http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-dumbest-generation.html
The Dumbest Generation?
By Tom Huston, EnlightenNext
Earlier this year a close friend of mine, eager to expand his cultural horizons, decided to leave the backwoods of Massachusetts and move to Paris. Taking little more than the essentials–his MacBook, his iPod, and a few graphic novels–he managed to find a nice fifth-story apartment soon after his arrival. When I visited him there three months later, I was immediately struck by the view from his balcony. Towering above the rooftops, a monumental bronze statue of a winged golden man stood gleaming in the light of the setting sun. “That’s amazing!” I said, asking him what it was. Briefly glancing up from his computer screen, he replied that he had no idea. He did, however, agree that it looked tres cool. (A quick Wikipedia search revealed that it was the 154-foot-high Colonne de Juillet, erected in the center of the square where the infamous Bastille prison once stood.)
Yes, not only is my friend a typical American, but he is also a card-carrying member of a sociocultural demographic that Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein has dubbed “the Dumbest Generation.” Otherwise known as Generation Y, the millennials, or the echo boomers, Generation Dumb consists of anyone born roughly between 1978 and 1996. I wish I could say that I stand free and clear of this Gen-Dumb appellation, but no. I’m also an American, born in 1980, and by all accounts, upon my return to the EnlightenNext offices after my weekend jaunt to Paris, I didn’t display much more cultural wherewithal than my friend. When some baby-boomer colleagues asked me what I thought of my first visit to that majestic ancient city where so much of Western history was forged, I apparently spoke on behalf of my entire generation when I answered, quite dumbly, “Uh . . . it was pretty cool.”
Numbering seventy million in the U.S. and due to surpass the boomers in sheer numbers by 2010, Gen Dumb is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. And a lot of people are courageously trying. In the past year, on top of countless stories regarding the increased engagement of young people in this year’s presidential campaigns, major media outlets from The New York Times to Newsweek to 60 Minutes have put my generation under the microscope with unprecedented scientific scrutiny. A number of scholarly, stat-packed books have been published as well, and their authors have become the media’s favorite go-to persons to explain to bewildered parents, teachers, and employers what, exactly, is up with us.
Being a concerned member of the generation in question, I’ve been paying close attention to all of this, and I’ve noticed an interesting trend: Observers tend to either love us or hate us. We’re either held aloft as the bright, tech-savvy, shining hope of humanity or dismissed as hopelessly narcissistic ignoramuses whose every posted YouTube comment should make us all bow our heads in shame.
I think the truth, as usual, is more complicated than either extreme. We aren’t simply Gen Dumb, and we aren’t the messianic millennials either. We are Gen Y, a genuinely puzzling cultural variable, like Gen X before us, that has yet to be defined.
This overly simplistic love-hate dichotomy first dawned on me last year when I read a column by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times titled “The Quiet Americans.” In the piece, Friedman offered one of the most optimistic appraisals of my generation that I’d ever encountered. Describing us as an impressive and admirably “quiet generation” due to both our silent determination to not let post-9/11 terrorism fears curtail our sense of freedom and our preference for keyboard-clicking internet activism over more vocal social engagements–Friedman’s paean to the virtuous potential of my peer group left me with strangely mixed feelings. I couldn’t help but be inspired by a member of my parents’ generation looking upon us twentysomethings with such respect and admiration, yet I also knew that Friedman was overlooking a more disturbing part of the picture.
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39 comments
add your comment »The dumbest generation? It's possible.
However, I strongly discourage judging. Not everyone of this generation is so ignorant and selfish and just plain stupid.
Also, some of our environment has a lot of influence right now. Though I am not using our culture as an excuse, just an explanation.
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Really nice article ha . Ya i believe that new generation is not so much responsible and aware about what they are doing . Really thanks for this post.
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Great article, though I have to say that I had neither impression of Gen Y-ers. Very eye-opening.
I just tend to treat people as people regardless of age. Some are really, really dumb, some are very smart, some are out there fighting the good fight, and some live in bubbles.
Social analysis like this fascinates me, though. Well done!
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pardon my edit on the grammar.
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one of the comments made my day because someone thought they might be 3x older than me. That would put them as having been born in the 19th century. :)
I don't think that everyone younger or older is better or than me. That said, if you think Paris (or any place you've gone to for the first time) is simply "ok", that's pretty sad.
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Ironic that in the Information Age, so many seem to be ill-informed. Part of the learning process is the imposition of discipline. The Old School taught Latin and Greek for a reason. The cell phone may be the 'weapon' that destroys us all: the distraction while driving, texting and the possibility of harmful radiation, may be the form it takes. I have but one thing to say to all those cell phone users: SHUT UP! Get that thing out of your ear and join the living!
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Perhaps looking up every little fact on Wiki instead of absorbing any actual knowledge is our problem. Why would we need to know any geography, "there's an app for that". Most people cannot spell at all if not for the automatic red line showing us an error. As technology gets better and closer to us (computer phones), we move further away from the real, physical world. - Nick, 23
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Well, the guy who writes this article is perhaps the exception that confirms the rule ? He writes with a very rich vocabulary, no spelling mistakes and his article is very interesting to read.
Anyway, generalizations are just that: generalizations, and should be taken with a pinch of salt.
There are ignorant people in every generation. The first time I went to the States from Europe back in the seventies, I was shocked at the amount of geographical ignorance there was.
But it really depends who you're talking to. There are also lots of cultured and intelligent people in each generation.
And sometimes, even cultured and educated people can be very dumb too.
But it is also true that the media tend to make people even dumber. What people need is an education that gives them the tools for thinking independently, to question authority, to question established values, while at the same time respecting other people's beliefs, to question all the so-called "news" you get on the media especially in America (where it mostly amounts to propaganda), to learn from history, in order to make informed decisions about their life, about politics, about the world around them, instead of being dumb unquestioning consumers who keep on destroying the world they live in. But this is true for every generation, so stop passing the blame, it's such a cliche.
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I am a baby boomer. Ignorance is endemic to every generation.
I grew up in NYC. I grew up w/ people who still live in the same neighborhood, have never seen the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, any of the wonderful museums, Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall. In my travels I find the same is true of most communities.
Back in the '60s, working to end the war in Viet Nam, I found that most people, even many in the movement, didn't know where Viet Nam was. Most people today don't know where Afganistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Chechnya, Kurdistan or many of the other places that are in the news daily. Placesw where Americans are fight and dying.
I have found that many young people think the world began when they became aware. They have no interest or value for anything that came before.
When I was working on Geo. McGoverns campaign a young man saw my McGovern button w/ the peace symbol in the 'O.'He asked, "How long have you been in the peace movement?"
I thought a moment, realized I had been on my 1st "Ban the Bomb" march at 10 yrs old and replied,"About 20 years."
He replied,"But the Vietnam War has only been going on 10 years."
Kenneth Galbraith said,"Those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it."
~;^}>
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Very insightful in some ways - yes people do tend to think in black and white with regard to lots of things - I am 45ish, left home at 18 to be a dancer half way across the country, and am really concerned so many young people cannot take care of themselves at this age, and also agree with the points about being overly immersed in, and therefore influenced by, and even being produced by the media (and the state of the media is a problem). However, the internet, as i have discovered can be a wonderful place to learn and share, but the younger ones also need to get more face to face contact, protest in more 'real' situations, coz they are often semi-articulate, used to learning and communicating in short 'grabs' and therefore also lack depth. Just swap some of the on-line and media stuff for some real stuff - and read some deep books, not just on-line stuff ps also grow your own veg - gets you connected to whats real including where food comes from
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