Who remembers the Armenians? This is a fictional question that some people have falsely attributed to Hitler. Because many people did not remember the Armenian Genocide, it is claimed that Hitler invoked this to justify the Holocaust. In this age of technology and global interconnection, one would expect that knowledge of current events would be at an all-time high as all the news in the world is just a click away. To my dismay, this is not the case. People still do not remember the Armenians today as the most recent conflict in the region was largely overshadowed by covid and the presidential elections. Even with the roiling political climate and health situations, knowledge of current events and politics in the Global Age has declined.
In studies in 1987 and 2007, Pew Research found that public knowledge of current affairs had changed little as a result of the information revolution. In fact, there was a decrease in the percentage of those who knew who the Vice President, their own state governor, and the President of Russia (Pew Research Center, 2020). Since 2007, the world has become even more interconnected and with the rise of social media, it is even easier to keep up with current events.
Pew Research conducted another survey in June of 2020, amidst a heated Presidential election and the height of the Covid Pandemic. Given this situation, one would think that more people would be even more turned into the news and keeping up to date with current events. This was not the case. One-fifth of the respondents reported that social media was their main source of information for current events. The survey found that those who used social media lagged behind every other news source with the hot topics of the day, and those who used social media to follow the events were the least likely to be following the topics closely. For instance, only 52% of those who used social media as their news source were able to correctly answer who Dr. Fauci was and what role he played in the federal government. In contrast, 81% of those who followed the news in print could identify Fauci. Finally and for me, the most frightening part, those who follow the news primarily on social media had the highest belief in unproven theories. For example, 20% who follow social media believed that 5G causes Covid and that vitamin C was related to covid, with only 8% of those who followed the print media believing in these (Mitchell, 2020).
Returning to the question of, who will remember the Armenians, the answer is, probably not very many Americans. In the information revolution and with the rise of social media, political and current events literacy has declined in the U.S.—in fact, social media has enable less reliable sources of news to thrive, dumbing down our citizens. Under these conditions, history and social studies education is more important than ever, and teachers need to play a greater role in showing students how to read the media and learn about the world from trustworthy sources.
Mitchell, Amy, et al. “Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable.” Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project, Pew Research, 27 Aug. 2020, www.journalism.org/2020/07/30/americans-who-mainly-get-their-news-on-social-media-are-less-engaged-less-knowledgeable/.
Pew Research Center. “Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions.” Pew Research Center – U.S. Politics & Policy, Pew Research Center, 30 May 2020, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2007/04/15/public-knowledge-of-current-affairs-little-changed-by-news-and-information-revolutions/.