Don't Trust Anyone Under 30... Duh! 8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation

Anyone see this yet?



From the article: Author Mark Bauerlein aims to provoke in his new book, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" (Tarcher/Penguin). Do you agree? Take a look at eight reasons the Emory University English professor gives to ''not trust anyone under 30'' -- see which you think is the best. Disagree, or have your own spin? Have your say on this message board. Or ask Bauerlein a question directly and he will answer readers in a live chat at noon on Wednesday.

and a few of his reasons....

1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targets

Bauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. ... They are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond -- friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.''

2. 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.''

4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing

"On MySpace, if you write clearly and compose coherent paragraphs with informed observations on history and current events, 'buddies' will make fun of you,'' Bauerlein says. Wikipedia writing is clean and factual, but colorless and judgment-free. Often the most clever students, with flashes of disorganized brilliance on MySpace, switch to dull Wiki-writing formats for school papers, he says. "If we could combine the style and imagination of MySpace with the content of Wikipedia, we might get good stuff."

more: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/gallery/dumbestgeneration/

Not ONE of my 14-year-old daughter's friends is anti-Bush. In fact, they give her a pretty hard time about the "Impeach Bush" bumpersticker on her mom's car. They're so thoroughly brainwashed it isn't funny.

There are some clueless kids out there.

The young generation is always going to be complained about the older generation. We're hardly the only generation with some politically apathetic people in our age group and yeah we have new technology nowadays, BFD.

he'd just pardon himself of whatever crimes are alleged against him since the impeachment wouldn't pass. I say let him skate free out of office and then slam him and his staff with a ton of subpoenas and charges. Just don't do it while he's still in office. I can't wait to see if he tries to pardon himself from future prosecutions on war crimes when he hasn't been charged yet. :rofl:

Also, teenagers living at home are still heavily influenced by their parents, especially 14 year-olds.

Your daughter obviously is not hanging out with the right people.



I know *ONE* person my age who doesn't absolutely hate Bush.
And I feel like I'm in the most conservative damn college in the state.

Back at home, my friends are more liberal than most on this site.

Anyone whom isn't an adult is most likely just going to parrot what their parents preach at home. While there may be some cases in which that isn't true, for the most part it is. Once they start to move away from their parents and earn their own experiences then their opinions truly are their own (in most cases) Don't you agree?

I'm actually basing it on my own experiences and also from those around me. Even though I, and most others, had own opinions and views at that age, for the most part they were formed based on what our enviroment was like... So where as a child at age 14 might parrort some "Bush is God" crap, I wouldn't be surprised if that same kid is out protesting guys like him in five or six years.. or maybe even sooner.

Here's the numbers, with comparisons back to 1992, from Pew.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/813/gen-dems

I suspect your profile address of Atlanta may be the reason you're seeing more of a rightward tilt. My exact age is currently the most conservative cohort in the current survey, but I can look back to times and places where my peer group (not just my immediate friends, who were about 50% dem and 50% right- and Perot-leaning independents) fell out 80% democratic, even in suburbia.

....which is just as bad as being pro-Bush, if not worse.

Now there's justice for ya! :evilgrin:

We had our own "dumb a**" habits in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. There's no need to insult "our future."

YOUNG PEOPLE :yourock: = from a 49 y.o. mom ... not all of us old folk are dismissive, if not, outright *annoying." ;)

I kick ass at Halo! hahahaha

:yourock:

what an ass.

Amerika today have exactly covered ourselves in glory.

One could just as easily write an article like this (changing the parameters of the "blame" slightly) about the Baby Boomers, GenX or Y. Gawd, how I loathe these canned media pop phrases!

It is also a tired old saw that EVERY adult generation, dating back t the caves, has ALWAYS lamented the decline, intellectual or otherwise, of it's youth.

In spite of it all, the current generations alive in Amerika today, ALL of us, combined create the most disgraceful group of Americans EVER to live. We lost our 224 year old gift. No, we didn't lose it, a bunch of psychopaths STOLE it from us, and they did it as easily as taking candy from a baby. there s no doubt in my mind that the current generations of Amerikans alive today, ALL of us, together constitute a group of people with remarkable mental similarity to the generations (and their leaders) who just threw up their hands and gave up in the face of Hitler.

