Essay Practice

Prompt Set Up

An entertainment-driven culture runs the risk of encouraging passivity among its citizens. If they can experience something vicariously through a movie, television show, or video game, why should they get involved with the activity itself? It’s safer, after all, to watch someone scale a mountain than to do it yourself. The effect of this passivity, of course, is an apathetic frame of mind. We cease to care deeply about so many things because they are experienced, at best, second-hand.

The Prompt

Is apathy a problem in today’s society?

A way to approach a prompt

• Look at the prompt and ask three questions: What, How, Why– What are these things? (What is apathy, what is a problem)

What are the connotations of these things? (Apathetic people are lazy/bad, for instance.) What are some examples of these things? (Apathy about politics is a problem for society.)

– How do these things work/relate? (Basically, look at your examples and look for patterns among them. For instance, apathy often leads to long-term problems, like global warming and the obesity epidemic.)

– Why does this matter? Why are things the way they are?

Some responses• Gov’t needs to get out a message, people must pay attention.• Less communication, affect us in the present and future… affect relationships.• No place for lazy, arrogant, idiotic people• Not really, in 1999, Y2K was overblown• A problem, makes people antisocial, life would be less meaningful.• Not a problem, leads to happiness, saves on emotional problems.• Causes mass ignorance and laziness, miss out on important aspects of life… apathy leads to

idealism.• Apathy causes rage• Apathy leads to lack of self-preservation• Americans are obese, problem for the country• Lazy students, leads to unskilled workers• Apathy about unimportant things is good.• If people were apathetic then they wouldn’t care about other’s suffering.• Apathy ends society• Apathy means not caring, not caring• No problem, less focus on socializing means more productivity.

Some more responses• If we are apathetic about major things, bad consequences.• Young kids not focusing on the right things = problem• Mind wanders away from important stuff• Too narrow a focus• People don’t worry about silly things• We are accurately apathetic• Because of our environment, caring about things means you’re caring about negative things.• We’ve all got likes and dislikes, so we can afford to be apathetic about some things.• Apathy makes us more self-centered• Sets a bad example… apathy as a disease• Size of consequence = size of apathy• Apathetic about yourself = big problems.• If you don’t care all the time, you may be too late• Caring too much is painful.• Boss loses interest, corporation goes down the drain.• Apathy good b/c it helps us survive• Apathy opposite of commitment, commitment obviously important• “What if nobody cares” unlikely to happen – need to keep it within reason• Doesn’t matter, won’t harm a society• No cooperation, no teamwork, no real society• Apathy causes collapse

Challenging assumptions

• Good apathy– Destress– Prevent violence– Unbiased behavior

Apathy in society

• Economy– Inefficiency– Lazy students hurts our GDP and inefficiency– Savings

• Environment– Global warming– Littering

Where does apathy come from

• Passive media• Experience

Apathy Examples

• Not Problem– Lack of interest in drugs, won’t do them.– Judges/Cops have to be unbiased– Don’t care about unimportant

• Problem– Leads to future failure– Bad parenting– Obesity epidemic– Ignorance– Global warming– Political problems