The Dumbest Generation Analysis

The book titled “The Dumbest Generation” published in 2008, written by Mark Bauerlein, who is a “professor of English at Emory University and director of research and analysis at the National Endowment of Arts.” (back cover)

Over the course of time technology has changed society’s views on various topics. In The Dumbest generation, Mark Bauerlein makes the argument that the youth generation is less knowledgeable than the older generation. This is not necessarily the case because the youth generation do not feel the need to know facts such as “who wrote the oratorio “Messiah” (which 35 percent of college seniors knew in 2002, compared with 56 percent in 1955) (Source B). As mentioned previously this is not by any means indicating that the youth generation is less knowledgeable, but instead shows that they have other resources to find out this information rather than just knowing it. Also, not knowing facts that were once very important to the older generations does

The Internet is not making the generation of people 30 years old or younger less intelligent, but changing how they think.. The cartoon from The New Yorker depicts a person sitting on their computer right in front of a wall of library books(Source H). This cartoon shows that the internet is not a tool that distracts us and makes us less intelligent, because that person who is using their computer can access

Mark Bauerlein-- english professor at Emory University, senior editor, and author of “The Dumbest Generation” states that this generation is dumber than the previous generation. I disagree with Bauerlein because millennials have improved their intellectual aspects and writing abilities over the years. Technology has been a huge advantage for this generation because not only do millennials depend on it but also learn to be self taught as well. This generation is constantly being accused of being “ the dumber generation”.

In chapter one of The Dumbest Generation, Mike Bauerlein makes several statements about our generation and comes to a conclusion that helps set the groundwork for the entire book. His analysis of today’s youth states that the current generation is lacking when it comes to intellectual knowledge. He provides evidence that states that today’s under-thirty population in the United States does not have adequate knowledge, and their lack of knowledge with affect them greatly in their adulthood years.

Along with the progression of society, major advances have been made in hundreds of different fields — particularly technology. Controversy has risen, and debates ensued over whether today's young Americans are really “the dumbest generation,” due to their “money, media, e-gadgets, and career plans” [Source A]. While advances have been made, they have brought with them resources to benefit off of, and ultimately assist in the overall intellect and intelligence of the human race.

Many students today live in a world where technology has taken over, this current generation has much more complex technology than previous generations. This generation is not in fact the dumbest but is simply finding a new processes and styles to further our learning and comprehension. Newer technology is causing us to favor different processes that our brain uses when needing to find new information or receiving new information. When reading Sharon Begley’s “The Dumbest Generation?

It is believed by many that younger generations, those under the age of thirty are the “dumbest”. Apparently, technology has now influenced and molded people into less-intelligent individuals who lack the knowledge and skills that people of the same age once acquired. Though if we look at more aspects of their learning capabilities, millennials do have the potential to be bright beings, now seen through more creative, non-traditional ways. And because of this, younger generations cannot be undermined as they have high levels of cognitive abilities, the help from technology, and how technology makes them write more and be more involved with their interests. Younger generations are not limited in their cognitive abilities, rather these abilities are expanding as time progresses.

In his best-selling book The Dumbest Generation, professor and social critic Mark Bauerlein makes the statement that “those under thirty comprise the dumbest generation in modern history.” Which is a wildly distorted statement, surely the millennials don’t remember as much facts as there parental generations did but to call them the dumbest generation is completely absurd. In fact the under 30 generations perform better than the previous generations in many areas of intellect. Perhaps making them one of the smartest generations ever, with the highest IQ levels, there focus on accessing information and how there leading a literacy revolution.

Essay Many Americans today are extremely familiar with the term “technologies and digital media,” and how they are not helping young Americans with education and general knowledge, which led to the generalization that they are the dumbest generation (Mark Bauerlein). However, according to the articles, The Dumbest Generation?Don’t Be Dumb by Sharon Begley, Is Google Making Us Stupid? By Nicholas Carr, and Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, Mizuko Ito et al., the authors all came up with one generalization that technologies and media are helping the young generation in their learning and they are instead, not the dumbest generation. The claim that those under age thirty are “the dumbest generation.”

Through the provocative title, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don 't Trust Anyone Under 30), Emory University professor, Mark Bauerlein, asserts his thesis. Using statistical information, Bauerlein presents the case that the millennial generation suffers from “Knowledge Deficits” in almost every important subject (11-38). Bauerlein argues bibliophobia (39-69) and distractions caused by technology (71-111) as reasons for the millennial generation’s lack of intellect. Bauerlein further implicates educators, or the mentors (163-203). When educators try to justify the knowledge deficits in millennials by pointing to individualism, Bauerlein ridicules their statements (185).

The younger generation of Americans, those under the age of thirty, are often criticized as being the “dumbest generation”. Many Americans blame technology for making “goods so plentiful, schooling so accessible, diversion so easy, and liberties so copious” (Bauerlein). Many are posing the question: Is the increasing ease in life causing our intelligence to slip? Those under thirty are not the dumbest generation, in fact, technology is expanding, changing, and pushing in new directions intelligence and mental capacity.

A few years ago, I decided to learn sign language. It was not a project for a class, a requirement to graduate, or a fact that everyone knew. I just wanted to learn sign language, so I did what many twenty-first century millennials do and downloaded an app. The app showed me diagrams to learn basic phrases, videos to perfect the movements, and lessons to learn more efficiently. The technology of the app made learning sign language easy, and I could use it wherever I went. I thought that I was smart for using technology to learn specific things, but Mark Bauerlein, the author of a 2008 book called The Dumbest Generation, would disagree. According to Bauerlein, twenty-first century teenagers possess “low knowledge levels” when compared to past generations because of the increased use of technology. However, Bauerlein is mistaken. This generation is not “the dumbest generation” because we focus on different topics, we write more often, and we know that every generation has been called “the dumbest”.

The education geared to numb and dumb equates Generation Zero. Bradley, no amount of money would entice yours truly to marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco. Carolyn stated correctly, "A challenge to resist the above contributes to an overall quality of life. And adding to my list fast foods, casino, meat, and senseless entertainment. All the above make the organism numb, dumb, obese, and

We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight - simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids to truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then” (Gatto 4).