We are them, they are us.

This is not one generation's shame, it is ALL generations' shame.

:thumbsup:

We just started fucking voting. You assholes were the ones that gave us Reagan, Bush Sr, and now Dumnya. Your generations allowed 9/11 to happen, and allowed civil liberties to evaporate. I don't want to ever hear shit about how my generation is fucking up America, because there may not be an America when I'm our age. Fuck. I ashamed of the generations that came before me, and allowed America to be taken over by corporations and the religious right.

Did you mistakenly reply to me when you actually were trying to reply to the OP?

I said nothing which implied it was your generations' fault. We all equally share the blame. Yes even you, thoguh I will admit by virtue of your years your share of the blame is quite a bit less than the rest of us.

But what, exactly, did I say to make you assault me that way when I did nothing of the sort to you or your generation. Quite the opposite, in fact. While at least half the posts on this thread rip your generation up one side and down the other, I did no such thing.

So, what's up with that?

Other than your vicious attack of me, I happen to mostly agree with what you said.

Perhaps we could try and start over.

my bad. I meant to do a reply to the OP. mea culpa. mea culpa.

I didn't vote for any of the charlatans, dimwits and thieves you mentioned. In fact, if you recall, Silverspoon didn't even win the 2000 election. So, i think your vitriol is misplaced.
The Professor

in between generations X and Y, I can tell you with little hesitation that the bulk of my peers are idiots. The author seems to make some valid points regarding the internet. I love Wikipedia and I think it's one of the most valuable tools to come from the internet. I have a Myspace page myself, but it actually makes me wince seeing the bulk of pages from people my age and younger filled with grammar and spelling errors, overloaded with images which don't contrast with the text on their page so it's all but illegible. Also, if you've ever had the displeasure of chatting online with these people, you might get the impression that you're either typing to a developmentally disabled person, or perhaps a young man/woman who is forced to type wearing mittens. I really wanted to believe my generation would have the wherewithal to rise this country up from the funk it's been in, but now I'm really turning pessimistic.

We have some DUers here that I couldn't be more proud of that are well under 30 that could prove that.

I'd have to read the book to get more details on how he came to this conclusion.

When someone says this generation is so stupid I look at my daughter and her friends. Smart kids who are planning on attending college this fall. The only one that I thought might apply is their age...which at one time or another a lot of us were pretty dumb because of our age.

My daughter and her friends read a lot, text message, surf the internet, etc. They are very knowledgeable and soak up information like sponges.

Her and her friends...Obama supporters.

Me...Hillary.

So for me...this is no different than when older folks said my generation was the dumbest one...which might be right. Reagan was president...twice.

Those claims are nothing new; swap out the terms and people said the exact same thing in the eighties, sixties, forties, etc. Yawn.

There's been a trend in education recently to change things to accommodate the new generation. When we expect them to only live up to their own expectations, we doom them.

see what I mean?

thanks!

Applied individually or as a group.

but I work in higher education and see how schools dumb themselves down to suit their stud...er.. rather.. customers.

... and byways. :evilgrin: Those who survive will represent their cohort into the future. If you want to do your part, buy one a motorcycle ... and a flask,

I work around a batch of them varmits. They can multi-task like crazy, but try thinking something through, and and they are lost.

I was crossing the street the other day, and a woman, probably in her 20s, maybe 30, had a latte in one hand, was listening to an iPod, and had a giant overstuffed Trader Joe's bag on her shoulder. She bumped into me, pushing me out towards traffic, and never even noticed I was there! Yes, she was taller than I, but I even made a sound and she didn't hear me.

where he stops people on the street and asks them simple questions like what country is north of the U.S., then airs the dumbest answers.

He'll ask 20 people questions. He could get 19 correct answers, and will only air the stupid one.

When you grow up with virtual reality, it's hard to pay attention to what is in front of you.

And, since the schools have become crap, some of them didn't learn to read hard stuff or focus on assignments.

