Dumbest Generation... What do you think?

[Kara Hawkins]

Check out this podcast of an interview (note: the interview starts around 14 minutes into the podcast) on CBC radio with the author of a book called: "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). What do you guys think about this author's proclamation? I'm thinking that the concept behind hiky is certainly a move in the right direction (i.e. not only are we working to bridge the gap between youth and health care services, but also between youth and older generations).

[Tyler Vaivada]

*anxiously awaits josh's wall of text*

[Josh Schonblum]

ummmmmmmmmmmm......
no?
sry this guy seems completely off on his argument.

1. His point is? - When it comes to our interaction i would argue that the advent of technology allows for mass exposure to large audiences, not just our age group. If anything we have an advantage over previous generations because all this information is at our finger tips and WE DO access it and interact with it. As well interaction with "older" people has nothing to do with a development of general intelligence because age has nothing to do with general intelligence. There are 40 year olds who are ignorant and stupid and 14 year olds who are worldly and aware.

2. What is teh wikipedia?? - he defends that hes not just "an old person who is disconnected" but through his discourse we clearly get a sense of his utter lack of familiarity with the online world and the current trends of teens. Newspaper? Toronto star is avialbe online, so is cnn, bbc, blogs and a wealth of information that makes the "newspaper" archaic and unnecessary. New tech is NEW TECH, its our current way of accessing information which makes the printing press, like word of mouth, unnecessary and without relevance. He continuously uses buzz words to define intelligence without looking at the real full picture.

3. Connect what now? - he keeps making connections between young students and professional as if our current characteristics are entirely definitive of our future selves. He is making generalizations about lazy children as opposed to assessing the possibilities and capabilities of todays youth and their integration with technology. Kids in the 70s liked to play ball hockey and go to discos. We like to play mmmos and hang out on facebook. Whats his point? Also his statement about our lack of reading is so focused on the type of medium and not the saturation. Do we read less books today? maybe. Do we read more overall? HELL YES. every action in the online world requires massive amounts of reading. I could read a republican, liberal, feminist, and european perspective on a single event before you could finish one article. Because I've read quickly does it mean i get less? No! because we have been trained to analyze and derive the most important information at first glance. Teens today donut need to read as much, but that doesn't make us less intelligent, if anything it is a sign of a new familiarity with information and higher abilities in processing.

[Brian]

It's a generation gap o_o; deal with it. The author's standard for "intelligence" is based on old-fashioned thinking of having a breadth of knowledge in history, the fine arts and classics. He even admits to it in the interview; but he keeps on droning on and on about statistics. Presently, technology allows an infinitely large amounts of information on topics and subjects that prior would have been difficult to engage without a know-how and a foundation of experience with dealing with the said topics. Just because the youth aren't specifically knowledgeable about the author's standards of intelligence doesn't justify calling youth the "dumbest" generation. He's just an old-fast complaining about the young people.

[Kara Hawkins]

Very much the response that I expected from you guys! ;p

The author was certainly successful at being provocative, but his arguments and the data that he uses to support them are pretty weak. So much good can come from new tech! Educators should (and I think many are) focus more of their energy on adapting their practices to new technology (especially the internet), and less of it on complaining about the problems associated with technology (constructive criticism of the ways in which we use new technology is certainly necessary, but grandiose complaints that don't lead to the development of any solutions are not very productive).

[Daniel Myran]

And now I get a chance to be controversial. (It kinda morphed into a big of the generation Q stuff as well.)

While the author is not particularly articulate there is some merit to his argument (and there are many other problems that the internet is creating). I won’t disagree with you that the internet changes the way we access multimedia, that yes for people who access the news online that it can be fantastic and even better than conventional newspapers. I also won’t contend that the internet is making people dumber or that it is going to create a generation of deskilled idiots incapable of being successful. What I will say is that the direction the internet is going to have some big impacts some good some bad.

No matter how many blogs you read, no matter how many emails you send the reality is that people today are reading less books, and I think that there is an inherent difference between reading a blog and reading a book. Maybe we don’t need to memorize Shakespeare but reading some of his plays is definitely a worthwhile pursuit, and I know that the latest gossip about celebs and various video games that are coming out is engaging but it certainly is not educational or going to help you develop as a person. Now you can argue that most people didn’t read Shakespeare in the first place, or read much at all and that’s true, but the internet just facilitates people tuning our from the real world, it’s just one huge distraction. Maybe there is already a generation gap between mine and the one that coming up right now, because all I know is that I get way more satisfaction out of finishing a good book that reading someone’s blog or watching a couple videos on youtube.

The internet is creating a situation where people are becoming addicted to different aspects of it. Like youtube and facebook and whatever else it is. I don’t think that these are healthy things in the way they are currently used. The sad reality is that knowing how to interact with people in person (basic social skills) is going to become a rare ability. I see a generation that creates rallies on facebook and signs online petitions, but when we had an anti racism rally at queens (after a racist incident in which 4 male students assaulted a female black professor, in broad day light mind you). 14 Students showed up! Ya ok 2000 people joined the event and engaged in lively discourse (one sentence statements of anger) but 14 students is a disgrace, online activism is very dangerous because it gives people the illusion that they are doing something when in fact they are only showing that they don’t care enough to actually go stand up for something.

Maybe facebook is cool for organizing your social life but facebook stalking a friend of a friends for 2 hours laughing at their photos is really creepy and waste of your life. Its not like the internet is this corrupting influence that everything was just great before and that it turned this generation into all the problems that this guy discusses. Those problems were always there, the internet just lets them get worse and go to extremes.

Our generation has so many challenges to face, and the internet may be what helps us organize and express our thoughts and get exposed to new ideas but it cannot be a replacement for the real world. I totally agree with Kara this tech is going to be the future and educator better adapt, and its no good complaining about this “crazy new generation”. I think the reality is that people who would have “cared” and pursued “worthwhile things” before the internet are going to use the internet to do just that. And people who read junky magazines and would have spent all there time hanging out are going to do the same just online.

This was a bit of a rant, kinda long too. I know I am just highlighting the bad aspects of the net but I cant help it because they are what I notice. maybe this post was meant to be provocative, Let the heated debate begin?