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The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)
by: Mark Bauerlein

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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: 11443
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: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- All it took was one sentence for me to close this book
Although this book was interesting reading, when I read the suggestion by the author that kids would be more educated if they listened to Rush Limbaugh, the author's credibility went straight out the window and I closed the book. What a crock! Like the world needs any more Ditto-heads.

Rating:

- Do all Millennials go to heaven?
I strongly agree with the outlines of Mark Bauerlein's thesis in "The Dumbest Generation," but I found his presentation of it somewhat numbing over the first half or so of the book due to a heavy emphasis on reporting survey results. It's key to proving his argument really does apply to an entire generation and is not -- like the opposite theory of a uniquely gifted and hard-working cohort he shoots down in the Introduction -- a generalization from a few exceptional examples. Nonetheless, it didn't make for very compelling reading. Appalling, yes, and deeply discouraging. I was ready to give this book three stars at best.

My opinion began to come around in the fifth chapter, "The Betrayal of the Mentors," and by the final chapter the author really hit his stride and was drawing out the vital implications of the picture he painted in the earlier chapters. It would be easy, taking the last chapter or two ... Read More

Rating:

- Overstated
This book's title makes a ludicrous sweeping generalization, which is contrary to numerous scientific studies of the flynn effect. It warrants a bad review to balance the self-selected sample of other reviewers. I take personal offense at the title of this book.

Rating:

- Infuriatingly Mean-Spirited and Obviously Incorrect
I read this book last summer and I thought about it from time to time during the election season. I found the book extremely infuriating. I read with post-it notes next to me and my copy has little slips of paper with comments and questions sticking out of it. Why? Becuase it is filled with completely unsubstantiated assertions about the stupidity of today's young people due to the Internet and related technologies. Bauerlein attempts to use the tools of social scientists and he fails miserably. He's an English professor and should stick to literary analysis. He cites statistics about the ignorance of young people and then tries to connect this ignorance to things like Facebook and cell phones. As one reviewer pointed out, all kids find ways to procrastinate and connect with their friends. I did the same thing in the '60's. We hung out at the beach, watched huge quantities of schlock TV, listened to loud music, ... Read More

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