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Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.1016 Comments
- diabolicdiablo, on 05/11/2008, -87/+1019I find this list somewhat insulting.
1.) They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targets : The tonight show screens hundreds of potentials before they find the "token dumbass" this does not characterize the entire generation
2. They don't read books -- and don't want to, either : I read books regularly, Michael Crichton, and John Grisham might not be up to your standards, but I enjoy them
3. They can't spell : Your right I can't spell. I use spell check. It takes the place of proofreaders from you generation.
4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing: If you are turning to myspace & wikipedia for original thought, maybe you shouldn't be on the internet.
5. Grand Theft Auto IV, etc. : The augment here is that GTA4 made $500, out selling all other forms of media it's debut week. Yes, an in depth interactive experience is more entertaining to me than mindlessly sitting through another superhero movie.
6. They don't store the information : "40 year old immigrants spent their time acquiring information in the library" In the 1800s people also had to ride a horse for miles to get a gallon of milk. I don't see you complaining about that. It's called PROGRESS.
7. Because their teachers don't tell them so : "adult realities can't penetrate" This is a dumb generation because we don't listen to what the teachers/government tells them what to think !!?? Hey Gramps remember the 60s? What about Woodstock?
8. Because they're young : Again this is the reason why "this is the dumbest generation" ... I'm seeing a fallacy here.
Thanks Boston Globe - now I know to disregard any thing you ever print. - akkibaba, on 05/11/2008, -19/+613#9 : They like to walk on my lawn, those damn kids.
Seriously though, this list seems to be written by a cranky old person who's afraid of the internet. - Sludgehammer, on 05/11/2008, -7/+377Yep, this is the dumbest generation, just like every other generation.
- bxblox, on 05/11/2008, -63/+445"They can't spell : Your right"
You're right, you can't spell. - Daz3, on 05/11/2008, -22/+267Wow, he makes a giant generalization and we are dumb??
"The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. "
I wonder if the author believes god exists?
"It's a new attitude, this brazen disregard of books and reading."
I am pretty sure that you can read things other than books.
"Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. "
It is faster and retains its original meaning - wouldn't it be 'dumb' to not use them?
"Without spellcheck, folks are toast."
Voluntarily using 'IM codes' does not mean that an individual can't spell correctly if and when required. Again the author has made a giant generalization.
"On MySpace..."
Because users of MySpace are a solid sample that would accurately represent an entire generation.
"Wikipedia writing is clean and factual, but colorless and judgment-free."
It is a ***** encyclopedia, it is supposed to be colourless and as unbiased as possible.
"If we could combine the style and imagination of MySpace with the content of Wikipedia, we might get good stuff."
Haha, how I laughed.
"The stats tell the story here. First week's sales: $500 million. The sales of GTA dwarf movie premieres, CD sales, or, Bauerlein notes, book sales."
We are dumb because we prefer interactive media? Ok.
"They don't store the information"
I use the internet to learn, I would wager that my ability to store useful information is perfectly adequate. This generation is 'dumb' because they have learnt that it is more efficient to learn how to find information as opposed to just storing that information.
A far more accurate title would be '8 reasons why this generation is different from previous generations'. It is testament to the falsity of the authors argument that he equates difference with a lack of intelligence. - rossmcd, on 05/11/2008, -5/+194#10 : They don't know how to use a slide rule
#11 : The world is changing, and as my skills are slowly becoming useless it makes me feel scared and irrelevant, and I have to direct anger outwards at someone or something else. AHA young people. Perfect! - Bob24, on 05/11/2008, -6/+188What about the generation that burnt people at the stake for being left handed?
- aguitarhero, on 05/11/2008, -4/+167Jazz is destroying this generation!
Elvis is destroying this generation!
Rock and roll destroying this generation!
Neil Young said it best - Old man look at my life, I'm a lot like you were. - socivitus, on 05/11/2008, -71/+239I hope this goes popular, I'd love to see the comments. Overall, I think its that this generation doesn't read and doesn't learn life skills early enough to fully comprehend them when they get older. I know people who are 18-20 who read and spell worse than I did when I was 10. It's sad really.
- KyleGoetz, on 05/11/2008, -14/+159"BAWWWWW YOUNG PEOPLE DON'T DO THINGS LIKE I DID"
1. The fact that a comedian can make fun of us doesn't make us stupid. However, suggesting that it does is evidence of true idiocy.
2. I do read books. Many young people may not. Books don't make you smart; they make you well read. And I don't exactly hear about adults reading Anna Karenina, either. What I've heard for years is that when people reach adulthood, most stop reading.
