Dumb Generation?

I don’t think Bauerlein’s view of our generation is accurate. He thinks that we are lazy and ignorant, and we might be, in the sense that we don’t want to learn about things that we don’t care for. However I do not think that we are that lazy. Many of us go to school, which is like a full time job in itself, and then we have regular jobs on top of that. As students we have busy lives, so what doesn’t he understand about that? I think he was just making a generalized statement about our generation because I know plenty of determined, hard-working kids. In Bauerlein’s interview, he said that kids spend less than an hour studying each week. I find that hard to believe because if that were true then a lot more people would not make it through college. I study a lot in order to do well. I do not think that our generation is dumb in any way. We are more advanced with technology and we know how to use it and take advantage of it. I think Bauerlein’s just jealous that he didn’t get to grow up in our generation where it is easier to access information, rather than look up facts in the encyclopedia all day long. And I’m sure that the next generations after our’s will continue to advance and advance and be considered even more dumb than we are. As for Miss South Carolina, she’s just an idiot and should have paid more attention in history class, but in our society if your pretty, you don’t need brains. 

Bauerlein also condones our use of social networking. Now I agree with him somewhat about Facebook. I think that some people’s Facebook/social networking usage is ridiculous. You should be able to control the amount of time that you spend on these sites. I also question what is so addicting about knowing what is going on in other people’s lives? It seems like we can’t wait to log into Facebook so that we can find out what is going on, and what everyone is doing. But why do we even care? Why are we so nosey? We should only be worried about our own business and stay out of everyone else's. I always wonder why I can’t go more than a day without logging onto Facebook, even though when I get on I’m only on for like 10 minutes at a time or else I get bored. I think that it is just a different day in age because Bauerlein probably went to dances and rollerblading as social events. We don’t do that now, we just get on the internet instead. I think as time goes on the opinion on what knowledge is important changes. In the article it said that IQ scores have been increasing. We have been getting smarter but in a different way. Our generation has a different “genre” of knowledge compared to past generations.

Facebook Addiction article: http://socialtimes.com/facebook-addiction-disorder-the-6-symptoms-of-f-a-d_b60403