The Dumbest Generation...?

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The Dumbest Generation…?

Mark Bauerlein states that kids, teenagers (our generation under the age of 30) is the “Dumbest Generation”. The man has problems. Scientists say that as we get older, we get dumber, so how can the young generation be dumb? Of course, I believe that our elders are wiser but some of them haven’t taken the paths the young ones have. Mark Bauerlein has also said that the induction of new technology has made us “dumb”. He also states that kids have not been reading enough books these days, instead they go online to do social networking, watch video and communicate with friends. I don’t think this is true because some kids read news sometimes and they read news about whatever news they are interested in.

Some of us may not read as many books as we did before, but some books are now published on the web, so we can download the books and read it on our computer, this saves a lot of time and money from buying a book, and it is also useful for people in countries that rarely have any foreign books, for example, Vietnam.

Mark Bauerlein has also mentioned that kids can’t spell. His proof is that kids use “slang” while communicating with friends online, or by text messaging. How can that be proof? Some of the kids are trying to save credit. So they use “short worded text”, e.g. they use “U” which represents “You”, and they also use “R” which represents “Are”. This saves a lot of time as well. Is it wrong to save time? Is it wrong to save money? They do use slang to communicate, but that doesn’t meant they can’t spell, if they were to do an essay, they wouldn’t use slang, so what is wrong?

He also mentioned that we study less, and we are getting more stupid, and that the ones that make it to year 10 do not make it to year 13. How can the kids be stupid if they are still in school? Also, shouldn’t it be the teacher’s responsibility to teach the kids? So practically, it’s not the kid’s fault. Parents are also responsible to make them do homework, even though kids should be the ones taking care of themselves, they would still need their parent’s help.

Parents and teachers also complain that kids are not bright, not reading enough books, not remembering vocabulary, not being able to remember how to spell, not reading the news, not learning enough, not being able to the homeworks that the teacher has set for them, going out too much, not using the internet for the right things but is using the internet for communication, social networking, watching videos. It’s wrong to criticise children, the teachers and parents should be the ones to support the kids, because if you keep on complaining to children instead of supporting them or encouraging them, they will eventually give up because of their parent’s complaints instead of trying harder. Don’t you want them to try harder? Don’t you want them to improve themselves? Is it wrong to communicate with friends online by IM (Instant Messaging)? They can’t lock themselves up in a world of studying 24/7, they need at least some social time with their friends!

Mark Bauerlein also says that the kids nowadays are getting lazier, and lazier. This isn’t true, the kids still do Physical Education in school don’t they? How can they be lazy if they spend lots of time on the Internet? Some of the kids still run for charity, like the Terry Fox Run.

How can the kids be the “Dumbest Generation”? The kids are still learning, they are young and they are still finding their path to their own success in their future. Each kid is brought up to live differently, this means that some of them are allowed to be on the Internet 24/7 and the others probably never go on the Internet because of their parents. Some adults don’t even know what an “Ipod” is, and almost the whole population of children has one. Some adults don’t even know what the “WWW.” is, and also some of the adults don’t even know how to turn on a computer, while most kids know mostly everything about the ‘new technology’. How can Mark Bauerlein say that the children are the ‘dumbest generation’ when the adults don’t know about the ‘new technology’ and when some of the adults don’t even know what an ‘Iphone’ or a ‘USB’ is?

We are not in the 80’s anymore. We’re in the 21st Century! The century of modern music and new awesome technologies!

In conclusion, Mark says that kids will not be able to get a job in the future because of lack of vocabulary and that he thinks that most of the kids are likely to win ‘American Idol’ than winning an election of becoming president. What’s wrong with winning American Idol or the X - factor or Britain’s got talent? This shows that they do have talent and the can become rich and famous because of this. I think what Mark said about the kids not being able to get a job because of lack of vocabulary is no true, because you can’t just say that the kids will not be successful just because they are still young. What about Bill Gates? He found Microsoft Windows when he was still in college! And right now, he is one of the richest people in the world. How can this prove that we are the ‘Dumbest Generation’? Because it doesn’t, this is proof that we are NOT the ‘Dumbest Generation’.