On the other hand, many more of us, say, roleplay than in previous generations. Let me restate that: many more young people engage in artistic and creative acting than previous generations.
3. Poor spelling might support an argument that young people are lazy; it does not, however, suffice to say that young people are dumb. 20 years ago: "Young people spell 'drive through' as 'drive thru' BAWW."
4. Actually, I didn't see any evidence put forth in the article that good writing is considered a negative attribute in youth culture. Literally.
5. Substitute "Elvis Presley" for "GTAIV."
6. Don't store information? Holy crap, that's an argument for why anyone who can read and write is stupid. In case you didn't notice, if you can READ AND WRITE, then you don't have to store information! This is the same complaint Zeus made to Prometheus after Prometheus taught humanity how to use letters.
7. This is a good one, actually: The article points out that my generation is too coddled. I agree.
8. This is a good one, partially. I mean, sure, young people don't have certain life experiences. But we're not the ones getting conned by internet scams, are we? We're not the ones who can't fix our computer problems, are we? How many times do I hear stories about old people being scammed out of their retirement online, and how many times do I hear about how parents go to their children for tech support? Sounds like we're not that stupid, after all. It just sounds like you're a BAWWING EMO. - usingpond, on 05/11/2008, -13/+139Obviously this is just a massive troll. "Because they're young" is the last reason — do you people really think he is serious?
- MarkNSparkN, on 05/11/2008, -6/+120I can't believe I wasted my time reading this...
- rossmcd, on 05/11/2008, -29/+140But I bet those 18-20 year olds are much better than you were at finding information
- Daz3, on 05/11/2008, -9/+116What are 'life skills'? I thought they were something that people claimed to have when they lacked any real qualifications.
- Konstantino, on 05/11/2008, -15/+115Are you all oblivious to sarcasm? He was obviously typing incorrectly as a joke. Note that there aren't nearly as many spelling or grammar mistakes in the rest of his arguments, only the one relevant to spelling and grammar.
- freediverx, on 05/11/2008, -11/+106"Overall, I think its that this generation doesn't read and doesn't learn life skills early enough to fully comprehend them when they get older."
Yeah, and they keep playing that loud noise they call music and walking right across my lawn!
Seriously, though, this sounds like a book written by an aging English professor who, while observing his career choice growing increasingly irrelevant, now attempts to make a quick buck by writing a book designed to insult one generation while fueling the insecurities of another. - relentless1914, on 05/11/2008, -14/+97Some young people can find info, but in my experience, they have no idea of how to discern fact from opinion or to evaluate sources for impartiality...
- mrjit, on 05/11/2008, -1/+86We don't read? What the ***** are we doing on the internet, telepathy?
- AndrewJC, on 05/11/2008, -12/+92Spellchecking is NOT the same as proofreading. Utilizing a spellchecker does not remove the necessity for proofing your work (or "work" in the case of a Digg comment, since it obviously doesn't matter). It's fine if you don't care how you're writing or spelling when you're on Digg, but when you submit that proposal to your manager at work, you'd better have your ***** spelled correctly and using proper grammar. And using the word "augment" when you mean "argument" isn't going to impress your boss or the client you submitted the "perfectly spelled" document to (after all, "augment" isn't going to be caught by the spellchecker, is it?).
- Jazz837, on 05/11/2008, -3/+75The people that write these kinds of articles forget that they are the PARENTS of this generation. They are the ones that helped make us this way. Do you think parents are gonna drop their kids off at the library to do research in an encyclopedia when they have the internet at home? Parents are also way more concerned about their kids' self esteem nowadays than they were a few decades ago. Also, I know perfectly well how to spell and write and use the proper rules of grammar. Oh, I also love books AND the internet! I hate stupid generalizations such as this one.
- ExtremeRyno, on 05/11/2008, -3/+75As a teacher, I actually feel the upcoming generation will dwarf the current young people with their stupidity. It's the NCLB thing, really. We're forced into only teaching test taking skills by the administration. Some teachers follow blindly....I actually teach. And what was my reward? I was fired for teaching science, social studies, english, and spelling, and giving F's to students who deserved nothing better. The caring and creative teachers are being fired for being great teachers. The mediocre and poor teachers are being praised for being test-spewing sheep. The system fails.
