell in a handbasket, especially when my generation gets into politics....were screwed.

 

Ugh.

[THE Mook]

This needs to be taught in schools the same way WWII is. HOWEVER, you all know that when in History class, it comes time for modern history, the semester always ran out when you get to the 60s.

 

Time for a fundamental change in the education system, no?

[LDM]

Read this one at your own risk. The stupidity contained within almost made my head explode:

 

http://whoisosama.tumblr.com/

 

-Note: That is a series of screen captures from twitter the night the news broke. Its pathetic that less than 10 years from the single largest terrorist act ever committed our countries youth probably knows more about whats happening on Jersey Shore than they do about 9/11. When this much of our 'future' is so ignorant of the world no wonder we're slowly losing our place as the most powerful country in the world.

 

:willy:

 

 

...it was evident that their parents successfully mated with vegetables to have that kid.

 

Unfortunately it seems like more and more people are figuring out how to do this.

[Team Adam's]

I wonder if this is teenagers in general (worldwide) or American teenagers

 

The more I read the more it seems to be a lot of AMERICAN teens... not that it would be any less excusable if it were other countries, but being it was an attack on America it just makes the general lack of awareness insulting.

[BillB]

This needs to be taught in schools the same way WWII is. HOWEVER, you all know that when in History class, it comes time for modern history, the semester always ran out when you get to the 60s.

 

Time for a fundamental change in the education system, no?

 

Agreed!

 

 

As sad as it may seem I think a lot of us over look the fact that we witnessed and remember the events that took place that day... while most of these children were between the ages of 3-10. Now obviously this doesn't excuse them from being completely ignorant to the subject, but think back to a major crisis that happened when you were of that age and try to recall certain specifics about when it happened... you probably can't. These kids rely solely on either their parents or teachers to explain to them the particulars about what happened on 9/11 and I am sure in a lot of cases it never happens (THIS being the sad part imo).

 

As far as these statistics go, I wouldn't necessarily say they are a terrible thing as it proves that they are willing to learn because they are out searching on the web when they could be downloading a new game or something.

[Team Adam's]

I guess my disappointment comes more from the fact that even though we mark the anniversary every year and our country has been embroiled in a 10 year 'war on terrorism' with the nightly news almost always mentioning SOMETHING about it these kids have absolutely no clue. The only reason they're curious now is theres something trending on Twitter and they want to make sure they aren't missing something.

[MAYBEN]

I guess my disappointment comes more from the fact that even though we mark the anniversary every year and our country has been embroiled in a 10 year 'war on terrorism' with the nightly news almost always mentioning SOMETHING about it these kids have absolutely no clue. The only reason they're curious now is theres something trending on Twitter and they want to make sure they aren't missing something.

 

took the words right out my *hand/fingers*

[NeonSRT-4]

My kids (ages 17, 16 and 13) knew exactly who he was and what he did.

[Marylander]

Read this one at your own risk. The stupidity contained within almost made my head explode:

 

http://whoisosama.tumblr.com/

 

-Note: That is a series of screen captures from twitter the night the news broke. Its pathetic that less than 10 years from the single largest terrorist act ever committed our countries youth probably knows more about whats happening on Jersey Shore than they do about 9/11. When this much of our 'future' is so ignorant of the world no wonder we're slowly losing our place as the most powerful country in the world.

 

Another confounding aspect of it is that instead of just asking their clueless friends, you'd think it would occur to them to google it.

[savi01]

Being 19 and in college and tutoring at a local high school I've come across A LOT of teenagers who have no idea about A LOT of things. Be it common sense, general knowledge about what's going on in the world, or even caring about an education (I had students in my AP class who couldn't read consistantly, constantly stopping or stuttering, etc.) Most teenagers these days as Dylan said only follow the trends, whatever is on Facebook or Twitter or idiotic reality tv shows on MTV. This topic can turn into a huge debate on whose fault this is; the educational system (which IMO needs major revising in the country), teachers, parents, and so forth.

 

The thing that makes me sad as well as angry, and I know many would agree with me, is how we're falling further and further behind other countries in terms of education, but also in just a general knowledge of the world and how it works. We have a lot of bright people who represent the future generations but are really sidetracked with silly things.

[BillB]

My kids (ages 17, 16 and 13) knew exactly who he was and what he did.

 

Unfortunately not all children are as lucky as yours in having great parents who feel this is a vital part of their lives and knowledge.

 

My wife and I were foster parents up until about 2 weeks ago when our foster son who had lived with us for roughly a year and a half was given back to his birth parents. The judge felt that because the parents had been clean of heroine and domestic violence for 3 months that it was time for Dominic (age 2yrs) to go home.

 

Anyways, what I am getting at is the chances of Dominic learning about this from his parents are pretty slim to none so unless he does from his teachers who else does that leave him with.

 

In an ideal world every parent sits down with their child every night and talks to them about how their day went and what they learned at school... but I say from the experience of having over 20+ foster brothers and sisters from when I grew up... not every child lives in an ideal world.

[MAYBEN]

Hey Bill, sorry to hear about your son.. thats complete BS

[NeonSRT-4]

Bill...the wife and I are far from the ideal or perfect parents but I believe that being involved in our childrens lives is very important.

[savi01]

Hey Bill, sorry to hear about your son.. thats complete BS

 

Completely agree. They had their chance when they had the kid. You can't just put a human life on "layaway" to clean yourself up. I'm sorry to hear about what happened Bill.

[Team Adam's]

Another confounding aspect of it is that instead of just asking their clueless friends, you'd think it would occur to them to google it.

 

That would require reading... its easier to type into your phone:

 

"OMG. I M sooooo Konfuzed! Who is Ben Laden? Why he all up in my Tweets?"

 

Google searching would involve having the ability to type in something other than text shorthand and the ability to comprehend news articles written by people with a grasp on the English language.

 

Unfortunately not all children are as lucky as yours in having great parents who feel this is a vital part of their lives and knowledge.

 

My wife and I were foster parents up until about 2 weeks ago when our foster son who had lived with us for roughly a year and a half was given back to his birth parents. The judge felt that because the parents had been clean of heroine and domestic violence for 3 months that it was time for Dominic (age 2yrs) to go home.

 

Anyways, what I am getting at is the chances of Dominic learning about this from his parents are pretty slim to none so unless he does from his teachers who else does that leave him with.

 

In an ideal world every parent sits down with their child every night and talks to them about how their day went and what they learned at school... but I say from the experience of having over 20+ foster brothers and sisters from when I grew up... not every child lives in an ideal world.

 

Thats a terrible thing to hear Bill. I'm sorry. Its a shame the legal system/the world want to make it so hard for caring people to give a child in a bad situation a better shot at leading a good life.

 

My wife and I desperately want to adopt from Russia or China, but to do so costs an obscene amount of money. Why it should cost so much to save a childs life is beyond me.

[BillB]

Hey Bill, sorry to hear about your son.. thats complete BS

Thank you

 

Bill...the wife and I are far from the ideal or perfect parents but I believe that being involved in our childrens lives is very important.

IMO that makes you ideal parents good sir

 

Sorry for getting off topic, I think its just important to remember that not all ADULTS even think this is something worth knowing... and sadly these @$$holes can have children!