Anyone who says this generation is lazy and uninvolved is lazy and uninvolved.

I interact with young people all the time at my job, and am constantly amazed by their warmth, intelligence and positive energy. They strike me as infinitely smarter and more involved in society than my generation was.

It stinks.

Honestly...Grand Theft Auto is one of the reasons? Uh huh.

Kids are not dumber then they used to be. You might be able to make an argument that they are more coddled, selfish, and even anti-intellectual than the previous generation. But then, if that is true, who is to blame?

Um...the previous dumbass generation, right?

that said the same thing?

Similar accusations were leveled against Gen-X 15 years ago, only the specific tech details differed.

It was boring, stupid, lazy and incorrect then, too.

and I am also sure that cell phones and all the latest technologies are not helping kids focus on their education, but who is responsible for allowing this to happen?

Bush never should have happened and never would have happened if the hippies in the 60's did not allow them to get away with murdering JFK, MLK, RFK, Kent State, pardoning Nixon etc....what did you all think would happen when this kind of evil is not brought to account? It has only multiplied to the levels we see today. This is why I think it is so important that we expose 9/11, the war for PNAC in the middle east etc. WE owe it to the children.

As for Children not reading or valuing intelligence, where are the parents? Why don't they enforce rules on the hours spent watching TV and playing video games, why don't they not buy them all the latest gadgets, why don't they set better examples by shutting off the TV themselves and reading? Why don't the parents actively participate in politics and our national community, teach the children what it means to be a part of a larger picture?

In my day, almost everyone graduated except for a few, now it's 30% not graduating. Our politicians use to be more intelligent and have more respect. They at least pretended to not be so corrupt, but now? Something has gone terribly wrong and it is not the children's fault.

...Back in the 60s™. We sure did round up a lot of ne'er-do-wells. It was great to have the kind of genuine, effective political power we Hippies had. Not to mention the universal respect & affection in which we basked. Yessir, people would step right out of the way when we came walking down the street. Don't know how we managed to miss getting those guys MartyL describes.


"Bush ... never would have happened if the hippies in the 60's did not allow them to get away with murdering JFK, MLK, RFK, Kent State, pardoning Nixon etc...."

1) What two bodies of water are joined by the Suez Canal? The Panama Canal?

2) Properly spell and use in a sentence each of the following; There, they're and their. Where, we're, were and wear

I must say I was not surprised to find out that neither of my oldest nephews (18 1/2 & 20 years old) could answer either question correctly.

Dumb? No.

Improperly educated? Yup.

(Granted, these silly and simple questions do not constitute a scientific poll, by any stretch. But it was interesting to find out what they knew about subjects I consider to be common and rather mundane.)

I doubt they'd do any better.

You'd think that people would pick that sort of stuff up though. I mean, nearly everyone is connected to vasts amounts of information these days. Have to learn something, even if you're not trying.

They built :P

If one more of my managers asks me to program his cellphone I'll :puke:

It's a good thing you don't need a cellphone to be a productive member of society :eyes:

Now is the time to either shit or get off the pot..Prove it by doing something of worth...Go to the polls and vote....Hold them accountable....If the young can't be bothered to do that very minimal chore than there truly is no hope..

And after this generation proves it (again), where will the goal posts be moved to?

My 17-year-old reads Gore Vidal, gets kudos for writing in the college courses he's taking (part of his 'alternitive' HS program) and could care less about 'grand theft auto' and 'facebook'. He's a tad socially awkward, but it sounds like that is just as well.

I didn't do a damn thing. He just turned out this way.

He's also assured me that he will finish college and will never send me to a nursing home. Ain't I the lucky one? :)

I really don't deserve him. I was a shit as a teen.

PS He is voting in Nov. He will be 18 by then and is enthusiatic about voting for the first time. He will be voting 'D', of course.

I tend to think that your son and the rest of DU's teen members don't fall under this "study". :-)

... my oldest son is about to go off to college. He made a 2370 on his SAT, his Academic Decathlon team and his Mock Trial team made it to the state level.

The kids he hangs out with are as smart or smarter.

