The Dumbest Generation Analysis

Mark Bauerlein seems to believe that is the dumbest generation because research has shown that knowledge skills and intellectual habits have gone down, and although some people agree with him, others don’t. I believe this generation isn’t the dumbest because there are other things that need to be considered when calling someone, a group of people, or even an entire generation stupid or dumb, rather than just knowledge skills and intellectual habits.

Furthermore, I agree with Turkle that technology is overtaking our lives in a way that we might not even notice. Most everyone has one has a cell phone. Whether we are texting, reading emails, or playing Angry Birds, we are so absorbed into a virtual world. Even though we may not realize it, many of

Pat Galagan, author of Technology and The Interrupted Brain seeks out a professional to explain this. Dan Willingham, professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia states, “Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and that 's true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most—critical thinking processes such as reasoning and problem solving—are intimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory (not just found in the environment)” (Galagan). This generation of adolescents is so used to looking up everything in the internet that their brains don’t go the extra mile to think and develop. Therefore, they don’t possess the amount of factual knowledge needed to mold higher level thinking and analysis.

Is Generation Y the dumbest generation yet? In Sharon Begley’s essay “The Dumbest Generation? Don’t be Dumb” she brings up an author by the name if Mark Bauerlein. Bauerlein has wrote a book describing how he believes Generation Y is the “dumbest generation” and is blaming it on their ignorance with use of the internet. He uses very basic evidence, such as that there has been a decline in adult literacy from 40 percent of high school grads in 1992 to 31 percent in 2003. (Begley 90) Begley brings up a very good point as the definition of “Dumbest”. (91) She proposed two separate definitions, the first being “holding the least knowledge” and the second being “lacking such fundamental cognitive capacities as the ability to think critically and

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.

It is a natural tendency for people to assume that they are smarter than people that are younger than they are. It is widely thought that with age, comes more knowledge, and a better understanding of the world. However, this thinking can't be used as a broad statement for entire generations of people. While there certainly are older people that are much wiser than younger people, this fact doesn't mean that younger generations as a whole are dumb. With the knowledge and discoveries made by previous generations at the disposal of younger generation's, the young people of today are smarter than ever.

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.

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”.

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

Which generation really takes the title of the dumbest generation? Is it people under the age of 30? How does age have a part in this statement? And why is there even a dumbest generation?

There is no denying the incredible library of knowledge the internet has made readily available for all to use. Having such a resource is transforming modern society in many ways, as it brings insight and news across the world at a moment’s notice, all the while enhancing educational and technological advancements. However, according to Sven Birkets, an American essayist and literacy critic, in his essay, “The Owl Has Flown”, it is not without fault as observations are to be made on how this new resource has transformed people’s intelligence and wisdom. The author theorizes that the large, almost unlimited, library that is now being offered by services such as the internet, reshapes the public’s knowledge. Knowledge is transformed to be horizontal or insubstantial compared to the much deeper lateral understanding pertaining to older generations because of the amount of time they spent dwelling on a much smaller set of resources. This observation made by Birkets in the late 90’s is expanded upon, and modernized by Nicholas Carr, an American writer and author, in a more inflicting and self-reflecting article for The Atlantic magazine entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains”. Carr does not just blame the Google search engine in this claim, but the internet as a whole on how it impacts concentration and our ability to contemplate. These cognitive impacts are observed and explained in more scientific terms by Eric Jaffe, a regular Observer

In a 2014 article on Psychologytoday.com, Ray Williams informs his audience about the rise of anti-intellectualism in American in an article called: Anti-Intellectualism and the “Dumbing Down” of America. Williams clams that America has suffered in intellectualism because society has dismissed science, the arts, and humanities and have been replaced by media, entertainment, and ignorance. He backs up this claim by citing Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, Pulitzer price winner Richard Hofstadter, author of The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein, a number of studies and statistics done across the country, and as well as many other authors on this subject. Williams makes bold claims by comparing American education to Japanese,

An author by the name of Mark Bauerlein claims in his book The Dumbest Generation that the generation of people younger than 30 are the dumbest yet. The generation of people younger than 30 are not the dumbest generation because video games teach them valuable lessons in life and also because the internet has changed how they think.

Today’s generation would be considered to be the dumbest generation according to college professor Mark Bauerlein. In Bauerlein’s book “The Dumbest Generation”, he argues that people under the age of 30 are the dumbest generation. However research shows that technology has improved our knowledge over time. Also social media and all things related has played a positive role in today’s generation lives.

Are we to busy searching the web to realize how dumb we are becoming? We live in the age of technology, where there is easy access to the Internet. Nicholas Carr, the author of “Does the Internet Make you Dumber?” stated a good question that is relevant to our generation. Since we have easy access to the Internet, it is making us dumber instead of smarter. I believe individuals have taken advantage of the Internet and it is costing them their thinking skills. Sometimes individual don’t realize the impact that the internet has on our brain and education. The author states that the internet comes with distractions, many information, and it models our brains.