‘The Dumbest Generation’ by Mark Bauerlein – Los Angeles Times

Every few months another book comes out criticizing young people for the lack of interest in reading, their short attention spans, and our nation’s bleak future.  I cannot disagree.  Technology is not getting us to read more, that’s for sure.  The younger generations are less inclined to pick up a book.  I’ve had arguments with my students before about the pleasure of reading a good book.  They thought I was cruel to give my fifteen year old sister books for Christmas.

For ages, adults have looked down on young people for their pastimes.  They are easy targets.  Most advertisers target them with music, celebrities, and the next Big Thing.  In the end, when they get a job, they will make choices that will determine who and what they will become.  Ultimately it’s the parents and the teachers and the adults in a kid’s life that determines what drives his/her decisions.  Technology like anything can be used for frivolous pursuits or constructive ones.  Instead of purely rejecting the technology on hand as “dumbing” us down as a culture, it’s time to embrace how technology can make us smarter and more informed.

Kids use the Internet in the way their friends are using it, on MySpace, Facebook, and the social networks.  They learn cues from advertising.  If we want our sons and daughters to be more intelligent users of technology and the Internet, we need to model to them how to use technology so that they can become better informed, conduct research, access the free online information, and think for themselves.  Like any technology, we have to increase our demands of it for the sake of our futures.