Posted by Ross Pomeroy Wednesday, September 7, 2011, on Newton's Blog
Guys, we've got trouble. And unfortunately it's not as simple as trouble with a capital T that rhymes with P and stands for Pool.
According to psychologist Philip Zimbardo, "Guys are flaming out academically and they're wiping out socially with girls and sexually with women."
Just look at these statistics:
So what are the causes of this unsettling situation? Zimbardo suggested that the main fault lies with excessive internet use, video-gaming, and pornography viewing among males, all of which are arousal addictions. This means that afflicted men require consistent novel stimulation to satiate their desires. School and traditional relationships may not supply this demand, but the porn and gaming industries will. As this new stimulation becomes more and more unique, males could sink further into mediocrity.
"Boys' brains are being digitally rewired in a totally new way for change, novelty, excitement, and constant arousal. That means they're totally out of sync in traditional classes, which are analog, static, and interactively passive. They're also totally out of sync in romantic relationships, which build gradually and subtly," Zimbardo asserted.
As male brains are being "rewired," boys lack quality guidance from older and supposedly wiser men. Only four percent of elementary school teachers are male and a plethora of teenage male role models are either jackasses, steroid-users, or video-game characters.
My fellow males, we have a problem. And what do you do when you want to find out how to fix a problem? You Google it. A quick search uncovered some possible ways that we can handle our current predicament:
1. We can place self-imposed controls on our use of the internet, video-games, and pornography.
2. We can admit that we have problems and discuss possible solutions. (Even though studies have
demonstrated the obvious: that we think discussing problems is a waste of time).
3. We can claim reverse gender discrimination, but this will probably be a non-starter.
4. We can wait to take action until after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 comes out.
5. We can all join a boys band just like in the 1962 classic film, The Music Man.
As you may have noticed, the problem of male mediocrity won't be easily solved. Especially when the internet and other sources of entertainment are so darned distracting.
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2011/09/guys-are-in-trouble.html
Guys, we've got trouble. And unfortunately it's not as simple as trouble with a capital T that rhymes with P and stands for Pool.
According to psychologist Philip Zimbardo, "Guys are flaming out academically and they're wiping out socially with girls and sexually with women."
Just look at these statistics:
- Boys are 30% more likely than girls to drop or flunk out of school
- For every 100 women that graduate college, there are 77 men that graduate
- Two-thirds of special education students are male
- Girls outperform boys at all levels from elementary to graduate school
So what are the causes of this unsettling situation? Zimbardo suggested that the main fault lies with excessive internet use, video-gaming, and pornography viewing among males, all of which are arousal addictions. This means that afflicted men require consistent novel stimulation to satiate their desires. School and traditional relationships may not supply this demand, but the porn and gaming industries will. As this new stimulation becomes more and more unique, males could sink further into mediocrity.
"Boys' brains are being digitally rewired in a totally new way for change, novelty, excitement, and constant arousal. That means they're totally out of sync in traditional classes, which are analog, static, and interactively passive. They're also totally out of sync in romantic relationships, which build gradually and subtly," Zimbardo asserted.
As male brains are being "rewired," boys lack quality guidance from older and supposedly wiser men. Only four percent of elementary school teachers are male and a plethora of teenage male role models are either jackasses, steroid-users, or video-game characters.
My fellow males, we have a problem. And what do you do when you want to find out how to fix a problem? You Google it. A quick search uncovered some possible ways that we can handle our current predicament:
1. We can place self-imposed controls on our use of the internet, video-games, and pornography.
2. We can admit that we have problems and discuss possible solutions. (Even though studies have
demonstrated the obvious: that we think discussing problems is a waste of time).
3. We can claim reverse gender discrimination, but this will probably be a non-starter.
4. We can wait to take action until after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 comes out.
5. We can all join a boys band just like in the 1962 classic film, The Music Man.
As you may have noticed, the problem of male mediocrity won't be easily solved. Especially when the internet and other sources of entertainment are so darned distracting.
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2011/09/guys-are-in-trouble.html
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