The Dumbest Generation?

Lily Tikijian
December 9, 2009
Great Books Period 5
Mr. Priest

The Dumbest Generation?

According to Mark Baurerlein, author of “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future,” the teens’ and twentysomethings’ of the twenty-first century are the “dumbest” generation yet. Baurerlein used evidence in his book such as, 47 percent of the grads in 1950 could name the largest lake in North America, compared with the 38 percent in 2002. He also states that a decline in adult literacy “(40 percent of high-school grads had it in 1993; only 31 percent did in 2003.)” But what does Baurerlein have in mind by “dumbest?” If it means, “holding the least knowledge,” then Baurerlein might have a point. But if dumb means “lacking such fundamental cognitive capacities as the ability to thing critically and logically, to analyze and argument, to learn and remember, to see analogies, to distinguishing fact from opinion,” then Baurerlein could be proven wrong. Though Baurerlein is not the first scholar to pin the blame for the younger generation’s intellectual shortcomings on new technology, there is no evidence that instant messaging, texting, iPods, and videogames impairs thinking ability. If anything, I believe that all of this technology doesn’t “dumb” our generation down, it just changes how our brain’s process information. Since this technology changes the way my generation is processing information, this could result in improving our thinking ability. My generation has a different view on knowledge. I believe that we ask questions and question “the truth.” We don’t settle what people have told us to believe, we question and try and find the real “truth.” In Ortega’s essay, On Studying, he distinguishes the difference between a good student and a real student. He says a good student is someone who doesn’t question what already exists; they accept it and are comforted by learning and absorbing that knowledge. A real student searches for evidence and wants to know more and questions what is already considered the truth. My generation will have more people willing to take risks, willing to try new things, and willing to fail. Our generation may not be what society is used too but we are a different kind of smart. We are the generation that will go out into the world and invent new inventions and be willing to try new things. We are capable of so much more then older generations because we want to do more, that’s what we desire to do. We have the ability to think critically, analyze data, and learn and remember. The twenty-first century generation will change the world in our own ways, sure maybe we do hold the least knowledge, but we can learn and remember more then any generation before us and we can put that to good use. We will not jeopardize the future, if anything; we will enhance the future and embrace the challenges that lie ahead.