- Arcan, on 05/11/2008, -2/+57I have to say, this is not really constructive criticism. Constructive criticism requires pointing out faults that the subject can work to improve, and presenting that criticism in a relatively positive way. It's not like the generation can work to fix "being young." Number seven is more a problem with the parents than it is the students anyway (as a teacher, I can attest to this). If this "article" (which is more like a collection of captions) were truly insightful, then yes, it would be valuable criticism. As it is, it's a lot of "Kids-these-days-with-their-hula-hoops-and-jitterbugging" tripe that every generation heaps on the generations below it.
- catwoman2970, on 05/11/2008, -4/+59I voted for the "Books" reason, though most of these are good. I know a rising freshman in high school and I swear her reading/writing level is that of a 5th grader. It didn't even occur to her to open a dictionary when words in her writing assignment stumped her. I think No Child Left Behind has a lot to do with this. No school wants to lose funding for failing kids, so they pass them. *****.
- bdbr, on 05/11/2008, -1/+54I'm 49, and I disagree with this article. Most of the high schools around here offer at least 10 AP classes, and kids can graduate with two or more years of calculus. About 10% of my daughter's graduating class had a 4.0 or better. The competition for spots in top schools is fierce.
It could be easy to read Digg comments and assume these people don't read and/or can't write a succinct essay, but that won't always be the case. - MrPig, on 05/11/2008, -0/+52I miss that one... those were the days...
- faskill, on 05/11/2008, -11/+57I read that as, "I'm an idiot, but I'm okay with that." I dugg you up bx.
- deskimo, on 05/11/2008, -1/+47My *ten* reasons why, if the generation of the author of this article is as dumb as the author of this article, then that generation is even dumber than ours.
1. They make generalizations about the intelligence of an entire generation of people for the sake of convenience and self-superiority.
2. Millions of them voted for George W. Bush......twice.
3. Millions of them voted for Ronald Reagan...and then George H.W. Bush.
4. Using the Internet, the full utility of which they are far from realizing, we are in the process of taking back the democracy they were ready to give up(see #3 and #2).
5. They look upon the Internet as a mere knowledge source, whereas we look upon it as the most "ridiculously easy group-organizing" instrument that ever existed, and therefore the single most powerful re-democratizing force to ever come into existence.(see #4).
6. Because of their self-defeating myopia, they chastise people who use the Internet as the most efficient memory aid in history in the same way as those who chastised the original inventors of written language probably did, elevating obsolete books to a pedestal that they don't deserve.(see #5)
7. Some of them are still secret(and some not-so-secret) racists 43 years after the end of Jim Crow segregation.
8. They can't even come up with 10 reasons why our generation is the dumbest.
9. Once idealistic and hopeful, many of them gave up their progressive political ideals in favor of cynicism and the shallow comfort of material wealth and traditional values, which explains 1) neoconservatism and 2) why we are the only Western country in the world with a right-leaning working class.
10. They are just now waking up to the fact that #9 was a huge mistake. - MrZaiko, on 05/11/2008, -1/+47Hey! Im from the Beavis and Butt-head Generation, We created the "DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME" Captions.
We deserve some props. - JMSantos, on 05/11/2008, -2/+46Sorry, but that's *****. As a HS teacher myself, I've found plenty of times and opportunity to expand on student learning through related discussion. Even though I teach math, I've held discussions ranging from ancient history to quantum mechanics (this is to 9th graders). I've even taught my 9th grade Algebra students simple matrix operations so that they know how mathematicians actually do certain problems rather than just what's "on the test."
Teachers who teach to the test are lazy, ill-informed, or simply bad at their jobs. - klisejo, on 05/11/2008, -4/+50Hey look another article blaming GTA IV for some societal ill even though it only came out a week ago.
- dubloe7, on 05/11/2008, -0/+44"Often the most clever students, with flashes of disorganized brilliance on MySpace..."
"If we could combine the style and imagination of MySpace with the content of Wikipedia, we might get good stuff."
Brilliance and myspace do not belong in the same sentence. Likewise with myspace and 'good stuff' - goscript, on 05/11/2008, -3/+47Place #9 on your list: Some are so dumb that they cannot place a description on their digg story. Sounds familiar?
- anliath, on 05/11/2008, -0/+44"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for
authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer
rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their
legs, and are tyrants over their teachers."
attributed to Socrates - mycatsasha, on 05/11/2008, -1/+43I like how in the image representing "they can't spell" nothing is actually spelled incorrectly.
- Ramble, on 05/11/2008, -4/+44What an excellent misunderstanding of grammar. Well done old chap.
