What Are the Causes of Moral Decadence?
While there are no objectively verifiable causes of moral decadence, there are a few plausible explanations. Conservative commentators assert that moral decadence is a result of parental abandonment in the age of modern technology. They suggest that the family crisis has left children and parents alike starving for intimacy and connection, and modern technology offers these people products, information and experiences without limit.
Divorce is a primary cause. With the divorce rate climbing since the middle of the 20th century, the family structure rests on shaky ground. The rise of single parent homes means that those single parents are obliged to work more to compensate for the rise in their cost of living. These factors combine to ensure that children have more time away from their parents than ever before, and their need for intimacy and connection remains largely unmet.
The rise of modern technology, though, has brought about a myriad of options for children to attain what they feel they are missing. Whether it be through chat rooms or instant messaging with their friends on social media sites, today’s children are spending unprecedented amounts of time in front of screens. The amount of information they take in is astonishing. In the absence of parental supervision and communication, children are developing with the world at their fingertips, with unlimited information and possibilities just a few clicks away. They are more willing than ever to get what they want when they want it. This unbridled aspect of their technological endeavors is necessarily formative, in that it trains children to thrive on excess, which is itself the root problem of moral decadence.
