Critical Essay on the CBCP Monitor Review of the McCann Erickson Youth Studies of 2000 and 2005 and the McCann Erickson

The McCann Erickson Youth Studies of 2000 and 2005, and the McCann Erickson Inter-generation Study of 2006 as reviewed by the CBCP Monitor, tells us that the 16.5 million Filipino “youth” below the age of 21 are “technocentric”: spending an inordinate amount of time in front of either the computer monitor or the TV set, surfing the Internet, text messaging or playing computer and video games. Because 48% of them “do not have either one, or both parents, around with them”, it is not surprising that this generation of Filipino youth looks primarily to celebrities as their role models. But even more alarming, the Inter-generation study showed that there is a severe loosening of moral values among adult Filipinos, and this is reflected in what young people consider right and wrong. As a consequence, about half of them do not consider as “wrong” such acts as casual sex, premarital sex, using a prostitute, getting drunk, gambling, hazing, abortion, homosexual relationships, and suicide.

Perhaps, these same problems have plagued previous generations of Filipinos but the difference between the youth of today and that of the past is that modern youths are less modest and not as discreet with their private lives. Young people today express their sentiments openly and tend to confront private issues forthrightly than youngsters of generations gone by who tended to skirt around sensitive issues for modesty considerations.

The McCann Erickson Youth Studies of 2000 and 2005, and the McCann Erickson Inter-generation Study of 2006 appears or is made to appear like a longitudinal study when it is really just a snapshot of the current state of affairs. There is no baseline data upon which we can compare today’s youth with any previous generation of youths. Be that as it may, the current state is still dismal. Indeed, the moral desensitization of our youth could be easily blamed on celebrities, video games, or TV shows, but it takes a village to teach a child. The three major institutions known to have the greatest impact on the socialization of the youth, the home, school, and church have to share the blame for most measure of the depravity and wantonness that we see today. Many believe that the youth have become disillusioned with these institutions because they have consistently failed the youth.

Parents should be smarter than to use the Internet and the television to baby-sit their children as indeed children, because of their underdeveloped ability to discern right from wrong, tend to imbibe the poor moral characters portrayed in most shows of today. At school, students are entrusted in the care of teachers who sometimes physically, verbally or emotionally abuse them. If the society could barely expect teachers to keep their words at paying back loans on time, could it expect them to teach with credibility, principles and ethics? Should our children finally turn to their church leaders for guidance as a last recourse, will they find paragons of virtues there as well? In the United States, the Philippines and other parts of the world, many churches are plagued with what the Vatican denounces as “evil sex priests,” who prey on their youthful flock as wolves in religious vestments.

If it is to be assumed that our young people are inherently good and are earnestly searching for “the true, the good and the beautiful,” then the McCann Erickson study is a condemnation of the adult stakeholders of the youths’ welfare. They are guilty of abdicating their responsibilities toward the children to mold and fashion them into the ideal citizens of the society and culture we want them to inherit; guilty of abrogating their duties as the primary socializing models for the moral, intellectual, and interpersonal growth of children; and, guilty of neglecting the challenge of youth stewardship in keeping them on the straight and narrow or redirecting their paths should they unnecessarily stray.

Short of declaring the Philippines a moral wasteland, the McCann Erickson study and those who peddle its findings as gospel truth, should be well guided with the hindsight of history that the moral pendulums of human civilizations tend to swing to the farthest extreme before it swings right back to the other, and that controlling or attempting to divert the fate that is predestined by providential design could only alter its course with incalculable repercussions. Failure is a harsh teacher but it is the only one that will leave a stamp on our collective psyches to tweak our actions in the hopes of effecting a desirable outcome.

If the McCann Erickson study is of any use, it is that stakeholders are now engaged in the discussion about the moral decay among the youth. Also, by knowing the children in our homes, schools and churches, we will be able to truly align our plans of action with their shrouded needs. This, of course, requires that adults have to spend more quality time with children and engage them in a challenge not only to be appropriately responsive to adult guidance and care but also to strive ever harder to independently and unilaterally commit to maintaining universal principles and their personal dignities in the avalanche of clear and present temptations. While this is short of a miracle, St. John Baptist de La Salle’s advice echoes from centuries past: “to touch the hearts of the young and to inspire them with the Christian spirit is the greatest miracle we can perform and one that God asks of us.”