- freezeout, on 05/11/2008, -9/+55just a reminder - 1 in 5 Americans think the sun revolves around the earth
- inactive, on 05/11/2008, -7/+47It was a joke, *****.
- thailand1972, on 05/11/2008, -9/+50"It takes the place of proofreaders from you generation."
I guess "you" is also "spelt correctly" but is the wrong word. - DrMonkeyLove, on 05/11/2008, -3/+42The thing is, I've talked to enough people of the baby boomer generation, and I gotta say, this generation has a long way to go to win the title of "Most Dumbest Generashun"
- alcanada, on 05/11/2008, -9/+48Most of the latest generation didn't vote seven years ago, that was what defined the dumbest generation in American history.
- trogdorBURN, on 05/11/2008, -0/+35[citation needed]
- inactive, on 05/11/2008, -1/+34They are pretty dumb for not knowing how to get all that ***** on one page.
- alittleroy101, on 05/11/2008, -10/+46" I personally almost never read books because, what's the point? "
You are missing out on so much. That is an incredible attitude. - isaactwito, on 05/11/2008, -3/+37How about all you stupid mother ***** in our parents' generation? You're the reasons that this world is so ***** up. How could you be so ***** foolish as to elect Bush TWICE? How could you let America turn into the joke of the world? Our justice system is *****, no one even trusts that votes determine elections anymore, our economy is failing, everyone in the world ***** hates us, yet you call us the "dumbest generation"? How about you take a look in the mirror and realize that the current generation has failed completely? We're the ones out on the streets protesting the war, we're the ones speaking out against the injustice in government, we're the ones rejecting the ***** that your pathetic generation has pumped claiming to be "popular" modern media. You have nothing on us. Maybe it's just my young, foolish spirit talking, but it looks like we're the only chance this world has to gain some dignity back.
- jake122683, on 05/11/2008, -9/+45was this written by a member of the generation that is destroying the world? the audacity is hilarious.
- neocr0n, on 05/11/2008, -2/+34There is a poll at the end "What reason makes the most sense for "The Dumbest Generation?" and bizarrely "none" isn't an option.
- rushiku, on 05/11/2008, -3/+35How did I know video games would make an appearance on this list?
How dumb is the author of the article if they cannot distinguish between video games, and their intended target: video?
Has the author forgotten the hours of watching worn-out film-strips and films they themselves did while attending school? - Wilsontristan, on 05/11/2008, -5/+44At 15, I'd consider myself part of "this generation". I play GTA4, I use facebook (screw myspace), I store information on my HDD, I've text messaged late at night, I hang out with friends, yes including girls, and I am young. BUT: I read everyday (Michael Chrichton's Andromeda Strain for the third time, at the moment), I'm capable of producing original thought, as well as good writing, and my spelling is impekeble
- EnjoyTheFact, on 05/11/2008, -1/+31Eight reasons that show I'm desperately grasping to a simpler time in order to justify everything I've done in my life up until now.
"These children can access information easier! I had to work for it! Therefore all these children are stupid!" Yes, my generation can be a bit daft at times but I've seen them do amazing things as well. Just because there's a chunk that mindlessly blather on about who got voted off American Idol does not give Dr. Bauerlein (who, from his picture, looks to have been on the tail end of the Flower Generation which in itself says something) the right to stick us all into one hole.
This generation questions things a lot quicker if you ask me. We have quick access to information, we can search, filter and postulate our own theories because of it. It's the beginning of a new way of thinking, it's a new way of educating ourselves and it's absolutely fascinating to be a part of it. What we're beginning to see is new and it will hopefully bring change. People fear both, this man just happened to write that down.
That being said, I respect him for voicing his opinion like he has. It might light a fire under an ass or two and as a teacher, that's his job. - methos75, on 05/11/2008, -3/+36"Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. " It is faster and retains its original meaning - wouldn't it be 'dumb' to not use them? "Without spellcheck, folks are toast." Voluntarily using 'IM codes' does not mean that an individual can't spell correctly if and when required. Again the author has made a giant generalization."
I have no issues with this being used for web writing, but the real issue is that it is escaping the PC arena and becoming a fixture in normal writing like School Papers, reports, etc and that is just pathetic. I am a Cop in the USAF and review reports, and its just really sad that younger troops are writing Incident reports that use PC slang like OMG, LOL, etc on what are professional papers, and do not understand why they have to rewrite them when I bump them back. News flash, but if your using PC slang on professional papers, Resumes, school papers, etc it doesn't make you sound cool or cute, it makes you look like an flaming retard. -
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