Adults are so busy imagining the ways that technology can improve classroom learning or improve the public debate that they've blinded themselves to the collective dumbing down that is actually taking place. The kids are using their technological advantage to immerse themselves in a trivial, solipsistic, distracting online world at the expense of more enriching activities – like opening a book or writing complete sentences. - From David Robinson's review of The Dumbest Generation
The Wall Street Journal features a review of Mark Bauerlein's book The Dumbest Generation. I have not seen this title but based on this review it will be added to my acquisition list.
Is all that time on computer surfing the net, playing video games, watching YouTube and participating in MySpace good or bad? Does it make a difference?
In "The Dumbest Generation," Bauerlein argues that cultural and technological forces, far from opening up an exciting new world of learning and thinking, have conspired to create a level of public ignorance so high as to threaten our democracy.
David Robinson is associate director of Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.
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