Generation Dumb? American author claims we are the dumbest generation yet

Oh Mario your post says it all. Two years later and the more things change the more they stay the same... Or get worse.
Thanks, I had forgotten why I didn't visit here often anymore .

One more thing....

You twenty somethings and younger folks were born into the world with many of these new technologies "new" and because of your "old" parents you were lucky enough to start using them.

When you are very young, many, not all, fail to grasp that there was a time that we didn't have certain technologies.

Your parents and grandparents, Aunts & Uncles know this to be true.

You should too...if you are bright enough.

Anyone who is 51 or older can tell you about the space program especially if you live in America.

We can remember a time that UHF TV was new and different and provide another choice before cable tv and satellite tv.

We can remember some history because we lived through it.

And we know and remember how it is to be young and the wisdom from making the journey of life that you do not have yet because it's not time yet.

There is a commandment that says "Honor thy Father & Mother"...

If it weren't for them, you wouldn't be here.

resastra,

What's old and who is old?

Just remember that your parents and grandparents are older....

Is everyone who is older stupid?

Remember, the internet wasn't created by twenty somethings....

Computers companies like Apple & Microsoft weren't created by twenty somethings today. Their makers are old....

Seems to me that all the technology that we have and we use today was created by folks that are old.

Take us away and could you run the world?

The answer is no period.

It isn't your fault!

What passes for education in America is a joke and yes, Jaywalking shows just how bad it is!

If education doesn't go back to teaching the 3Rs and restore science, advanced math and the arts to our curricula Americans will be left in the dust, compared to the rest of the world, and will not be able to compete in the coming global job market.

i can see his point.. i used to be able to read on hours on end. no i can barely go through a couple pages w/o getting bored

i guess its sites like these that are contributing to this b/c the info is right there..

What? You think things are the same now as they were in the 60s before protests against the Vietnam war and discrimination? You ARE DUMB! Obviously 'seeing and learning' about it went in one ear and out the other. But I suppose finding out on your own what things were like before those protests (rather than having some old fart tell you how things were) requires way too much effort on your part.
And it's not "voicing your opinion" that makes a difference. It's getting up off of your lazy butt and doing something that makes a difference, but oh yeah, too busy on facebook, youtube or myspace voicing opinions that don't matter.
What an incredible waste to have so much and to do so remarkably little with it.

I'm 22 and in college right now, and the apathy of almost everyone I know about any important issue is astounding.

That said, it's not because we're dumb. It's because we have seen past generations and learned from them. We grew up with parents who grew up in the 60's. We've seen and learned about the huge demonstrations and protests over the Vietnam war. And we saw that, besides public opinion, it really didn't change anything.

So we pretty well know that voicing our opinion over our disgust at our government won't solve anything.

Especially when our government and that generation look at us as "the dumb ones."

To argue that it's the internet's fault, I disagree. If anything, we know how to use it to find any piece of information imaginable. And we know how to spread the word if we are so inclined.

What do you call it when you don't know that you don't know?

Ours is the most developed generation, we've heard more stories than anyone else in history & are expected to retain more information than our Cold-War-paranoid ancestors before us. By nature, our attention spans may have suffered in general, but by no means should our generation be "dubbed" dumbest, the idiots who buy into this propaganda are.

Yawn, another crusty old person that I hope I'm never like.

I guess this generation deserves zero credit since they didn't bomb the living crap out of Europe and cause massive death, you know, like the "Greatest Generation" did.

old people suck

Perhaps, just perhaps...

The young folks that the author is worried about are not going to be the ones who run the world?

Then again, those who are running the world right now
GWB & buddies..

Aren't that realistic and are pretty selfish and self centered too.

One more thing...they are fatter and will succumb to those kinds of woes...

