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$24.95

Textbook Details

  • ISBN:
    1585426393
  • ISBN-13:
    9781585426393
  • PUB. DATE:
    May 2008
  • PUBLISHER:
    Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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

$24.95 List Price

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Not necessarily the dumbest, but certainly one that doesn't seem to readby Virginian_by_Birth

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The hyperbole of the title it eyecatching; however, I take issue with the generation's being labeled the dumbest. The major thesis, it seems to me, is that the current generation of young people (my own children's age) is too much wired into instantaneous communication and only considers the immediate to be relevant.

I would submit that while the first part of the thesis is correct, the latter...

One of the worst books I ever readby Anonymous

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As a member of this so called, "Dumbest Generation," I am offended by this book, and have every right to be. Bauerlein makes no solutions as to how to fix this problem he calls the Digital Age. It's just a bunch of statistics that go on and on for pages. The statistics are doing all of the talking. Bauerlein fails to mention his take on each statistic. I understand that he thinks my generation will...

A good topic focus but overly statistical!by Anonymous

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Generally was a good read. But I soon found myself skimming over the large amount of statistical data that took away from the larger theme of the emergent social problem with our "millinials". His point was not as compelling as it could have been given the subject and our current poor state of affairs in the education arena.
Having read another author on the subject just prior to this book, it...


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The Dumbest Generation

Product Details

  • Pub. Date: May 2008
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

Synopsis

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.

Publishers Weekly

From the title forward, Emory University English professor Bauerlein's curmudgeonly screed lets the generalizations run wild. Dismissing the under-30 crowd as "drowning in their own ignorance and aliteracy," Bauerlein repeatedly laments how "teens and 20-year olds love their blogs and games, and they carry the iPod around like a security blanket." Rather than descend into a "maelstrom of youth amusements" (i.e., "rapping comments into a blog"), Bauerlein would have youngsters delve into the great books. (Nip ignorance in the bud, he reasons, because once adulthood sets in, "It's too late to read Dante and Milton.") Bauerlein's considerable research is obvious, but has he ever read a well-edited blog or interviewed an intellectually curious and tech-savvy student? Instead, he writes in a black-and-white myopia that comes close to self-parody; indeed, if it's true that "Twixters 22-to-30-year-olds don't read, tour museums, travel, follow politics, or listen to any music but pop and rap, much less...lay out a personal reading list," one can't help but wonder why Bauerlein, as an educator, doesn't take some responsibility.
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Biography

Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University and has worked as a director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversaw studies about culture and American life.