The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

Are college students apathetic?

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Some think so. In 2007 New York Timescolumnist

Thomas Friedman proposed that they be known as

Generation Q—for Quiet. That generation, he reported,

was “too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the

country’s own good.” Others chimed in with alternative

monikers: the Logged-In Generation, the Net

Generation, the Turned-Off Generation.

In 2010 Gabrielle Grow, a senior at the University of

California at Davis, offered an explanation in the

Huffington Post: “From those who deem us apathetic,

we have not only inherited a country up to its neck in

debt but a society and lifestyle in which we are con-

stantly expected to outperform each other... [An]

intense course load combined with little free time leaves

little room for political inquiry or investigation.”

Other students challenged Friedman’s stereotype

through civic engagement of the old-fashioned sort, by

rolling up their sleeves and helping out. In a 2009 UCLA

survey, two-thirds of college seniors reported that they

“occasionally” or “frequently” performed volunteer