I'm reading these articles, and I'm thinking, "Huh? I'm not dumber, I'm SMARTER! I can look up facts in the palm of my hand! I can instantly find the definition to any word in any language!"
Two of Boston.com's article's "8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation" reasons are that people under 30 today "don't read books" and "can't spell." I disagree. I still constantly read books. I'm an excellent speller. I think that Boston.com is focusing too narrowly on certain groups and projecting that onto all people under 30.
Maybe I don't know many teens anymore and maybe these kids are in far worse shape than me. I did actually have to write papers by hand (gasp!) at one point in my schooling after all. Maybe school aged kids today have never had to.
So sure, it's conceivable that younger people (say, under 18 not under 30) could be getting dumber. But what would I know? I only read that online.
8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation boston.com
Nobel Laureate Says the Internet Makes Us Dumb, We Say: Meh by Duncan Riley
Although I firmly agree we're not getting dumber because of the Internet, I do think our attention span is being affected negatively. There's just so much online to look at that it may affect focus. It may not be as bad for us since the web was emerging when were growing up, but I think the younger generation will feel its impact more greatly.
ReplyDeletePalm of your hand - you mean your iphone? Yes I'm jealous of your iphone.
ReplyDeleteI also took offense to those articles. And if younger kids today are exactly like what those articles are saying, then we need to find solutions to defer that from continuing.
Dude, your blog hates me, I've tried to post a comment 3 times, now you just get this....if I can actually post it.
ReplyDelete@Olivia, yes the beloved iphone!
ReplyDelete@Danielle, Well I got this one! What happened all the other times?
i agree with pete on the whole attention span thing. i'm also an iphone addict but i've got a great base of information in my brain, too. today's kids aren't absorbing as much because they know they can turn to the internet to look up quick facts. it's an interesting social shift!
ReplyDelete