The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)This shocking, lively exposure of the intellectual vacuity of todayas under thirty set reveals the disturbing and, ultimately, incontrovertible truth: cyberculture is turning us into a nation of know-nothings. Can a nation continue to enjoy political and economic predominance if its citizens refuse to grow up? For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular culture available to young people and the impact it has on their futures. At the dawn of the digital age, many believed they saw a hopeful answer: The Internet, e-mail, blogs, and interactive and hyper-realistic video games promised to yield a generation of sharper, more aware, and intellectually sophisticated children. The terms ainformation superhighwaya and aknowledge economya entered the lexicon, and we assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of technology to set themselves apart as the vanguards of this new digital era. That was the promise. But the enlightenment didnat happen. The technology that was supposed to make young adults more astute, diversify their tastes, and improve their verbal skills has had the opposite effect. According to recent reports, most young people in the United States do not read literature, visit museums, or vote. They cannot explain basic scientific methods, recount basic American history, name their local political representatives, or locate Iraq or Israel on a map. "The Dumbest Generation" is a startling examination of the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its consequences for American culture and democracy. Drawing upon exhaustive research, personal anecdotes, and historical and social analysis, Mark Bauerlinepresents an uncompromisingly realistic portrait of the young American mind at this critical juncture, and lays out a compelling vision of how we might address its deficiencies. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
ONE KNOWLEDGE DEFICITS | 11 |
THREE SCREEN TIME | 71 |
FOUR ONLINE LEARNING AND NONLEARNING | 113 |
FIVE THE BETRAYAL OF THE MENTORS | 163 |
Bibliography | 237 |
Other editions - View all
The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and ... Mark Bauerlein No preview available - 2009 |
The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and ... Mark Bauerlein No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
academic activities adolescent arts ArtShow attitude average better blog campus cell phone citizens civic classroom cognitive culture culture wars digital learning digital natives digital revolution digital technology Dumbest enter Facebook fact Flynn Effect grade graduates habits Harry Potter high school seniors homework ideas intellectual intelligence Internet iPod kids knowledge laptop leisure less literacy lives math mentors minds minutes multitasking MySpace NAEP National never Nielsen Nielsen//NetRatings outcomes parents peer percent Pew Research Center play Poirier political popular professors programs rates readers researchers revolution screen Sesame Street shows skills social spend story survey teachers teenagers teens and young television test scores things tion tradition trend twelfth-graders Twixters verbal video games week Wikipedia Wired magazine words workplace writing young adults young Americans young users youth YouTube