With Your Eyes Closed
The "Exeter Bubble" is a term is that is commonly thrown around. It’s generally used to describe the tightly packed, busy community in which we Exonians live, which entails a blockade to events in much of the outside world. The idea is that our student body is so involved with itself and with the large burden of work that the Academy provides us that we forget and even ignore what is happening in the rest of the world. Some refer to it aptly as the “real world” which I can somewhat agree with, considering just how different Exeter is from the rest of our nation and our planet.
But when this term is used, it is portrayed in a negative light. Sometimes, the connotations assume superiority, that it is a conscious choice we make to block out knowledge of world news because it is insignificant to the lives that we live in. Therefore, we like to think each of us is able to exist outside of the bubble, so that we are not what the bubble has shaped us to be and instead aware, understanding students.
Some seniors recently conducted a statistical analysis of awareness of current events and news at Exeter as a part of their project for an AP Statistics class. They gave the randomly selected students a five minute survey containing various questions on politics, trending events and geographical knowledge.
One of the questions was an inquiry into the company that Facebook had recently acquired. I found myself surprised that I had to struggle for a few minutes before the word Oculus eventually found its way into my head and then a few minutes later, Rift. A bead of sweat perspired on my left temple after having strained my brain to search for the answer.
What the question was referring to was the news that Facebook recently bought Oculus Rift, a company that has revolutionized the world of virtual reality with one of the most amazing VR headwear, for two billion dollars.
Many Exonians probably have never heard of Oculus before. Anyone who has seen an online video or a demo of the product that Oculus makes will know, either intuitively or knowledgeably, that it is the future of video gaming and possibly of computing in general. It seems like common practice to have to ingrain in ourselves the name of our nation’s president, vice president and perhaps the political party to which they belong. They play a pivotal role in making decisions that impact us as Americans, and so we find it necessary to remember as such. Major future or present events such as a complete change to computing should apply to us in the same way.
As condescending as that sounds, the necessity of knowing current events is just as powerful as attending history class. Surely the events of today will become the history of tomorrow, and the two actions are therefore logically equated. However, awareness takes on a much greater meaning in the actions that we make based on our knowledge. Awareness is the opposite of ignorance, and while ignorance may lead to bliss it also leads to a huge risk for failure and danger.
The Rwandan Genocide, for example, was a very complex event, but I think that it is fair to say with the support of general consensus that if the United States had implemented concrete action, hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved. While this may have been the result of the actions of politicians, very few American civilians initially supported intervention after the previous failure at the Battle of Mogadishu and even fewer were aware of the event itself, despite some media coverage.
We are faced with numerous events that impact us on a similar scale everyday. While they may not be related to genocide, there are constantly occurring breaches of human rights, of freedom, and of common health and of opportunity. I can guarantee that very few Exonians know exactly what Net Neutrality is. After SOPA failed in the Senate, even I was less inclined to educate myself about the issue that had sparked headliners on various news websites. After all, I did have a Latin test to study for and a track meet the upcoming Saturday.
I can only thank the Internet activists that will in the end ensure that Net Neutrality remains preserved (hopefully). They realized that knowledge and action was necessary to preserve their freedoms and acted accordingly. In many ways, they are one embodiment of the pursuit of knowledge. We learn math because we will find that it is important in future tasks that we may have to complete. We read about the Second World War and about feudalism to ensure that we are aware of what was wrong and what may be wrong with our nation and others. We read literature in English so that we have fancy quotes to say at dinner parties. Joking aside, I find it only natural that we should all as students be held to a high standard of awareness of current events and everything that may impact our lives.
This is probably the last article that I will write before the end of the school year, during which I’ve written numerous articles on varying from Typhoon Haiyan to incarceration in the United States to Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage. While some of these may not have included a basis for the reasons that I wrote them, the presence of each article filled that basis. If we find that the things most important to us are the things that we pay the most attention to, then it’s only natural that we should be aware of the events that may impact us the most.
Since I’m listening to a Beatles song right now, I’ll leave you with this quote from John Lennon, who once said that “Living is easy with your eyes closed.”