The Cheating Life

It is no secret that we live in an age of cheating. You don't have to look far to find many examples in almost every facet of our society. 

In the world of sports there are figures like Alex Rodriguez, and Lance Armstrong. Two men who competed at the top of their respective games, but did so with the help of illegal substances. 

There are even examples in the world of finance. You can't help but think of Bernie Madoff who cheated his way to the top of the investment industry robbing innocent people of everything along the way. By 2009, it seemed that nearly all of Wall Street was cheating its way to supposed financial success by selling worthless junk to regular folks like you and I - and laughing while doing so. 

There have been countless cases of authors getting caught lying in their books or flat out plagiarizing the work of others - but the case of 17-year-old German author, Helene Hegemann, is very interesting, and I believe speaks volumes about how younger people look at the creative process.

Hegemann's debut novel, "Axolotl Roadkill", won acclaim upon its release. The book reached the top five on German best seller lists, and then it was revealed that Hegemann lifted entire pages of work from another writer. When called on it, she apologized for not being "more open" about her sources. In a telling quote, she stated; "I myself don't feel it is stealing, because I put all the material into a completely different and unique context..." She also said, regarding the first edition of her book, she did not "fully understand" the process for acknowledging borrowed material. The following statement, though, speaks loudest: "There's no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity."  

I am not defending Hegemann, but I think her mindset is one of an entire generation who has been raised believing that creativity holds no value. To them, it is simply "content".  This is a generation that has never had to pay for music or movies (if they don't want to), and whose high school and college careers have been plagued by cutting, pasting and lifting information without even thinking about it (Hegemann blatantly took verbatim from a Bloggers page).

My son and daughter are both in high school and have grown up engulfed in technology. I am shocked that no where in our children's education is there a course or class given on Internet responsibility. This massive technology has been handed to our kids, and nowhere are they instructed on its proper use. Yes, it is up to us as parents to present proper guidelines to our kids, but I know many parents who steal their music and movies as well - and brag about it.  

As generations get older, progress through High School, and into college, the cheating becomes more apparent. Don McCabe of Rutgers University performed a survey of 14,000 undergraduate students, and asked if they had cheated. Two-thirds of those surveyed admitted to cheating on tests, papers and/or homework. The worst part is, many of the students surveyed were unsure what constituted cheating, and what didn't. Again, young people are growing up with very blurry lines when it comes to coming up with, and creating original ideas. Many of the students McCabe spoke with also said they cheated because "everyone else is doing it". McCabe concluded the number one reason undergraduates are cheating so much: "The Internet."

You don't have to look far to see the results of what's happening. Just enter "College graduate writing skills" into Google, and see what comes up. Employers everywhere say the number one thing college grads lack are writing and/or communication skills. A report released by the Chronicle of Higher Education stated: "When it comes to the skills most needed by employers, job candidates are lacking most in written, and oral communication skills, adaptability, and managing multiple priorities, and making decisions, and problem solving."

It sounds to me like they simply lack the skills to be creative.