The Dumbest Generation?

Is it true? is our generation the dumbest generation forthcoming? Absolutly not is the answer to this silly and very uninformed question. Author Mark Bauerlein, author of the book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, begs to differ. Mark feels that teens today are wasting their time on highly unnecessary material, and that they are wasting away in a society that does not truly seem to worry all that much about teens. As a matter of fact this is not true at all, And I will show you through example that Mark Bauerlein is, indeed, wrong in his views on possibly the most stunning generation ever to roam the planet.


They don't store the information

"For digital immigrants, people who are 40 years old who spent their college time in the library acquiring information, the Internet is really a miraculous source of knowledge,'' Bauerlein says. "Digital natives, however, go to the Internet not to store knowledge in their minds, but to retrieve material and pass it along. The Internet is just a delivery system.''

I, personally, am one to go on the internet for far more than a quick gossip or an icebreaker. There have been hundreds of times that I have gone on the internet, just to read up on a topic i found interesting such as space, and how things worked. There are definitely many more teens out there, besides myself, who enjoy casually surfing the net, researching everything that comes to mind.

They don't read books -- and don't want to, either

"It's a new attitude, this brazen disregard of books and reading. Earlier generations resented homework assignments, of course, and only a small segment of each dove into the intellectual currents of the time, but no generation trumpeted aliteracy ... as a valid behavior of their peers.''

If our generation didn't enjoy reading books, would they still continue to 'pleasure read' even after discovering the amassing 14 total books they had to read this year? I sure don't think so. I often sit down in my favorite chair down in the living room, and crack open some philosophical book my mother has recommended to me through request. Reading is a release for me, and I am often calm after I read. I am among many of teens these days, who still do not mind to read.

They can't spell

Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. Without spellcheck, folks are toast.

I was recently made fun of for using such up-tight and proper grammar in an IM conversation. I also realized I can usually answer a fellow classmates how-do-you-spell questions with little struggle and 100% confidence. Not to be showoffish, ofcourse. The choice to use bad grammar, or not to spell something correctly in an online conversation is, more times than none, purposeful to be able to send a message in a shorter amount of time than it normally would.