The Dumbing Of America Summary

Technology is becoming to be a large part of society and has a growing impact on our personal lives. Jean Twenge uses this reasoning to effectively discuss the mental issues arising in “iGen” and how social media, sleep deprivation, and usage of technology are negatively affecting teenagers of this generation. This is an important topic to discuss because in 2011, statistics showed that the teen suicide rate was higher than the teen homicide rate for the first time in 24 years (Twenge). Twenge uses facts like this to appeal to parents to try to make them recognize that their own kids could be in danger of depression and hurting themselves and what could be large contributors. Twenge backs up her argument by using her background as a professor at San Diego University and her studies of generational differences to support her claim. Although Jean Twenge tries to use her power to make parents embrace their parental

Are Americans getting dumber? In the age of 24-hour News cycle and reality TV celebrities turn presidential candidates it would appear so. In fact, author Susan Jacoby wrote a popular editorial for the Washington post in 2008 called How Dumb Can We Get? Claiming that Americans are, well, getting dumber. Jacoby attributes the problem, one she calls anti-intellectualism, to the increased integration of technology into our everyday lives. However, before we heed the message of Susan Jacoby and brush up on our celestial navigation and nephology, let's consider a few things.

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that America has suffered in intellectualism because society has dismissed science, the arts, and humanities and have been replaced by media, entertainment, and ignorance.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,

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we" (Bush).In a society notorious for its oblivious politicians, questionable educational system, and money hungry big corporations, this senseless quote made by the forty-third president of the United States George W. Bush, is only one of the many incidents validating Moore’s claim that we as Americans lack sufficient articulation and education. If there could be a spokesperson for criticizing American politicians, the educational system, globalization, large corporations, the war in Iraq, and many other debatable issues, American author of “Idiot Nation”, Michael Moore would be the ideal candidate. In this piece, Moore argues that America is a nation built upon a clueless, illiterate society of people, a sub-par educational system, and manipulative corporations. All which are governed by brainless politicians. Moore effectively creates his argument by offering personal anecdotes, statistical data, cause and effect examples, and a call to action for what students can do to stand up to educational subservience. Textual context is important in understanding the author’s argument. Moore’s life, works, and purpose affected his argument in that it drew from his personal experiences as a student and was effective for an audience of students, board members, teachers, and politicians.

A second way technology’s impact negatively affects the youth, is by creating a world of “hyperconnectedness”. This means people are experiencing a personal connection to people they do not personally know and situations they are not apart of. An example Schrobsdorff gives is of Phoebe Gariepy, a teenage girl who followed another girl on Instagram who lived across the country from Gariepy. When Gariepy found out the girl on Instagram was killed, she “felt really extremely connected to [the] situation”. This type of “hyperconnectedness” is a widespread phenomenon affecting youth of all backgrounds. The second example Schrobsdorff gives is of students in Montana. In this example, Daniel Champer, a school director, explains that the students of Montana are “overexposed”. Champer goes on to explain how the students of Montana “often know before adults” when tragedy strikes. This kind of exposure does not allow adequate time “for counselors to help”. Schrobsdorff uses these examples to give real world examples and perspectives of the negative effects cause the hyper-connected

The public have watched in suspended horror, or elation, depending on your perspective, how Donald J. Trump has turned the presidential primaries into a reality TV show. With his background as a reality producer and star, he has reached into his repertoire of gimmicks to unleash campaign tactics unseen in recent memory. Each and every night in the news, we are treated to his childish antics of name calling, insults to his colleagues and opponents, blaming and vilifying minority communities for the ills of the country and threatening to abolish the fourteenth amendment of the constitution. All of this happens as majority of the nation’s elite media outlets sits on the sideline, sometimes cheering him on.

In “How America Went Haywire”, a chapter out of Kurt Andersen’s book Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire--A 500-year History, Andersen argues that America has bred its own sense of reality and fantasyland of such that has had an impact on the way people think and act. Americans believe that they are exceptional and superior to everyone else and therefore they do not have to listen to what experts and facts have to say. It is all opinions and feelings that America bases their own reality on. Andersen writes this chapter and book for all Americans because he believes that everyone has taken part in the falsification of reality. He mainly focuses on tailoring his argument for an audience who may be victims of a fantasy-like reality, which

The concern for the well-being of all students in a school campus has always been one of the biggest responsibility for a district. As time passes on new experiences occur to many students, some that may traumatize them leaving them vulnerable to subjects which many people may be unaware of. In “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, trigger warnings and microaggression was one of the topics to focus on for the emotional well-being of American students. Safe space was also brought up in the article. Nowadays many policies have been enforced to help prevent discomfort for all students in a district. It has even led to prevention of word usage in classroom lectures as well to nation quotes such as “America is the land of opportunity.” These changes are being made to protect students from all undesired anxious reactions which may be seen in school. In this essay, I will be talking on the subject of students do need to be protected from such vile subjects but there must also be a limit to it.

