The Dumbest Generation?

My initial reaction to the reviews of Bauerlein's book and the interview was shock. I know that our generation is getting pretty "dumb," but I think he definitely pinpointed the flaws exactly. When Jay Leno was going around asking people about books, I was amazed that people got such simple questions wrong. And miss South Carolina...WOW...I didn't realize people could use so little brain matter!

The LA Times points out that "...America's youth know virtually nothing about history and politics...They have developed a 'brazen disregard of books and reading.'" Why would we (the younger generation) bother with books when all we have to do is Google something and find all we'll ever need to know about a subject? It's faster and more convenient than books, and we don't have to trudge across campus to go to the library. But instead of using the internet to broaden our cultural, political, and historical knowledge, "young people instead mostly use it to gossip about each other and follow pop culture, relentlessly keeping up with the ever-shifting lingua franca of being cool in school." It's true! We don't use the internet to better ourselves--we use it to catch up on the keep up with our social lives and make sure we're not missing out on someone's funny Facebook status. How many times have you browsed Google to learn something about the world (for purposes other than schoolwork)? Chances are, very little compared to the amount of time you spend looking up useless facts about celebs or the latest trends. (Check this out--commonsense.org. A website for parents about our media usage!)

The internet, a wonderful invention, is keeping us from "growing up" by causing us to associate only with people our age. It makes us immature, reverting back to our 3-yr old days where we only think about things that are going on now and are affecting ourselves. When Bauerlein said about how narcissistic our generation is, I saw his point. The world revolves around us, and it needs to cater to our needs. I liked the remark someone in class made saying that profs have the responsibility of making class interesting so that students actually want to learn. I disagree with this because technically, no, they don't HAVE to make class interesting so we want to learn the material (even though they are taught to make classes interesting). No matter how boring or exciting a class is, it's still on us--the students--to study, learn, and apply that information.

We discussed a quote from Bauerlein where he blamed the older generations--parents, teachers and mentors--for being so lax about technology so that they wouldn't be labeled a curmudgeon. I mainly disagree with him stating that the reason they are lax is so they aren't labeled curmudgeons. I think that maybe older generations are realizing the usefulness of technology in their own lives which is why they are becoming more acceptable of it. As far as education goes, technology, in my opinion, is highly useful in the classroom. My mom teaches 6th graders who have the attention spans of a dog on crack, so technology, unlike a book, keeps their attentions. She has a Promethean board in her classroom, and finds that students better understand what they're being taught because they are able to do interactive activities on the board as well as watch animations on important science concepts.

However, I think I see Bauerlein's point--when do we draw the line? When does it become too much? The older generations really are the only thing standing between us and technology, so by them accepting this change into a more "virtualized" world, it's like throwing a white flag up and surrendering to technology.

So, yes, I think we're pretty damn dumb (maybe miss South Carolina a bit more) and lazy. We're used to having everything at our fingertips that we don't bother to retain information. And if something isn't relevant to our own lives at the present time, we're not even going to bother with it. But I think the generations below us will be worse off since our technology is evolving in a way that is promoting these flaws.

P.S. Just for fun: Slashgear.com is a news website featuring crazy, sometimes scary, gadget concepts. It's worth a peek--it's shows what kind of technology developers and engineers are looking at for our future.