Yep, the author is quite correct, and they're getting dumber year by year. You may wish to use the excuse that you just don't care, but that too is dumb. I suppose perhaps you are waitng for someone to care FOR YOU? I moved into education recently and the annual decline in the ability for individuals to actually think is remarkable. Not memorize crap, simply THINK, use information to come up with original solutions to new scenarios. Hell, my guess is that probably 50%+ of those under 30 still live with their mamma. The only ones that probably don't live off of mamma are the educated ones...those capable of thinking.
You should have started the post off with the first paragraph from the article.

In the four minutes it probably takes to read this review, you will have logged exactly half the time the average 15- to 24-year-old now spends reading each day. That is, if you even bother to finish. If you are perusing this on the Internet, the big block of text below probably seems daunting, maybe even boring. Who has the time? Besides, one of your Facebook friends might have just posted a status update!

I wonder actually how many people actually stop and read this article. My guess (based on observation, not pulled from my butt) is this first paragraph nails it.

There may be some truth to this, but only some. At 18, I'm one of the most intelligent people in my extended family. I think the only one who reads more than me is my grandma, and she was an English teacher.

You can't really judge a generation until they grow up and settle down. Hell, I've read about hippies that did LSD who are now brain surgeons.

I can kind of agree with what he's saying. But to generalize an entire generation by just what you see on the television is quite stupid itself.
Advances in technology has been enevitable for humans, from the time a neanderthal first discovered the use of the wheel. So with technonlogy slowly taking over we must learn to build on top of that and create even more advanced technonlogy to make our lives easier. And that's all technonlogy has ever been about, right?

F**k! Hopefully I'm not giving him ideas, I'd rather not have to go to school more. lol :/

I bet each generation, older people have come up different reasons to believe that young people are getting dumber. This time it just happens to be the internet.

And if he really wanted to make sure wer'e staying smart as a country, he could get into the government and make it so that our school years are as long as that of students in South Korea.

The new generation is just that, 'new' and it is just DIFFERENT! It's definitely wrong though, for him to say that everyone under thirty is 'dumb' or untrustworthy.

It may be somewhat true that the internet has lessened our attention span, but at the same time it could be helping our ability to quickly scan thru articles for finding information for essays, reports, etc., since there is so much to read and to look over..

Nevertheless, this just pisses me off being sixteen and a student.

What he's saying may be true. However, the one good thing about living today is the ability to access far more information from far more diverse sources. The difficult part of this is that one has to make a conscious effort to access this diverse wealth of knowledge.

If this generation nows less than the "boomers" about foreign policy, culture, and what's going on around the world in general, this could be a very rough next few decades. Early on the "boomers" showed much more promise, at least from an interest and activity perspective. Yet, while the "boomers" have dominated the last few decades of public opinion and policy, they have exemplified very little savvy or knowhow. The last few decades of decision making has been marked by the squandering of one of the greatest opportunitiies of inheretance in centuries.

A lot of the under 30 generation may not be that interested in highly important public issues, but that may change as they get older and realize that they can have an impact. It's hard to predict how people will change between the superficial adult years before 30 and the years that will likely include the bulk of their lives' work (after 30). I think it will take a number of years to discover whether this article proves to be accurate.

If you were 15 years old which would be a better use of your time:

Playing HALO 3 or.....

1) Trying to hold an intelligent conversation with James Inhofe regarding the science supporting climate change

2) Trying to explain the internet to Sen. Ted "It's A Series of Tubes!" Stevens

3) Holding a resonable conversation on immigration with Lou "They're All Killers!" Dobbs

4) Describing the difference between a loofah and a falafel to Bill O'Reily

5) Describing the difference between a Sunni and a Shia to either John McCain or George W Bush

Personally I think it's pretty clear that if young students today seem disengaged from politics or issues....it's because they feel it's a waste of time.

The language might be rude and the observation politically incorrect....but anyone over the age of 12 knows America is run by a buch of fucking retards who refuse to listen to reason.

