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Summary
Summary
This shocking, lively exposure of the intellectual vacuity of todayas 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 ainformation superhighwaya and aknowledge economya 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 didnat 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 Bauerlinepresents 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.
Author Notes
Mark Bauerlein lives in Atlanta and teaches at Emory University.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (May) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Booklist Review
It's an irony so commonplace it's become almost trite: despite the information superhighway, despite a world of knowledge at their fingertips, the younger generation today is less informed, less literate, and more self-absorbed than any that has preceded it. But why? According to the author, an English professor at Emory University, there are plenty of reasons. The immediacy and intimacy of social-networking sites have focused young people's Internet use on themselves and their friends. The material they're studying in school (such as the Civil War or The Great Gatsby) seems boring because it isn't happening right this second and isn't about them. They're using the Internet not as a learning tool but as a communications tool: instant messaging, e-mail, chat, blogs. And the language of Internet communication, with its peculiar spelling, grammar, and punctuation, actually encourages illiteracy by making it socially acceptable. It wouldn't be going too far to call this book the Why Johnny Can't Read for the digital age. Some will disagree vehemently; others will nod sagely, muttering that they knew it all along.--Pitt, David Copyright 2008 Booklist
Choice Review
English professor Bauerlein (Emory) laments the decline of reading and knowledge that accompanies the emergent digital universe. The current generation accesses a wealth of information, but only manages to be interested in itself in a system of protracted adolescent narcissism. Web utopists will dismiss this as another lament by an irrelevant academic who does not recognize the skill set required to navigate the media-rich environments of contemporary culture. Bauerlein variously blames Internet and communications technology, the emergence and validation of youth culture, and the self-esteem movement in psychology and pedagogy. However, youth in other nations are as plugged in as Americans, so what produces the lacunae of political engagement and knowledge? Similarly, not all youth have abdicated the larger traditions of literacy, ambition, engagement, and culture that the author argues are necessary to sustain US democracy. What besides class differentiates? To the extent that the dumbing down of much of US culture is a necessary means to managing competition and social stratification, and generates profit, Bauerlein's lament is real, if misdirected. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. J. L. Croissant University of Arizona
Library Journal Review
These two thoughtful, well-written books both decry the sorry state of literacy in this country and its myriad implications. Bauerlein (English, Emory Univ.), former director of research and analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, is no stranger to the evidence of the decline of reading in America and its cultural consequences in our society. He focuses on the "new attitude, this brazen disregard ofbooks and reading" among young people. Journalist Jackson is more inclusive in her devastating account of how all of us--not just students--have lost the capacity to pay sustained attention to anything longer than a PowerPoint presentation, claiming that she sees "stunning similarities between past dark ages and our own era." Much of Bauerlein's book is reminiscent of Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, and readers will probably take similar issue with some of Bauerlein's elitist pretensions (e.g., that kids read Harry Potter because other kids read it, not because they like it). These are well-informed and well-argued books, however, and both are highly recommended for all libraries.--Ellen Gilbert, Princeton, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| 1 Knowledge Deficits | p. 11 |
| 2 The New Bibliophobes | p. 39 |
| 3 Screen Time | p. 71 |
| 4 Online Learning and Non-Learning | p. 113 |
| 5 The Betrayal of the Mentors | p. 163 |
| 6 No More Culture Warriors | p. 205 |
| Bibliography | p. 237 |
| Index | p. 255 |
