The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future...

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't ... | Mark Bauerlein | Why Johnny WON'T read

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The Dumbest Genera...

	The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't ... Mark Bauerlein Tarcher, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 40 reviews view larger image
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This shocking, lively exposure of the intellectual vacuity of today?s under thirty set reveals the disturbing and, ultimately, incontrovertible truth: cyberculture is turning us into a nation of know-nothings.

Can a nation continue to enjoy political and economic predominance if its citizens refuse to grow up?

For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular culture available to young people and the impact it has on their futures. At the dawn of the digital age, many believed they saw a hopeful answer: The Internet, e-mail, blogs, and interactive and hyper-realistic video games promised to yield a generation of sharper, more aware, and intellectually sophisticated children. The terms ?information superhighway? and ?knowledge economy? entered the lexicon, and we assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of technology to set themselves apart as the vanguards of this new digital era.

That was the promise. But the enlightenment didn?t happen. The technology that was supposed to make young adults more astute, diversify their tastes, and improve their verbal skills has had the opposite effect. According to recent reports, most young people in the United States do not read literature, visit museums, or vote. They cannot explain basic scientific methods, recount basic American history, name their local political representatives, or locate Iraq or Israel on a map. The Dumbest Generation is a startling examination of the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its consequences for American culture and democracy.

Drawing upon exhaustive research, personal anecdotes, and historical and social analysis, Mark Bauerline presents an uncompromisingly realistic portrait of the young American mind at this critical juncture, and lays out a compelling vision of how we might address its deficiencies.

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Expose of dumbing effect of technology and private schools

Expose of the dumbing down effect of technology and private schools. Children shape the world to themselves, rather than shaping themselves to the world. Public schools are the only bright spot, where children are forced to adopt to the world as it is.

Why Johnny WON'T read

Bauerlein, in this moderate tome, explains a phenomenon which I have noticed first hand, but prior to reading this book, was unable to explain myself. There seems to be nothing new about the "dumbing down" of America, but this is no doubt worse in the "millenial generation."

This is somewhat of paradox, since this generation, as pointed out by the author, has access to more educational resources than any previous generation. When I grew up, I had a dated copy of the World Book encyclopedia (1962), a somewhat understocked library, a black and white TV with six or seven channels, and a single phone line monitored by parents.

The millenial generation not only has broadband internet with the nearly endless information available on it (Wikipedia, Google, etc., instant, anywhere communications (cellphones and texting, the latter being a high tech version of passing notes in class.), not to mention more museums and galleries open than ever before.

Yet, virtually every study shows a remarkable a-literacy among this generation (as opposed to illiteracy -- they CAN read, but DON'T. Is there a direct cause and effect here?

Probably not. The author makes clear that technology itself is not the problem. The diagnosis lies in a youth culture that depends on their own equally ignorant peer group for information. Instead of looking something up or reading a book, the choose to whittle away precious time burning up what Baurlein calls "screen time." Screen time in itself, is not the problem, only the TYPE of screen time they select. If todays' students spent their time reading on line versions of the New York Times, and other intelligent informational websites, then the problem of a-literacy would probably be much less. Instead, they choose MTV, mindless peer to peer text "chatter," and similar time wasters.

Ironically, I spent some screen time myself, reading "The Dumbest Generation" on my Amazon.com KindleKindle: Amazon's Wireless Reading Device machine.

I should say that despite its advantages, the Kindle reading machine lacks the eroticism of a real book or newspaper. There is nothing like the feel of the newspaper, the ink that gets on your hands, the smell and feel of a real newspaper or book. But try and experiment: poll twenty to thirty years olds this question: what was the last book you read? Your results will confirm Bauerlein's thesis.

I find no merit in other critics assertion that the author is somehow "mean" or attacking a particular youth group. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, just fewer and fewer of them. Clarity and truth are of the utmost importance. A democratic society depends on an educated society. If Bauerlein is correct, this portends badly for America's future.

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"A Generation Whose Minds Plateau at Age 18"

The dumbing-down of America continues at an astounding pace and an Emory University English professor believes that he knows why it is happening. Mark Bauerlein has written a book that will likely irritate as many people as there will be people who will praise it for its insights, starting with the very title of the book: "The Dumbest Generation - How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future." Labeling any generation "the dumbest generation" is guaranteed to draw the wrath of most of those falling into that age group. Unfortunately for them, Bauerlein builds a strong case that the title of his book is entirely accurate.

But make no mistake. Bauerlein is not calling this generation stupid; he is saying that their ignorance is largely the result of the technology they have grown up with, technology that keeps them tied to their peers practically 24 hours a day, thus ensuring that they can completely insulate themselves from the rest of the world and whatever responsibilities and challenges they might be asked to face. Their worlds are so local and so superficial that they can completely cut off circumstances beyond their immediate circle of friends. If the subject does not involve "friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms (and) Facebook," they are not much interested.