And look at what a "good" education gets you in America. If you don't go to college, you end up as a cashier at Wal-mart. But if you work hard, study and graduate college you get to be...a supervisor at Wal-mart with a adjustable rate mortgage you can't afford.

So given all of that it seems understandable that many students today have a "Fuck it" attitude when it comes to education.

They look around and see that the dumbest people imaginable seem to be getting elected to the Senate, the Presidency, writting news articles (Judy Miller Jayson Blair), getting their own TV and radio shows. They're pretty dumb and yet their living out their dreams....so why should they have to work hard when so many others never bothered and made it big?

And they look at those that did play by the rules and study hard and they're losing their house, getting downsized and working at Taco Bell.

Yes....BUT!

I grew up in a one horse town with very few library resources.

If I wanted to research any subject of interest from healthcare to the rainforest....there was basically nothing. As a student I wasn't exactly better off without the Internet.

Now all I have to do (no matter where I live) is type in "Healthcare" and I have access to massive amounts of data and statistics from all sides of the topic.

I think the author is confusing cause and effect.

Clearly we can all agree that the internet has opened the floodgates in term sof information. I find it laughable, er, I mean LOL that the author thinks getting instant access to information as opposed to driving to 5 different libraries is somehow cheating, intellectually dishonest or "lazy research."

Is the quality of intellectual discourse dwindling?

Yes (George W. Bush is our President).

But the blame lies more with the an entire culture (imho) that belittles intellect than it has anything to do with Google.

FOX News basically makes billions portraying intellect and critical analysis as offensive behaviour.

"Al Gore is a limp wristed pussy who doesn't have the BALLS to keep America safe!"

That statement could have been made by any number of Republicans Senators or Fox News anchors.

THAT'S what is the driving force behind the dumbing down of America. That absolute assualt on anyone who has a brain and asks questions.

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And he blames the internet and MTV on young students ability to "concentrate"?

That seems like a bit of a leap.

I think the gunfire from the Blood/Crip drive-bys is distracting them more than MTV or YouTube.

I think this goes much deeper.

The author seems to be assuming that intellect and intelligence is VALUED in adult society but that somehow the Internet and video games are leading today's youth away from the Vulcan path of pure logic adopted by such somber adults as Bill O'Reily, George W. Bush and Rush Limbaugh.

The truth (it seems to me) is that our entire society from 75 year old Senators (like Sen. Ted Stevens who quipped the internet was "a series of tubes!") to Joe Sixpack working at Wal-mart ALL have a problems "concentrating" and have a inexplicable hatred for intellectuals.

Every generation has had this line thrown at them. This generation to me is all about themselves. They have all this new technology and some dont know how to use it to their best advantage. I'm an older student attending college and am frequently amazed at what my 20something classmates dont know. (I'm 45). My instructors like to call on me to tell what i know because of my age,which isn't always fair but makes me feel so wise.

Lol, omg wtf?! We r n0t teh dumest genr8n.

Okay, maybe not THE dumbest. How 'bout narcissistic? That seems to be in line with the author's lament about social networking and endless homages to self. I teach and my students spend hours writing their names in various styles, on everything. Is that dumb?

Seems someone writes a book like this about every generation.

It's just an old person realizing that they didn't fit their generations expectations, and them whining.

The amount of trivial info accessible to the public is expanded by a hundredfold, but you can be sure that kids today are going to "know more" than their parents by the time they finish high school.

When everyone consistently gets the grand prize on that damn Are you smarter than a FIFTH GRADER then I'd believe that older people may be sharper.

I doubt anything's changed in the past several decades, except for technology and communication. The 90s was music and economics boom, the 80s was ugly fashions and MTV, the 70s was a whole lot of drugs, and the 60s was free love(rampant sex=gradual spread of AIDS). Bauerlein talks about people being dumb, but pop culture never really was "intellectual", unless you count Beatniks(didn't last long).

I don't think that he is so far off base, but to group an entire generation into one category has never worked very well.