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Published August 27, 2008 07:16 pm - While researching teen culture I often stumble upon books, blogs and magazine articles that claim that today’s young people are an illiterate generation of tech junkies who squander their time and mental ability text-messaging, watching MTV and playing video games. Mat Anderson: Is this 'The Dumbest Generation'? While researching teen culture I often stumble upon books, blogs and magazine articles that claim that today’s young people are an illiterate generation of tech junkies who squander their time and mental ability text-messaging, watching MTV and playing video games.
While there seems to be a large body of evidence to back this up, I still have a hard time believing that my generation is “The Dumbest Generation.” However, Mark Bauerlein, of Emory College, thinks we’re in some serious trouble and he wrote a book about it called “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.” Those who share Bauerlein’s view contend that the decline in adult literacy over the years and the growing lack of geographic, historic and literary knowledge of the current generation are all evidence that today’s teens are less intelligent than previous generations. This has people worried because if this is the case, the consequences will be catastrophic. In a few short years, today’s uneducated young people will become intellectually deficient adults who control every corporation, government and educational institution in the world. While I find it disturbing that in 2001, 52 percent of my peers identified Germany, Japan or Italy, and not the Soviet Union, as America’s World War II ally, I don’t think that today’s teens are any less intelligent than previous generations. If anything, they are actually more intelligent as is evidenced by the fact that IQ scores worldwide have continued to rise since the 1930s. What I do worry about, however, is how today’s young people acquire and retain knowledge. Today’s teens have never known a world without the Internet. They’ve grown up knowing that whatever piece of information they desire is a Google search away. This information can quickly be referenced and then discarded. Because of this, many young people don’t see the need to memorize things like state capitals or important dates in history. Unfortunately, the convenience provided by technology may be harmful in the long run. This is because, in many ways, the knowledge that we retain about history, literature and other useful subjects can serve as a toolkit that we utilize to form opinions and solve problems throughout life. Without those tools, what is informing the choices of today’s youth? I think this was George Santayana’s worry when he wrote that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The truth is that it’s only natural to worry about the future of the next generation, and the same people who warn of how intellectually lacking today’s teens are were once teenagers that someone was warning other adults about. I believe this cycle continues because every new generation develops differently than the one before it and, as a result, the new generation is misunderstood. Today’s teens are being derided because some of them can’t name the year Columbus discovered America, but no one is praising them for being able to do just about anything on a computer in half the time as most adults. The young people who are returning to schools this fall are still in the process of growing up, and it is important for parents and educators alike to realize that they are still in the process of learning. And in the end, this generation will likely turn out just fine. To contribute to this process, adults should encourage teens to seek out knowledge and to work to make learning and retaining knowledge enjoyable for teens. At the same time, it’s important to know that this is a different world than the one previous generations grew up in and the information and skills valued today may be different as well. Mat Anderson is the staff writer and research specialist at The Bridge in Joplin. For more information visit futureparadigm.org. 
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