Recent social media studies show that over 75% of teens have forgotten how to read. Well, take this as you will, because this was a survey done by me, but you get the point. There is a serious issue we need to discuss, and it’s that teens don’t read articles anymore. In recent news, there has been an article circulating with a headline claiming that the world only has eighteen months before climate change destroys it. This caused mass hysteria in people all over, but it affected teens the most. At Whitney Young, this article inspired the Climate Strike that took place on September 20th, 2019, and a greater call for legislation to promote policies and actions that will fight climate change. 

        Now, you might be asking, “what’s the matter with that?” The problem is that if people actually read the article they would’ve known that it actually said that we have eighteen months to come up with legislation before climate change gets worse. There was a wide variety of reactions to the article with people giving their honest responses to what they would do with their last year and a half. This ranged from taking the news very seriously such as “trying my hardest to advocate and live environmentally friendly. Also spreading the word,” said by Stanley Cannon, 21’, to —in typical teenage fashion— not caring at all as noted by Joseph Winn, 23’, “Winning Smash tournaments.” In my “survey” I found that only 3 out of about 100 noticed the article was misleading and wanted to scare the general public. Summarized by Michaela Zollicoffer, 20’,“I think it’s misleading/scare tactics. I mean, climate change is a very real and very imminent threat but I think those 18 months are to pass important climate change legislation, not necessarily a countdown to a specific amount of damage.” 

           If you’re a teen reading this, congratulations! You’ve gotten further than most teens would ever dare go, but from your loyal news source at the WY Beacon newspaper, we beg of you, please read the article and not just the headlines. It’ll save you so much more time and energy.