What’s in an opinion? It’s like a belly button. Everyone has one, but some often go unnoticed. In today’s society, the value of an opinion depreciated with the onset of the “retweet,” Tweegram and the inarguably pivotal celebrity meme.
Our generation devalues various components of a sensible society everyday. We don’t even value our own opinions anymore. When someone tweets something that parallels your way of thinking, the typical response is “!!!!.” More exclamation marks might be included depending on how monumental the tweet is. We’ve lost the impact of in parallel ways of thinking. Members of the flower power generation would be disappointed in us.
The many young adults who came before us negated the notion that young people should be “seen and not heard.” We’ve set ourselves back. Our elders don’t value our opinions anymore. Look at the presidential election; the only appeal to our demographic is the cost of an education.
As all FAMU students should know by now, there is way more that goes on between net check deposits. Maybe if we got riled up about the lack of working computers, the inadequate parking and the overall lack of funding that our school receives, people would value our opinion. Just because it’s not the “cool” thing to say, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be said.
As a generation, we’ve fallen victim to groupthink and the bandwagon theory. We accept what is presented without challenging the norm. The state Legislature cut $300 million out of the budget for state schools in June. Most students didn’t voice their opinions about this until they couldn’t register for fall classes in September.
It might not be cool to follow legislation that directly impacts our lives. It might not be trendy to carry a bullhorn and scream our opinions outside of the capitol building. But that’s the problem. We have to value the right to think and speak freely.