Apathy among College Students

There are so many problems and causes to fight for in our world today, that often it is too daunting to be aware of them all. It may seem as if college students and younger people today are ignoring the issues around them and not becoming involved but, what can we really do? Volunteering at homeless shelters, nursing homes, helping the needy, cleaning up a beach or national park, rescuing an animal, or even voting. These all seem like small things that an individual can do to make a difference. So, why don’t “millennials,” seem as willing or involved in doing them?

Most often, it is easier for people to look the other way rather than accept that something bad is going on because, it creates cognitive dissonance and extreme discomfort. The cartoon above is a pretty accurate depiction of what it would look like if we all realized how much bad things are going on in the world that we can not do much to stop.

I don’t think it’s fair to blame college students, or anyone for not being as apathetic and proactive about issues that are beyond them. College students do take a lot of initiative in things that they are

a) passionate about and b) have the means to make a real change

It is hard to be one person with a small voice in a big world where most adults don’t give college students recognition or the time of day to begin with. But, take the students from the florida shootings for example.

and look what they have done with that energy. Those students are not even old enough to vote yet and, they have come together to make their small voices heard and to really change lives. I think that, give a young adult something that lights a fire in them and, tell them they can make a difference and, they will be unstoppable!

We want our audience to be aware that unhealthy body images are EVERYWHERE and they are influencing so many beautiful, strong men and women to believe they do not have the right body type to be attractive.

The only way that this will change is if individuals can realize this faulty way of thinking and begin to workout to keep their bodies healthy and strong rather than to be “skinny”, or “ripped”.

To get the students here at UA to really care about this we have a bright, colorful campaign to catch their eyes. It is crucial that we first get the easy attention of them because, they do have very busy lives and don’t have time to pay attention to something their brain deems unimportant or boring. After we catch someone attention, our model is to ask something to write something they are insecure about on a sticky note and post it.

The other side of our board asks the person to then write why they workout, this forces the participant to really reach deep and think about their purpose for being where they are. When we let them go back to the other side and rip up their insecurity and throw it away, we hope that this really has a moving effect on them and they can relate the exercise to their own lives and begin to rip up all of their other insecurities.

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Recommended murals. “Oakland murals” is published by Liz in Infraculture.