The Dumbest Generation?

Mark Bauerlein, an English Professor at Emory University, provokes the idea that the Digital Age has given birth to the dumbest generation in his new book "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future". Although Bauerlein does raise some shocking reasons for his claime, in the end its all about how you view them. The first thing that stood out to me was that Bauerlein believes that our generation hate reading books and even dicourages reading books. This hit me as a gross generalization, I myself love to read books and countless others within my generation share my love. The reason there are some within my generation who hate reading, is simply that it has been forced on them thier whole life by who I like to call the Older Jealous Folks, with rantings along the line of "Stop fooling around with that (cell phone, television, computer, xbox, ect.) and do something worth while, like read a book". these rantings are compiled in the minds of my generations and then unloaded back at the OJF as teenage anxt towards reading and books. Bauerlein brought up the idea that my generation can't spell without the aid of spell check, and my simple responce is alright. So what if we cannot spell without the help of a computer. If in your childhood you where presented with such an amazing tool as the spell-check would you just throw it aside? I think not . I really believe Bauerlein may have been his schools spelling bee champion, and now his skill is much less aprechiated It is slightly odd that he would leave out the use of calculators and computer navigation systems in this whole crusade on technology. I laughed when I read that one reason for my generation being the dumbest was, that we ridicule original ideas and good writing... on myspace. first off myspace is not an intelectual place where original ideas can thrive, and therefore should not be used as an example for a claim as outrageous as calling an entire generation dumb. Secondly Myspace is a social networking site where people go to keep in contact with friends, not write essays. The only thing that I agree with Bauerlein about is that my generation is young, and with youth comes stupidity. I haven't a doubt that I will look back and realise how ignorant and naive I was. That is the nature of ageing. with old age comes great wisdom. My generation can be called the dumbest, but our judges should take into account that they cannot fully judge us because they are entierly different. they were raised differently, taught differently, lived without what my generation has always known. We are not ignorant, we have different skills more compatable to the current Digital computer age.