Dumbest Generation?
Wow, 8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation is way off target. Let’s review the list, put together by author Mark Bauerlein.
1. They make excellent “Jaywalking” targets.
The article starts with a weak argument that today’s young people “…are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond — friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.”
Apparently “pop music” and “Facebook” are bad. But where is the evidence? Let’s continue.
2. They don’t read books — and don’t want to, either
Again, he presents no evidence. My gut tells me he is right: people read less today, particularly “young” people. But I’m also sure that has something to do with the availability of more information online. Why dig through books when I can look up something in a few seconds on Wikipedia? Does that make me “dumber”? Prove it. You may be right, but I think some evidence is in order.
3. They can’t spell
From TFA:
Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. Without spellcheck, folks are toast.
Actually, my quote is the entire explanation put forth in the article.. Maybe people adopt shorthand writing styles because it is a PITA to text on most phones? I am detecting a distinct trend in these wacky reasons we are so “dumb”. This guy does not like technology.
4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing
He uses MySpace as the first example, where (apparently) buddies make fun of you if you write clearly. Huh? OK, I’m sure you can find lots of examples of this. But again, are these cherry-picked examples evidence of widespread dumbness?
He then goes on to criticize Wikipedia:
Wikipedia writing is clean and factual, but colorless and judgment-free.
That is because it is an encyclopedia. It is supposed to be judgment-free. They call it NPOV, which is actually quite smart.
5. Grand Theft Auto IV, etc.
Holy shit. Go read the article. I don’t even know where to start. He somehow connects video games to “Thousands of Massachusetts public school graduates are ending up in remedial reading and writing classes in college…”
What absolute rubbish. Maybe we ought to look at poverty, single parent households, and other such factors before pointing fingers at video games.
6. They don’t store the information
The fact that we can easily look up information on the Internet makes us dumber. I don’t get it.
7. Because their teachers don’t tell them so
Here we go again. Another “blame the teachers first” article. Sigh.
8. Because they’re young
No, no, no!. I think I first read this in a book called “The Invisible Future“, but I might be remembering that wrong. (thanks to reason 6?) The general idea is that EVERY generation since the dawn of time has always thought the young “next” generation is dumber, that society is decaying, etc. This must be wrong, of course, or by now we’d be in complete disarray.
The Dumbest Author: How a Quick Amazon Search Stupefies a Young American and Jeopardizes Mark Bauerlein’s Future as an Author; Or, Don’t Trust an Author with 7 Published Books and Only 5 of 35 Possible Amazon Rating Stars.
I hope people take the time at least to look at the book, which compiles several years of empirical data about young people leisure time and habits, screen experience (including screen reading), test scores and achievement levels, remedial course taking . . .
Maybe the smart ones in the next generation will step up and give an intelligent argument opposing the authors views. That would be refreshing. I suspect instead, no one in his targeted generation will give a crap about his opinions or his book (unless he posts some porn on his MySpace page).
Consider how ironic it would be to write a book with no evidence to support ones opinion, and no one even pointed out such a “dumb” mistake. Maybe this article is just daring us to notice.
An example of an academic mind open so far that the door hits him/she/other-yet-to-be-determined-non-descriptive-pronoun in the ass and closes again.
We are smart enough not to pad his wallet with a book sale.
The large print edition is going to be the best seller.
As a high school teacher, I see the proof every day that the writer of this book is quite right. Kids can’t spell, or memorize/remember things, or write creatively (not imitatively!) - and a host of other shortcomings. It’s no wonder the graduate schools in America are full of “foreign” students - the lazy American students can’t cut it - especially in math and science, where you do have to “store the information” in order to succeed. Nuff sed.
The point is that he falsely points the blame at technology and teachers (like you, apparently) without offering any data to back it up. Maybe the next generation is dumb…but I suspect if that is true, it has more to do with other issues like poverty, bad parenting, etc.
Baurlein is right! The last four words of the item 6 retort says it all about the critic.
First it was the “new” math, and now the alibi is a high-tech. age. How about just plain spoiled, pampered, and lazy? Own up to it, young ‘uns, and shape up. Your kids will be even worse.
Your reasoning has the trapings of his Bob Dylan quote. This generation isn’t dumb; they just aren’t educated like the previous ones. Of course, this isn’t everyone from this generation, but it’s the dominant culture of this generation.
But the same forces that are dumbing down the education system is dumbing down our society in general. All generations are being affected, it’s just that the current generation never had the opportunity to gain sufficient knowledge before it got corrupted. The problem spans all generations.
Sadly our wealth has made us undisciplined, impetuous, callous, self-centered, and dellusional. Now infuse these attributes into the poorly educated young generation, and it makes you look dumber than you really are.
I think Bauerlein is brilliant–he knows exactly what to say and how to say it. He has targeted the perfect audience and fed them what they want to hear. Now the educated upwardly mobile mothers across America have more fear to add to their paranoia list: their kids are dumb. “Oh no!”
Little Madison and little Gavin might not be able to outshine the scholarly Chinese foreign-exchange student at their pretentious Connecticut boarding school next semester! Please. Bauerlein is right, we have more available to us than past “generations” (a term I find to be completely erroneous). He is wrong, however, when he claims we aren’t embracing it. What if we’re creating new works of art online. Is YouTube not something so amazing? Myspace, Facebook… they may seem all trivial and wastes of time, but I have a hunch that we may look back at them as brilliant.
He acknowledges that maybe this is all just the older folks getting upset about the young folks, as has happened since Ancient Greece (in those times some thought reading would be our downfall!), and I think he’s right. This is America. We believe with every next step, we should improve, so there is a constant fear we might not. And we love living in fear. Don’t believe me; pick up a newspaper (Bauerlein would be proud!). If global warming and terrorism won’t get us, our children’s stupidity will! As if Mrs. Yuppy-Mother didn’t have enough to fear with vaccinations possibly doing more harm to her children than good and the neighborhood pedophile that could be the seemingly kind Mr. Jenkins next-door, now her “gifted” kids may actually just be sub-par! Bauerlein should do us all a favor and for his next attempt at scaring the shit out of us write about “The Most Paranoid Generation EVER.”
Can’t we all just… relax? I’m 19 and I know where Iraq is and that the Nazi’s were not our allies during World War II. The 18 year old taking my order at Taco Bell last weekend may not know, but the chances of that bringing down this nation are slim. So just relax…
And if I’m wrong, well then you can always say, “I told you so.”
I happen to somewhat fit into the category of this generation in that i am 22 years old and many of the people i associate with are wrapped up in the myspace world. I have not read his book yet but i have it on order at my local book store. I do think a lot of kids out there today ARE dumb. They live on autopilot, don’t think out of the box, and are mostly concerned with themselves and how much battery life they have left on their cell phones. But is it really this generation of kids to blame or the propaganda and bullshit that we are fed on a daily basis from our modern paranoid, commercialized, and self-obsessed society. I also think it is silly to dismiss an entire generation. In recent history many adults have a fear of youth complex in their heads and each generation the parents always say “our generation of kids are no good and they’ll never amount to anything”. The same could be said about my parents growing up as kids in the 60s when their folks were burning all the Beatles records up.
Also, our societies standards in my opinion is developing too fast. It is getting increasingly harder to pass SATs and get into a good college when the bar is consistently being set higher in order to fit in with todays demanding job market. I’m sure i’ll get a kick out of this book whenever it comes in.