I'm not too worried about it.

than my generation (x) and other previous generations. This generation is coming out in droves to support the Democratic party, yet they are mocked, you know, for being young. :shrug:

Old man screams at clouds, indeed.

My gods.

He actually lists "netspeak" and IM jargon as evidence that "people under 30 can't spell."

He actually says, "If we could combine the style and imagination of MySpace with the content of Wikipedia, we might get good stuff."

Um... no. If we did that, we'd combine crap with crap, and get... wow... more crap. And it floors me that anyone, let alone a professor, thinks that Wikipedia is "factual" and "judgment-free." I hope he has a T.A. grading his classes' compositions, because I wouldn't want him offering his thoughts on anything I wrote. Wikipedia. Wow.

Also, I've seen nothing to suggest that my generation disdains reading or ridicules critical thought and good writing. The "popular bully" segment undoubtedly does, but that segment exists in every age group and always will.

This has to be a joke. Please tell me this is not a serious piece.

however, I think that simply by writing such drivel he is disproving his own point.

With all the web content, and myspace and texting and all.

Just about everyone driving to and from work in the inbound and outbound lanes of our communities have become the LARGEST GROUP OF DUMBASSES on planet earth.

Forget whether they are under or over 30- and many of them are- these are the people who need some chlorine in their gene pool. They don't LOOK where they're going, they don't care if they cut you off, they're oblivious to the rules of driving, and they certainly have forgotten everything they needed to head an approaching ambulance.

You talk about stupid. Put a cell phone in the hand of these folks or ear piece in their head hole and BEHOLD!

About the people who act like they have nowhere to go. I've never caused a wreck and used to drive for a living. To my thinking it's the slow people that cause wrecks because the people who have shit to do have to drive recklessley to get around them :P

I don't think the young generation gets enough credit, to say that they are dumb because of Grand Theft Auto IV (which is actually filled with very intelligent social commentary) or MySpace ignores all the promising signs. We have more kids going to college and getting degrees than ever before, in the past few years they have been getting more politically active, and many of them are more informed than many people in the older generations. If you are going to put down an entire generation as being dumb you better be able to do a better job at backing your case up a hell of a lot better than this guy did.

Voter turnout has been increasing ever since 2000, going up by several million each election among youth.

Whether you agree with all of them or not, youth are behind alot of the activism in the 9/11 truth movement, the attempt to deal with genocide in Sudan and the Obama campaign. Go find out who is volunteering to register voters for Obama or raising awareness of Darfur or the need for a new 9/11 investigation. Hint, it is not whiny 50 year old professors or supercilious old people on DU.

Young people are far less homophobic, superstitious (aka religious), racist and nationalistic than our parents or grandparents. We have a more global idealogy where issues like global poverty and global justice play into our decision making and political decisions. We are more likely to accept evolution and global warming than our parents. We are more likely to be concerned about global poverty. We are going to usher in a long term progressive majority.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BENZmA7azq4

I read a good deal, consider myself fairly well informed, and have never been ridiculed for independent thought. I play video games though.

So fuck him and anyone who looks like or agrees with him. There is something wrong with america's ability to comprehend science or have informed debates, but I blame the media and all generations rather than just Generation Y. Most of us are grossly misinformed about basic facts of how the world works or politics. I don't think it is just the youth who have this problem.

I'm at the upper limit of the "Millenials" that this book seems to be about. Yes we have our share of morons, but so does every generation. At least politically we're a hell of a lot smarter than the other generations.

And I think that a lot of people who are around Millenials are mistaking tact for stupidity. You see when you know that someone doesn't know something you don't just randomly bring it up because you might insult them. I don't talk to old folks about the latest trends in "x"... I'm likely to be treated to a defensive glance and some excruciatingly boring speech about how "We still don't know much about the "x"... and besides I'm old enough to know that you can't really know anything... we used to think that socialism was good for example." :eyes: I just don't bother most of the time. It always insults older folks to meet a younger person that is more intelligent and better educated. They get insulting and things get unpleasant and uncomfortable.

Let me put this another way: To learn what I know I had to learn what you know and then surpass it. Science and technology continue to advance because every generation knows more than the previous one. And the world continues to go to shit because the older generations continue to run it into the ground.

