Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Insight from a retired Musician/Teacher/Audio restorer?  Most people (over the age of 40 or so now, more than ever) have never been TAUGHT to listen critically.  Don't believe me?  Here's a non "My Brand's awesome and yours is pathetic" analogy:  Old analog lines were hum prone, and (depending on moisture and changing ground potential issues/atmospheric conditions) could have static or some low level buzz.  But you heard EVERY WORD in spite of it.  (Similar cases have been made about vinyl surface noise or tape hiss as well.)  Now think about the massively "detail" destroying compression algorithms and noise gates on Cell Phones.  (I won't even go into texting......it turns out we've gone backwards there as well.....)  I get the first and last words of sentences obliterated (both directions) constantly.  We've been trained to NOT listen.  We've been conditioned to accept what we're given, and we think it's AWESOME.  (It ain't.  Drop all the games and tomfoolery and give me a frikkin' phone that doesn't sound like a party line from the Pleiades, please.)  Off soapbox.  If I sound old, I am.  But I remember seeing Soylent Green when I was about thirteen.  I ain't going that quietly, lol....

In Music programs (Public, Private, Parochial, it doesn't really matter, but if you're interested, the Parochial fared the best, and I take no pleasure in saying it, because those gigs are the ones that pay the most execrably) kids can't be bothered with learning how to listen (both to themselves and to the group) critically anymore.  I have a small number who TRY and who GET IT.  They get annoyed by the "too bored to care" crowd and retention levels drop.  I tried to pitch towards the one's who "got it" but the other environmental "chaos generators" made it increasingly impossible.  Anything past that gets seriously OT.  But things (with respect to High Fidelity) are like they are for a reason.  Frederick Fennell taught two or three generations of Youth what was what.  And now, very few (if any) have any idea who he was or why they should care.  The guy whom Reagan quoted about gamers being the fighter pilots of tomorrow came out and said "oops, I was wrong".  It's contained in a Frontline series (regarding Education) and that subsection was called "Distracted By Everything".  Multitasking is a post modern myth.  One is great, two is doable and more than that are varying levels of "unremarkable".  Studying (reading/performing/interpreting) Music is one of the VERY few things that swings that needle back in the direction we'd all like to see it go.  (Kinesthetic learning is one area of research that bears this out....)  Off soapbox.  Sorry.....