Jeff Beck's Song Scared For The Children

College of Arts and Sciences - What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way? (300w)
A song written by Jeff Beck called “Scared for the Children,” compounded my existing fear of how modern technology is affecting the youth. The song mentions the “end of the age of the innocence” as a way to call out the effects of the media. Above Beck’s literal expressions of a less innocent youth, this song unsettled me in a much broader sense. I started thinking more about the world. Too often people become cynical, self-motivated and self-indulgent in their own success. But I realized here that the current technological advancements are leading a rising generation into an age of materialism, consumerism, and the race to be successful.

Qualities like selflessness and empathy vibrated from the children of former decades. However, I notice through this song that “manufactured hopes and dreams” rule out individuality, leading the youth to a path that appears ideal: the path that is conventionally considered successful. But there are consequences to everyone travelling the same path. The innocent qualities that once showed in children are compromised by the large voice from the media that tells them what is right and what is wrong. Children start to care less about others and more about themselves. As if happiness has no place in the picture of success. I am an individual that believes more in a man’s actions that what he has accomplished. I think about the world when I hear this song because it pulls me out of the