According to Bauerlein, and the numerous studies he cites throughout "The Dumbest Generation," the main culprit in this sad story is the computer, the very tool that was supposed to give this generation an advantage over all that preceded it. But instead of using computers and the internet to their advantage, members of "the dumbest generation" have turned them into little more than combination telephone/television contraptions through which they can seamlessly socialize with their friends and peers.

A related problem is that these young people have grown up in a "disposable society," one in which it is cheaper, easier, and much more fun to replace broken consumer items with new ones than it is to repair the old ones. It has become the norm for Americans to throw out old consumer electronics items and the like because, frankly, it is cheaper to buy new ones than to get the old ones repaired. Unfortunately, in the "cut and paste" society in which these young people live, knowledge has become just as disposable as any consumer electronic product. Students have convinced themselves that there is no point to retaining knowledge on any subject because that information can be found on the internet within seconds when, and if, they need it. So they "cut and paste" the information they need, often from dubious internet sources, and make almost no effort to retain any of it. Why bother, they think, when I know where to find it if I ever need it again?

Bauerlein builds a strong case that the failure of this generation to assimilate the history and culture of the society in which it lives is a dangerous thing, a breakdown that threatens the democratic system under which this country has thrived for more than two centuries. These young people, as a whole, do not read books; they do not study history, foreign affairs, civics, the arts or much else. If it happened before 1990, they are not interested. Bauerlein wonders where the next generation of "strong military leaders and wise political leaders, dedicated journalists and demanding teachers, judges and muckrakers, scholars and critics and artists" will come from and he hopes that his book will finally open the eyes of teachers, parents and reporters in time to save this generation - and our country's future.

Of course there are exceptional members of "the dumbest generation," young people who are as determined to learn and prosper as any who preceded. But they seem to be as much the exception as they are exceptional, and that is scary.

As Bauerlein puts it, "The youth of America occupy a point in history like every other generation did and will, and their time will end. But the effects of their habits will outlast them, and if things do not change they will be remembered as the fortunate ones who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be recalled as the generation that lost that great American heritage, forever."

Agree with it or not, this book will make you think. It might irritate you or it might upset you, largely depending on which generation you are a member of, I suspect. Read it with an open mind and decide for yourself.

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The Neglect of the Intellectual Life

Seeing some titles displayed in the reviews that suggest the book, by Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein, is "mean-spirited" or the "dumbing" down is caused by "private schools," compels me to write a review that is accurate. Bauerlein's book is not mean-spirited and that assertion alone may just indirectly support the Professor's thesis. After all, because one critiques a group he or she is "mean-spirited?" In addition, a reviewer suggest that the author does not analyze trends and data, yet, Baurlein does analyze trends and data from, well, professional researched studies with an abundance of statistics! Further, his assertion because more people take a standardize (ACT and SAT) test therefore education has improved, even though the test scores are the same, misses Bauerline's overall point: that the intellectual life is not appreciated or cultivated by this generation; however, this reviewer does accurately mention that Bauerlein does fail to show that previous generations in the last century cultivated the intellectual life.

The claim the book's author exposes private schools as a culprit is laughable. The thesis does discuss technology, but exposes educators in general and family and social life in particular (not private schools). Bauerlein is explicit when analyzing the hours spent at home by the young who are not being engaged in any intellectual activity, regardless of the schools the child/teen attends. It begets a question whether this reviewer read the book or if he/she did and whether his/her agenda against private schools overrides his/her ability to probe a text correctly. Bauerlein's book does provide data (some of it is open to argument) and does not blame technology or private schools. What he does is show how the use of technology has not increased one's ability to learn and instead, while it could be a powerful tool for learning, it is most often a distraction to learning. The reasons are many and the book does a fine job explaining why technology is most often a hindrance to learning.

I do posit, however, that while this book accurately examines the problems with today's 30 and under generation, Bauerlein does not adequately demonstrate that this generation is any "worse" than the previous generations, going back to the fifties. One could argue that since the end of the Enlightenment and the begging of Post-Modernism, the intellectual life has declined due to philosophical reasons that have had a profound effect on the cultural reality. Bauerlein barely touches this subject when he discusses tradition and I think he is on to something here, but fails to go deeper and investigate the post-modern educational meltdown.

While I find that in the college classroom there is very little intellectual interest, there is hope. Some students are active in honors program through the nation's universities and these people often go on to graduate school or bring their critical thinking skills to the workplace. These young people do bring an intellectual vision and more universities need to support these programs.

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