And let me tell you something: I wouldn't change my generation for anything.

ALTHOUGH...... being able to come of age in a country and a planet that the previous generations didn't fuck up with their greed and idiocy would have been kind of nice.

Of course being less racist and whatnot than the other generations is pretty nice too.

When is this "most progressive generation ever" going to get off its collective ass (or put down the ipods) and protest this ridiculous war?

thanks in large part to what Randi Rhodes calls "No Child's Behind Left".

edit: PSA: Always check spelling in headers of education posts!

Really, it's simply not possible

and none of those applies to me.

While I applaud this author's apparent attempt to point out the continual dumbing down of American culture, I don't think this is particularly a youth problem.

Also, this article borders on offensive; if you substituted "black" or "women" or any other group for "under 30", it would be considered an outrageous smear. Not that I don't think it makes some good points, I'm just sayin'...

are those old farts who are not nearly as connected to outside sources as the young whipper-snappers like myself.

:eyes:

...except when compared to all previous generations.

I go out of my way to avoid dealing with the HR department where I work because these girls seem to think they are recruiting for a party clique and looking for husbands as opposed to hiring for an international lawfirm.

And when I do cut them out of the loop and do my own hiring I can expect unreadable resumes from OC_pimpdaddy69 and sexysurfergirlpornstar.

I know several very intelligent, well-read, inquisitive, creative young people. This author is suffering from recto-cranial implantation.

And this isn't an attack on the OP, it's a criticism of the ridiculous article:

I went to a young voters forum at the California Democratic Convention a month or so ago and they would strongly disagree as well. I took notes and I wish I had them with me, but the new generation of voters (and those who will be voting soon) are the most liberal generation in history. They are the most electronically savvy and they are BY FAR the most tolerant.

Are there exceptions? Of course. But there certainly are a lot of dumbfucks who are old as well. After all, the generation attacked in the OP didn't bring us Reagan, Bush I or Bush II did they? But they are bringing us the highest voter turnouts in decades (or ever, in some cases) this year...and hardly any of them voted for a Republican.

The problem with this article is that the author seems to be assuming that if kids don't learn the same way that kids learned decades ago, they're stupid. That's ridiculous. Did you learn the same way your grandparents learned? God, I hope not. Do you have different talents? Areas where you are stronger/more intelligent? I'm guessing so.

Every generation authors a piece like this one. Don't think your generation was called "the dumbest of all times"? I bet you're wrong. Really, the problem is that people don't like what they don't understand. That newfangled technology is going to be the death of us, you know. :eyes:

The generation that is more supportive of gay marriage than their parents. The generation that actually can and does know how to use all those digital gadgets that the author is lamenting, whereas many people his age couldn't tell you an iphone from a Nintendo Wii. The generation that has grown up with 9-11, spilled blood in Iraq and Afghanistan thanks to the imbecilic president that their parents elected,, struggled with violence in its schools, raised by single parents, and faced with an uncertain future because the leadership their parents have elected has failed them utterly.

Yeah, they all suck. Not a redeeming quality in the whole rotten lot of them. And it's all their fault. :sarcasm:

I tend to think my generation is far more better informed and interested in the world than previous generations (I'm 25) Perhaps the people I assoicate with are not 'normal', but I don't think that's the case. If anything, it seems as if being well read, smart and dare I say 'nerdy', is now considered being a good thing.

This guy is spouting a crock of shit. I'm glad I didn't go to Emory, if this asshat might have been one of my professors -- good luck passing a class with someone who hates his students. Yeah, there are idiots in this generation. But there are idiots in every generation. (I dumped my last ex because I'd overestimated her intelligence -- among other reasons.)

Hell, if anything, I think the intelligent folks among us are lucky to turn out as reasonably well-informed as we have, after nearly 30 years of Republican budget cuts to our educational systems. For example, the state college I'm at won't let students take directed reading courses without having a professor to work with them...and all the professors are so thoroughly swamped with classes and the need to publish that you can't get one to work with you.

I don't claim to be brilliant, but I'm certainly not stupid.

