GenY oblivious to Osama

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As news of the killing of Osama bin Laden broke, there was an unexpected other story in the making — most of today’s teenagers are quite ignorant of the man who is arguably the best known face of ‘terror’!
According to two major online search engines Yahoo and Google, the most common tweets and popular searches since May 2 have been: ‘Who is Osama?’ Gen Y is largely oblivious to the much hyped ‘war or terror’. Perhaps that is not surprising, since most were children when Osama made headlines everyday.
As Prerna Emes, now 14, says, “I was five years old when the 9/11 incident happened. Over my growing years I’ve heard mention of the tragedy, but never really took an interest in getting the details. I don’t understand the hype and the celebration over the slaying of a fellow human being. The concept of a ‘war on terror’ is beyond me, and the contradicting pictures being flashed on the television and Internet after Osama’s death were simply disturbing and didn’t feel like a victory of good over evil.”
Even as young Anupam Mishra asks with curiosity, “Who is Osama bin Laden?”, college student Anmol Baga, 18, adds, “I know the name Osama. Our school holds a special memorial every year on account of the 9/11 tragedy and we’ve heard mention of this name. But that’s about it. Only on Monday, when my Twitter and Facebook pages got flooded by tweets and gory pictures of a bearded old man shot in the head, that I became curious enough to actually search for more. I didn’t even know he was hated so much and that it’s such a big deal.”
The preponderance of such views among teens is notable, considering their numbers in the world population. Such ignorance could be an alarm bell… or the disregard for ‘terror’ could be cause for celebration in a world gone mad and obsessive with violence.
“On 9/11 many of the teens today were young enough for their parents to shield them from the horrific tragedy. Though a little information about the incident over the years would have helped the kids cope, it can’t be completely seen as ignorance because their lives weren’t actually affected by the misfortune,” opines Ananth Shiv, teacher and student counsellor.
If a small sampling of tweets and search enquires are to be believed, Osama bin Laden was never on many teens’ radar. For them he is just a history lesson glanced over or a ‘professional terrorist’, a topic that is soon to be replaced by newer, meatier hashtag.