The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future(Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30),   ISBN:B002PJ4L0Y

Customer Rating: 

Parents should read this book. Just how does this digital age affect not only our children, but us as well? Great eye-opener.

Customer Rating: 

The thesis of this book is that technology has allowed our younger people to cocoon themselves into a private Idaho of their friends, peers and lovers. Worse yet, their elders have eagerly allowed them to cocoon themselves, thinking that they would instead imbibe themselves into the greater world that they see put out on the internet.

While gripping and horrific (although it does take a bit of time to get into due to the academic tendencies in the book), the final pages seem to lead to a more intriguing thesis: That institutionalized self-learning can only go so far.

A man whose mentioned in the last chapter talks about how the students in his University in New York segregated themselves into groups based on their intellectual views. Amongst the quotes you read "Of course the teachers were fuddy-duddies who knew nothing we wanted to know." The book goes on to talk about the sort of stuff needed to be read to keep up with the group.

So now we get the imagined followup: The students of the forties, having educated themselves from a higher level, see the sixties as the students following their example. Those students get away with the rejection of reading, become teachers and see the students of today following their lead via the internet. However, we have a decay from the forties (well-read and constantly keeping up) to the sixties (reading only what they feel they need, rejecting the rest) to the nineties (only reading what their peers are saying to each other). In short, what we see and what's happening are two different things, to the nation's regret.

But for what it is (a depiction of the carnage over what's happened since the creation of the internet and world wide web) it is a good and worthy book to read.

Customer Rating: 

Short paragraphed reviews are always easy to skim through and read, so that's the route I'm going to go =]

In the preface, the author states that, "many people sympathetic to youth pressures may class the chapters to follow as yet another curmudgeonly riff." Unfortunately, that's a 10-4 here pal; and I think that the majority of GenX will end up alongside me. Despite the (seemingly infinite) compilation of facts to back his argument, it's the guy's pitch I found to be... well, useless?

Essentially, the book is written too well. Wtf? Yep, I said it. Unless the author's only aim was to affirm the grandiosity of those that agree with the title, (myself a guilty party..), he shouldn't have written it utilizing phrases like the one I just did: "...affirm the grandiosity..." lol.

I work with 17/18 year-olds daily, and just last week, not 1 out of a group of 30 could define "complacency". There weren't even any close guesses. I'm willing to bet that "grandiosity" wouldn't be much different. Want to know why "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" sold a gazillion copies? Cause anyone can tear through that book like it was a casual conversation.

Almost certainly, if you have any interest in this book, you either agree with, or empathize with the title statement. Hell, I know it's why I read it. But after reading it, I just don't think that books like this are going to help the debatable predicament of Generation Y. Quite honestly, I don't know what will help. Kids don't go outside anymore. There are no more toys, just video games. I get text messages like crazy, but when I call, no one answers, lol.... Bottom line is - I may not know the answers, but I'm pretty certain that looking upon GenY as dumb, and validating my views with books like this, is not going to make things better.

In all fairness though, this is not a bad book. It's well written & comprehensive, with an extensive bibliography to boot. As another reviewer mentioned, you have to make it over two-thirds through to start hearing some 'answers', but at least they're there. Otherwise, it would have certainly been a one-star review. I simply think the problem here is appeal. I want to ask the author -

"Who exactly is it you're trying to reach?"
"You are aware that kids aren't reading this right?"
"For that matter, you do realize that GenY, i.e. 'those that need our help', will surely reject any 'help' whatsoever, based on a premise, such as that of this book?"

Frankly speaking, since the author is a baby-boomer, I'm not so sure that he does...

Customer Rating: 

This book should be read by the people who it is written about. Any society's greatest asset is its youth and the current generation is being inadvertantly obliterated without knowing it due to the availability of time wasting digital gadgets. There is too much distraction.

Soon people will be so near-sighted from watching shows and doing other crap on tiny iPod and iPhone screens as well as video games that all will be wearing optical assistance.

I am about to purchace an iPhone at age 69 but I will probably use it mainly as a wireless Internet access tool and maybe less than a dozen of its applications. Phone, text, email, and Internet. Too much more is overkill. I will make use of the GPS and compass as they are actually useful.

The subtitle of this book is ironic. In the Sixties our slogan was "don't trust anyone OVER 30". There are a lot of intelligent young people; I just wish they would read more and read in depth.

Customer Rating: 

This book, packed with depressing statistics, tales, observations, and accusations about how "social" fulfillment opportunities available to youth today are getting in the way of intellectual growth is SADLY MISSING THE MARK. Not only that, but the book was - to me - tortuous to read, which is why I ended up skimming a lot.

I'm giving 2 stars only because of the significant amount of research cited to support the author's case. While there's certainly cause for concern about the trends indicated, it's basically "GARBAGE IN/GARBAGE OUT" if you miss the actual story -- WHAT WE KNOW is a function of WHAT WE'VE LEARNED -- see recommended reading at bottom of review.

IMO, each generations "distractions" may be different, but the reality is the same - adolescents aren't particularly (at all?) interested in overtly intellectual pursuits. Reading "great books", understanding world history, following politics, etc. is simply not on the radar of (most) youth - or at least hasn't been since I fit the profile (I'm 56).

For that matter, most adults aren't all that different. Ever read a statistic of how many adults read books? It isn't impressive. I know adults who don't seem to read books, magazines, or subscribe to the paper. Seems they're watching TV, surfing the net, creating Facebook/MySpace profiles, etc. just like the kids.

And those that do read aren't necessarily reading intellectually stimulating material. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the following are the percentage of adults who read literature" (I think they mean Americans over 18 who read novels, short stories, plays or poetry):

* 1982 56.9%
* 1992 54.0%
* 2002 46.7%
* 2008 50.2%

While many of these are "serious" readers, I'm sure there's a lot who only read a romance novel (or equivalent) on vacation.

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RECOMMENDED READING -- Brain Rules, by John Medina.
If you want to understand why people (youth & adults) don't KNOW more, perhaps it helps to understand what they need to do to LEARN more. Maybe our METHODS of teaching/learning are what's at fault.
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