I will agree with him on IM, though. There's a reason I don't use it much...

Edit: And most of my disposable income goes to books. I'm reasonably well-read -- although I do think a lot of "classics" (and I'm not referring to Greek and Roman works, but to the more modern literature usually found in high schools and low-level undergrad courses) don't deserve the name, and are merely considered classics because all the English profs who had to suffer through them in school inflicted them on their students in turn...and the cycle went on and on and on. My idea of classic literature runs more to Bierce, Wilde, Twain, Hemingway...maybe Hawthorne and some of Dickens' works, but certainly not, say, Austen.

go fuck yourself


just do it

My teenage daughters and their friends and their generation give me hope. My generation has given the world BushCo.

As far as Facebook and ITunes and the like -- it's all wonderful stuff and if we would have had it at their age we'd be into it too.

Reading is reading -- whether from downloaded pages on the computer of paper pages in a book, and this generation coming up is SO much smarter than us, so much less prejudiced, more concerned and kinder, I would even say less into drugs and smoking and other stupid things we used to do.

Calling BS on this whole generation superiority thing!!

Just like every generation before them, many of these "liberal" young people will become considerably more conservative as they age and adopt the "I got mine" mentality (see, for example, the Baby Boomers.)

What concerns me is how conservative (not necessarily w/r/t politics,) these young people are starting out. This is reflected in the utter anemia of their music and popular culture.

Sheesh--talk about generalizing....

I'm also currently writing my dissertation.

Contrary to popular belief, it is in fact possible to enjoy oneself occasionally AND be a caring, productive, intelligent citizen who knows what is going on in the world around them. Sometimes even in the same day! (shocking, but true...)

Thanks. :-)

Hmph.

Not that I make a habit of out distrusting anyone, the article in the OP seemed to me to simply be a tongue-in-cheek codification of pop cynicism-- the ever popular and oh-so trendy philosophy we wear on t-shirts, celebrate in Top 40 music, and blog about with so much righteous indignation.

The only difference I see is that it's targeted at the under thirty crowd rather than the over thirty crowd. Six of one, half a dozen of the other...

As for me, I keep my cynicism and distrust of people in the bottom drawer of my desk, along with a year old roll of Cert's, pens with no ink left, and wires to stuff I don't own.

I will make the argument that the 00's have been relaitvely awful in terms of popular culture, but this generalization kind of sucks.


I didn't like being pegged as a Gen-X "slacker," and I don't like it for these kids, either.

edit- I get it now. The article was tongue-in-cheek. But i stand by what i wrote.

All i have to say is "Screw You".

Yep, we are easy on them... and yep my niece spends way, and I mean this WAAAAYYYYYY too much time IM and Chatting... and her parents have no clue what their little angel is doing on-line, and boy there was quite the production when I said, NO, you cannot use my computer to chat with your friends using that security sink called Microsoft. Nope it ain't gonna happen... if you are you will use AOL... since it is a little safer... oy the production. You;'d think I was killing the kid... and she has not forgiven me for that...

So we did on the phone... or rather most of my peers did.

And other generations used other methods

BUT... if they are in fact the dumbest generation... professor we are all guilty for it.

It is WE who as a society encouraged this.

On the other hand... brains have not fully matured yet... they will not do that until these "kids" are anywhere from 23 to 25 and until then things that we adults rag them over... like oh work ethic and readying, will finally make sense or they will have to do it anyway...

Hey, we were ragged too, for other reasons.

But decreasing literacy is a problem across ALL generations... as well as this pride of not knowing anything.

My generation was oh so self centered... doncha you know?

It is called the Flynn Effect. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect>

Every 10 years collective IQs go up by about 3 points. (But it may be starting to top out.)

So, if you are an average IQ 60 year old, you are low-normal for a 20 year old. (Think special education classes. You would probably be considered learning diabled if you were in school today.) A 90 IQ 60 year old would be considered a retarded 20 year old.

This is the IQ distribution curve. Plot where you would be when you were tested. Then subtract 3 IQ for every decade you are over 20. Then plot how smart you are for a 20 year old. Depressing for us older folks, but true nonetheless.