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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 302.231
EAN: 9781585426393
ISBN: 1585426393
Label: Tarcher
Manufacturer: Tarcher
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: May 15, 2008
Publisher: Tarcher
Sales Rank: 6232
Studio: Tarcher
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
This shocking, lively exposure of the intellectual vacuity of today’s 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 “information superhighway” and “knowledge economy” 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 didn’t 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 Bauerline presents 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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "A Generation Whose Minds Plateau at Age 18"
The dumbing-down of America continues at an astounding pace and an Emory University English professor believes that he knows why it is happening. Mark Bauerlein has written a book that will likely irritate as many people as there will be people who will praise it for its insights, starting with the very title of the book: "The Dumbest Generation - How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future." Labeling any generation "the dumbest generation" is guaranteed to draw the wrath of most of those falling into that age group. Unfortunately for them, Bauerlein builds a strong case that the title of his book is entirely accurate.
But make no mistake. Bauerlein is not calling this generation stupid; he is saying that their ignorance is largely the result of the technology they have grown up with, technology that keeps them tied to their peers practically 24 hours a day, thus ensuring that they can completely insulate themselves from the rest of the world and whatever responsibilities and challenges they might be asked to face. Their worlds are so local and so superficial that they can completely cut off circumstances beyond their immediate circle of friends. If the subject does not involve "friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms (and) Facebook," they are not much interested.
According to Bauerlein, and the numerous studies he cites throughout "The Dumbest Generation," the main culprit in this sad story is the computer, the very tool that ... Read More
Rating: - The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age...
This book is a compilation of statistical information; it is a good, but slower read due to this. The information, however, is quite an eye-opener. We should take the ideology of this book to heart. This book would be a great reference for college students, education majors, and for parents.
Rating: - I am part of the so-called "dumbest generation" and I liked the book
As said above, I am part of the generation that Bauerlein calls "the dumbest." I was born in 1984 and had the good luck to be raised by parents who always encouraged intellectual curiosity. I also went to some pretty decent public primary and secondary schools. But many people haven't shared my good fortune.
Some of the reviews here exemplify the kind of mentality that Bauerlein discusses in his book: kids who are apparently convinced that any knowledge that they already have, regardless of how superficial or paltry it might be, is perfectly sufficient; people who are not only ignorant, but are aware of their own ignorance and consider it no obstacle to voicing whatever uninformed opinion bubbles up in their heads, like the guy who said he hadn't read the book and had no intention of doing so.
That they have this attitude is not entirely their fault, since many of them attended schools where climbing out of the ignorance that all of us are born into was considered optional, lack of effort was no bar to moving up through the grades, and academic rigor was thought of as a cruel imposition on their innocent lives of play or perhaps (horrors) "elitist." Their peer environment was little help, as it punished those with a taste for academic work by calling them "nerds" or simply ignoring them.
The "peer environment" theme is probably the strongest point in the book -- that kids are spending more time with each other, reinforcing the idea that the only thing that matters ... Read More
Rating: - Good Idea, but...
The premise for the book is fascinating but the methodology was one long tie in of statistics, quotes and sources. I felt like I was reading someone's masters thesis which some may desire, but I was hoping for an insightful AND readable book.
Rating: - Good Explanation of Problem But Wrong Cause
I'm a member of Generation X, and most of the items Dr. Bauerlein blames for the ignorance of Generation Y were not in widespread use when I was a teen. We didn't have the Internet, cell phones, iPods, or sophisticated video game systems, and my town did not even get wired for cable until my freshman year of high school. Yet we did not spend our leisure time in the type of intellectual pursuits that Dr. Bauerlein imagines have been displaced by these modern items. Instead of literature, philosophy, high culture, political activism, or discussing current events we wasted our time on mindless drivel. We hung out at the mall or roller skating rink, gossiped on landlines, watched network soap operas, listened to pop music on the radio or our Walkman, flipped through "Tiger Beat" and other teen magazines, played video games on our Nintendos or Segas, and so on. And I really don't think my parents' generation was all that much different as teens, although the technology was obviously more primitive.
So if teens have been wasting their leisure time on mindless pursuits for decades, why then is Gen Y so ignorant compared to previous generations? Dr. Bauerlein pretty much lets the schools off the hook in "The Dumbest Generation" but I believe that the "dumbing down" of the curriculum is the root cause. Today's teens were raised in the era of the "self esteem" fad, "whole language", "constructivist math" (aka fuzzy math), and all sorts of politically correct multiculturalism nonsense. Little wonder then ... Read More
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