The Dumbest Generation PowerPoint

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future By Brittany Pitkin

Book Information • Author: Mark Bauerlein • Published in 2009 • Bauerlein makes conclusions about Generation Y

Generation Y • • • •

Also known as the Millennials Born in 1984-2002 Experienced the Digital Revolution Display the outcomes of the Digital age

Generation Y is Ignorant • Only focus on superficial interactions • Only care about the issues facing themselves • Direct realities: • Social media, cars, work, music, television and friends

• Proud of ignorance • Matter of “social survival”

• Internet provides endless amounts of knowledge, but Generation Y chooses not to use it

Digital Revolution Hinders Intelligence • Test scores such as the NAEP, NSSE, ATUS and SPPA show lower test scores from Generation Y compared to their predecessors • Jakob Nielsen’s study proved that reading habits have changed • Only 16% of internet users read as if they were reading a book • Users scan pages in an F shape • “The mind online drifts towards simplicity, familiarity and visibility. It wants the greatest amount of content for the least amount of work” – Bauerlein • Starting to be true about the mind offline

• Teens are choosing to read less and less, and Bauerlein believes it is making their intelligence decrease

So why do we have higher IQ scores? • The Flynn Effect: “IQ tests do not measure intelligence but rather correlate with a weak causal link to intelligence. The increase is actually an increase in abstract problem solving rather than intelligence” • The Digital Revolution increased Spatial Reasoning, but no matter how long the average young person spends online, his vocabulary will never expand, his analytic talents will not develop, his memory won’t improve and his knowledge will not proceed

Who else is to blame? • The mentors, knowledge workers and other members of the older generation • Not as much strong guidance • Not as helpful when it comes to making teenagers mature • The combination of technology and abdicating mentors has created a youth who is more narcissistic than ever before and much less intelligent

America’s Future • America will not be able to produce enough mature adults and intellectuals to replace the old ones needed to compete on a world playing field • In a few years, 90% of all scientists and engineers in the world will reside in Asia • Americans intelligence will keep dropping in rank when compared to other countries around the world

The Digital Revolution did not open doors to new worlds and cultures; it closed the doors to maturity and good classroom habits because it allowed the Millennials to decide what they want, and when they want it, at the touch of a button

Relation to CS408 • Discusses the ramifications of the Digital Age • Further illustrates the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet

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