I know and use the word: "keener" and I live right in the middle of the United State (Kansas City) but I am a boomer and my parents used it a lot, probably more than I do. I am pretty sure my friends use it but it's not a word used a lot here. Book readers will most certainly be apt to use it more than none book readers, I am guessing.
Regarding the kids . . . sigh . . . My generation (boomers) and Gen Xers should be ashamed -- If *that* word means anything any more. We have destroyed any hope for kids coming up. If you get a degree in college, you are going to be in debt half or more of your life paying it off. There is no hope of buying a house, jobs are shit with AI data centers being build around the country -- sucking our water (which we are in low supply) and our electricity (which costs are rising) so that AI can hallucinate can vomit its incorrect/wrong concussions at alarming rates all over the place with total confidence and presentation -- flooding the internet with slop.
We are teaching children, through example, that only way to get ahead is to be a grifter, a con artists, to smash and grab, with no concern for the lives and the damaged left in our selfish wake.
Today, I turn on the TV and learn that the Trump administration just deleted any reference to global warming from the EPA and that companies can now pump anything they want into the sky.
Wages are stagnant. REAL wages after inflation are going down. Healthcare is fucked. CEOs are intentionally killing people for profits and the only way to make a living is to be an OWNER -- of assets in the stock market or elsewhere because the only way to have real income is to have passive income.
WE created this world of Lord of the Flies. My generation are the most selfish, self centered ^**%$# *^($$3s
Having said that I am doing everything in my power to help my little corner of the universe and I applaud you for trying in your little corner