Tanisha Madhukar - Blog #8 - Strangers On The Street
A recent surge of street interviews has overtaken the internet. A person will walk around with a microphone and a camera, stopping people on the street to ask them a question. Usually these questions prompt funny responses and are a fun test of general knowledge. When American participants are chosen to be on the show they often fail at questions regarding topics like geography or mathematics. As a result the people in the comments began berating them at their lack of “common knowledge.” The reality is that common knowledge is not as common as it used to be.
After the 2020 pandemic there has been a significant decrease in literacy and numeracy levels, especially for Americans. According to OECD, in their 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, the United States was 17th in literacy levels and 25th in numeracy levels out of the 32 countries that participated. America is one of the most developed countries militarily and economically but the fact we are ranked so low in literal and numerical terms is fascinating. How are we supposed to stay advanced if we are not advancing?
If our education does not improve there can be lasting side effects. The Policy Circle points out that if education is not amended to its original quality it can affect people’s abilities to complete simple tasks. This can lead society to face issues such as higher unemployment rates, reduced income, and poorer health outcomes. This will overall deplete the quality of American society.
The truth is that education is not what it used to be. With the increase in AI and assistive technology there is risk for the decrease of human competency. It is important that humans continue to sharpen their skills and hone their brains to prevent society from falling apart.
Whenever I scroll through Instagram Reels for a break, I see so many of these street interviews that you describe on my feed. There are so many different genres and formats, and some of them are genuinely education; take the Career Ladder as an example. This is probably the one series that I can say that I learned more about the world through so many different jobs that I never even knew existed. However, there is definitely a humbling side to them as you mention, through the geographical and mathematical series. It's quite painful to watch American individuals fail to answer the simplest questions. While I was doing some research about how foreigners viewed Americans for my blog this week, I saw a Youtube video where some British high schoolers tested their American knowledge. In the video, among questions about American presidents, historical events, and famous landmarks, the kids were shown a video of Americans trying to guess the location of any country on a world map. Somehow, the individuals in the video managed to misidentify North and South America, shocking the British high schoolers. The high schoolers were then asked to test their geographical knowledge of the 50 states, and to my surprise, one boy immediately rattled off the names of practically all the states while pointing out their correct locations. There's probably many Americans who can't accomplish this feat, and it's honestly crazy. As you mention, there has been a decrease in the basic knowledge of Americans, and something needs to be done about it. AI has and will continue to have an immense impact on the next generation and their studies, so it is incredibly important that humans keep studying hard and being aware of common knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHi Tanisha, I like how you begin with an explanation of “street interviews” and continue with how “common knowledge is not as common.” This thought about knowledge is especially true with the recent UC San Diego situation. UC San Diego has learned that a large group of their students are lacking in their math skills and some even middle school level classes. These new freshman students worry me because of how as time passes, “the increase in AI” will lead to the “decrease of human competency.” Situations like these make me worry about “the quality of American society.” I feel like there is an ever increasing divide between people in our society. On one hand there are the people who work their hardest to be a contributing member of society while on the other hand, there are the groups who do not take care of their lives and struggle in society. The gap will continue to increase if education will not be “amended to its original quality.” Thanks for this conversation as it is always good to remind ourselves to “sharpen [our] skills” to ensure that society will be functioning well.
ReplyDeleteHi Tanisha! I love how you start off your blog with talking about steet interviews. Whenever I am on Tiktok, I always see a large variety of these, such as some who do pull ups in order to get a question correct at what seems to be a park or even just strangers on the street answering “common” questions. For some of them, people automatically know the answer and don't even need to hesitate. However, for others, some just don't know the answer, and it can be the simplest ones too. This also reminds me how on the radio they have the question game, and how sometimes such common questions like “How many planets are in our solar system” and someone would reply saying “10.” I love how you bring to attention the decrease in literacy levels, as I feel like this is something which shouldn't continue to happen. Especially when you mention the increase in AI and assistive technology, this really goes to show how it's affecting people without them even realizing it. Using AI should be stopped, and someone needs to take action of it. It is frying our brains from the continuous reliance we have on it, and this will not better us any further. Sure, maybe in the short term we will be able to submit an assignment which we did last minute or inspiration for an essay, but in the long term our minds will slowly stop being able to have a cognitive process of us doing this ourselves.
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