Sparking youth's curiosity

When you consider how we are surrounded by technology that affects our daily lives, it is surprising that technology is not better understood and even embraced - especially by the young.

For example, how many know how a computer really works or can fathom the intricacies of digital television in the living room?  Do we know how a mobile phone functions or the kitchen microwave? And then there are CDs, DVDs and BluRay technologies that beguile, amuse, entertain or irritate us.

Of course it can be argued that we don’t need to know how things work to enjoy them or use them any more than we need to know the ins and outs of car mechanics to competently drive one.

But it does seem to me as if curiosity has gone on holiday. Boys no longer appear to tinker with batteries and buzzers, wires and whatnots. Today it is computer games and social media, which, I think, are in danger of killing off the natural inquisitiveness of the young to the detriment of future generations. Mind you, apart from the internet, where do you go for information?

There is one, just one, excellent electronics magazine that is aimed at the keen amateur, but for any other branch of science it is a long desert road that must always lead to the internet and sometimes the information available there is questionable.

There have never been more outlets for disseminating information. Instead of filling up air time with ridiculous, 10-year-old Yankee situation comedies complete with canned laughter, maybe one, just one channel could find the resources for a serious and not too deep program on general science.

I know there is one science program already out there, but often it seems more concerned with personalities than the subject and many of the topics are far removed from the everyday life that the ordinary person can relate to.

For instance, there was a golden opportunity for television to broadcast (forgive the pun) all about its own technology when the analog signals were switched off and we went purely to digital reception.

The mainstream press is only interested in the melodramatic, sensational advances in technology and usually leave the audience asking more questions than have been answered. Groundbreaking progress is being made in cancer, dementia, genetics, deep space research and other fields. Some achievements are reported, but only superficially - especially when you consider the amount of air time given to berating politicians.

So how timely it would have been for one of the television stations to have gathered interesting and factual information about digital TV and presented it, perhaps even as a short series. After all, there could be no better medium where pictures and diagrams and animated explanations could be so effective. I realise there could be a problem setting a level of understanding for such an undertaking, but for once we could have looked beyond the quick buck and tempted the viewer with a groundbreaking program that could well have had a market round the world.

And let’s not stop there. There are so many areas of science that television is ideally suited to present so where is the will and the curiosity that inspired some of our greatest inventions? Where is the enthusiasm for passing on that knowledge to the next generation? Don’t leave it all to the internet that doesn’t always get things right. There are people out there ready, willing and able to teach. All they need is an outlet and some little encouragement. So, perhaps we could push aside the plethora of ancient comedy in favour of something a little more up to date and certainly of value to us all.