Ted UnderwoodI’m skeptical of “declining standards” stories. My theory is that smartphones/soc media have given young people a direct access to the world that my generation never had. They see peers becoming influencers, boasting about internships, &c. School is not the only place to put aspiration. + https://www.harvardmagazine.com/node/85660
If you went to college in the late 90s,
with internet, you may be like “nah, not much has changed.”
But I’m ancient enough to remember a time when going to a SLAC could mean four years in a tiny town with almost no media consumption. Wars happened and I didn’t notice. I knew nothing about career paths, wasn’t paying attention to contemporary tech. My whole model of self-improvement was to read Wittgenstein & study Greek. It’s kind of lovely, but it required immense naïveté.
Mark McGurl