Apathy. Defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as the “lack of feeling or emotion,” is often a sign of depression or substance abuse. The feeling of “I don’t care.” The epidemic spreading across America.
Middle school students of Baltimore County made a video about their school’s apathy. This video represents the apathy not just in American communities, but in their schools, too. In schools, apathy tends to show up more than in communities. Only in schools, where everyone is brought together, private or public school, does the lack of care about the environment, the well-being of others, and education show through rising students. Professor John H. Bishop, Ph.D. proves this apathetic learning environment that shows, “that students actively engage in a learning activity for only about half the time they are in high school.”
Apathy is a sign of low self-worth and stems from the roots of low self-esteem. Unfortunately, this state of mind, this depression, causes students’ mental well-being to crumble. Once this depression unfolds, that feeling of apathy arrives in a visible setting. Students develop littering habits and cluttering papers, all things students typically take part in, without a sense of care about what it does for the school, or who it could victimize next.
Apathy in the community is even worse because it isn’t visible but is still very prevalent. People stayed locked up in their houses without enough self-care to go outside. Some homeowners trash their houses, blatantly ignoring the mess in their homes, but it wouldn’t be seen by a car passing by. The hoarding in their own homes is the biggest sign of apathy in communities, but it goes undetected. This type of apathy is more connected to depression because it is undetected, and is isolating. Treatment becomes hard to enable because the communal apathy is not addressed. Rather than apathy in schools, this apathy is more likely to lead to suicide because it is a symptom of depression that goes unnoticed. Altitude Community Law wrote that apathy in the community can also result in “impotence in amending important governing papers, and a decrease in real estate.” When apathetic actions occur in the community, the community and the people are at more risk.
According to the Huffington Post, apathy, just like depression, has become more dominant in American society today. The “lack of systematic change and good governance, rather than a responsive government demonstrative of consistent concern was responsible for the absent resolutions” in the country has led America into being more apathetic. People in America seem just to not care much anymore. The Lantern proved that fifty-eight percent of voters voted in the 2012 election showing that Americans don’t seem to really care about their country or how their environment, their apathetic country, can affect them.
America could have many causes for its apathetic communities, but the question remains: What will America do to fix it?
Photo: Storyblocks Video