During this contemporary age, the definitions of “dumb” or “smart” are fairly relative. With the internet and all kinds of information right at our fingertips, it's hard to measure intellectuality. A person who seeks out information on the web, as if the internet is their own personal tool for education, is the contemporary smart today. “Dumb” people are those who choose to look at mindless information, not just some of the time, but most of the time. So, it isn’t clearly the internet that has made us “dumb”, necessarily. The internet has forced us to bring out the parts of ourselves that we wish to identify

The rising generation is notorious for absorbing their lives with all things virtual. With the coming forth of new and advanced technology in recent years, the world has seen a shift in the trends and behaviors of the rising generation. In association to these advancements, we have seen improvements in things like medical care and worldwide communications, but we have also observed a sudden disinterest in human interaction as well as obsessive gaming addictions where users waste countless hours online. In a speech given to the students of Brigham Young University-Idaho, David A. Bednar addressed this topic as a means of guidance and direction for these young students. Bednar uses allusion, imagery, and specific word choice that taps into the

Our modern world’s virtual connectivity can have subtle, but arduous effects on society as a whole and for each individual. While these technologies are relatively new compared to humankind’s grand history, each year, more research is being conducted and released on the impacts that social media, video games, and virtual simulations have on the youth. All this research seems to have one thing in common which is that even though technology does have obvious benefits, no one can deny the fact that there are some serious repercussions arising alongside the advantages. Most of these issues deal with emotional and social developments that can be observed in the more recent generations who are raised with access to technology. Experts have written

Kansas City is a very diverse place where there are many cultures who live in the melting pot of the city. With different cultures comes different lifestyles that affects a person’s overall health. It so happens to be that obesity, unhealthy eating, and not enough physical exercise has led to a substantial increase in diabetes, making it the number seventh leading cause of death (American Diabetes Association, 2014, p. Diabetes Basics). Diabetes also called diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease in which the body’s inability to produce any or enough insulin causes elevated levels of glucose in the blood (Google, What is Diabetes). There is three type of diabetes, Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes. Type 1 is mostly seen in juvenile, where they become insulin dependent because the body immune system attacks the pancreas (Diabetes Research Institute, 2014, p. What is Type 1 Diabetes?). Type 2, which account for 90% of cases is seen in those who are obese, who have a family history, who are older and have unhealthy eating lifestyles, is when the body doesn 't know how to use the energy efficiently to process sugar Google, What is Diabetes; Center for Disease Control, p.2). Gestational diabetes happens during pregnancy when there is higher levels of sugar and normally goes away afterwards. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, p.2). We will briefly explore the epidemiology surrounding diabetes, how it’s impacting the metro area as well as its effects on the body.

Our documentary relates to the movie “Tron Legacy” as they both explore the advantages and advancement of technology. The movie is about a boy whose father had disappeared, but was pulled into the same cyberworld as his father. He and his friend ride through the technologically advanced world on their motorcycles to discover that the cyberworld is a more advanced place than what they thought. Although it is not explicitly expressed that technology is our future, it could clearly be assumed that there was an expectation that the technology was in demand to be advanced in the movie. This meant that in order for technology to be advanced, there was a constant need for people to be working towards this. It could only be possible if people are skilled

The technology resource I would utilize, and see it being an advantage would be YouTube. YouTube is a global video-sharing website based out of San Bruno, California. This billion dollar corporation was founded in 2005 by three former Pay Pal employees, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Shortly after, Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion and has grown even more. This online website allows you to stream videos, movies and create a pod cast for millions of viewers to watch.

As the world entered into the 21st Century, humanity has witnessed an ecology of innovation that ranges from artificial hearts and livers to iPods to Bluetooth technology to smartphones and many more ("21st Century Inventions That Made an Impact”). Each with its own unique attraction has become a catalyst in nature for how individuals think, act and live. Along with these state of the art developments, Netflix has become the cutting – edge service for internet streaming media. Deemed as “a worthless piece of crap” from Wall Street analysts, Netflix with tremendous leadership gained control of their industry and swiftly transformed the delivery of movie rentals ("How Netflix Beat Blockbuster: An Exemplar of Emerging Technologies”). Faced with impossible odds, we will discover how Netflix was able to survive, conquer and prosper as the emerging technology in their industry.