During the video segment with Mark Bauerlein I found myself caught between his statements. I believe he had the right idea in saying that anyone under 30 years old is the “dumbest generation”, however I do not feel that he had a sufficient amount of information to back up his points. I also think he should consider how knowledgeable people 30 and over are. I do believe that a lot of individuals rely heavily on technology and do not appreciate nature anymore, as expressed in “Culture Jam”, but that does not necessarily mean we are “dumb”. I personally still engage with nature often but at the same time I use my cell phone and the internet for many things. I think his reasoning on why we are the dumbest generation needs some work. From what I understood he believes that we are “dumb” because we do not recognize titles of books or the “classics”, but I have to wonder if he knows other areas of study instead of his own. I am a psychology major and I would like to see if he knows who Freud is and his studies, and all of the other important psychologists who discovered “why we act the way we do”. Obviously this is very important to know but if it is not someone’s “cup of tea” then we particularly do not pay attention to those details. I am not saying it is or is not important to know these things but who is he to say what makes us smart?
I also believe that it is necessary for the younger generations to have mentors to influence this information. I mean, if we do not know what is out there, there is only so much we can research to find out. In all honesty if my grandparents would not have told me stories and directed me towards older books and movies I probably would not have known a lot of the questions Leno was asking. Who is our influence? This is why we go to college, to seek more education and to be guided in a direction that will make us more well-rounded individuals. And yes, as expressed in “Culture Jam” people have become lazy with all of the available technology, but not everyone. Technology has enhanced our opportunities to learn, if you use it in that way. In almost all of my psychology classes we are required at some point to research a study online. We were taught to only use the PsyArticles link through the library system to enrich our understanding of the topic and add additional thoughts of the readings. That is using technology in a useful manner, but not everyone was taught this, just like not everyone was taught or encouraged to read “Moby Dick” for example. I feel that he did not expand his reasoning enough to be considered believable, but I do think he has the right idea. I wouldn’t necessarily call people “dumb” but I do think we have become lazy and completely reliable on technology.
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12 years ago
I agree that he had to the right idea. I kind of understand what he was trying to say but I do think he went about it the wrong way. Knowing classic literature is not the key to deciding a person's intelligence, or an entire generation for that matter. I'm sure there are people in this generation that know all of the books mentioned and at the same time, there are people in his generation who do not. I do not think it is fair to call us dumb for using the technology we have because it is here. The only reason his generation is not like this is because they did not have the same technology at the time. I do agree that people have become to reliable on technology but I do not think anything is wrong with that if it is used for good, however it has made us lazy which I think is getting out of hand.
ReplyDeleteYeah I feel the same in a way. He doesn't have enough to back it up. I thought it was interesting what you said about our influences. You're right. We need people to show and teach us about older things like classics, but if no ones does how is that our fault? We need to have elders teach us these things. People are reliable on technology but that is what our world has come to. There is nothing wrong with changing and that is what we have done. He can't really judge us based on his generation because things have changed so much.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I understand that he was trying to say we have been so socially caught up, and so literately inept that we have been coined the dumbest generation, however, he certainly did not have enough information to back up his statements. However, he does not take into the consideration that what we learn is based upon what we are taught by previous generations. Our methods have changed much from his, and the next generation's will change much from ours, so it's impossible to call anyone the dumbest generation when there is obviously so much difference between eacy.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely! We have the information and technology to be the smartest generation, but I think we lack the common sense of knowing how to use it! And with your point about what we know, is perfect! We all like and engage our selves in the things that we find interesting and what I find interesting maybe be totally different compared to anyone else, so does that mean that I am dumb, or the other person is dumb? Which I think is the point that he is making! Plus, a lot of this technology was given to us from prior generations, which is not really our fault, so why are we getting the short end of the stick? Many questions that he needs to re-look at!
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