It turns out that the Pakistani’s aren’t the only ones claiming ignorance in relation to Osama Bin Laden; many of the world’s teens are unsure of who the terrorist mastermind actually was.
In the days following the former Saudi national’s death, Internet search engines were bombarded with questions asking who Bin Laden was, primarily from kids under the age of 17.
Yahoo said searches about Bin Laden surged 100,000 percent following the news – with 40 percent of searches for “who killed osama bin laden” coming from people ages 13-20.
But teenagers aged 13 to 17 made up 66 per cent of searches for the question ‘who is Osama bin Laden?’
the question was put to Twitter with tweets ranging form: “Who is Osama Ben Laden?” to “was he in a band or something?”
Internet users reacted with horror at the lack of interest in world affairs by many of the younger generation.
And the appropriately named snidely left this rejoinder on the Daily Mail’s website: “He’s a made up bogeyman to scare you into supporting the ruling class’s perpetual war. See 1984.”
Considering that the al-Qaeda founder is no longer walking, it’s pretty safe to say the answer is ‘not very.’
