From the title alone, I already had an idea of how the reading was going to go. The Dumbest Generation…hurtful, yet interesting. It should come to no surprise that for quite some time Americans have been disdained for their ability in the classroom or their inability to note the start or end of the Civil War. But do we millennials deserve this? Is the reading a bit harsh? Or just overall, a downright over-exaggerating. Well I say, kinda not, yes and no.
Now, personally I don’t believe standardized testing or knowing with the 13th president of the United States totally equates to the learning ability of an individual. I believe “smartness” is measured on more than that. I believe what makes a “smart person” is when knowledge is well rounded. Like you know the term, book smart and street smart. Do understand that street smart makes an individual just as smart as the next since all situations can’t be solved with the answer to pi squared. Not by any means am I undermining people who do know the answers to the questions asked in the book, but as mentioned before, there’s more to life than book knowledge.
With this being said, don’t be confused that I am excusing my generation for not knowing the answer to the date the Civil War ended. I do agree with the chapter to an extent, especially with the observation of the teaching curriculum being watered down from decades ago. Except I blame it on us being spoiled, entitled, lazy, and failures at what’s come to be known as “adulting,” a word invented by millennials as a catchall for the tasks of self-sufficient existence.
Millennials love to complain about other millennials giving them a bad name. Yet we often create this rep for ourselves. I hate to sound like a nagging elder..but I blame this on technology and how reliant we’ve been on it.
Recently, I remember watching one of my all-time favorite television shows: Dr.Pimple Popper. A woman had walked into the doors of her office looking to get a cyst that rested in the middle of her head removed. The cyst had been on the patient’s head for ten plus years and surprised the doctor because she’d hadn’t seen anything like it before. She was not sure exactly what it was or the causes of it. So she was forced to type the symptoms and characteristics of the bump into the old reliable Google search engine. And within due time Dr.Pimple Popper knew of the diagnosis of the client. I kid you not, this aired on television, TLC to be exact.
Being with how comfortable the doctor was with referring to Google in her practice, I could help but think this was the norm in the medical field. Once again, not by any means am I shunning Dr. Pimple Popper for referring to the internet..but I was just shocked. Is this really how reliant we have become on technology?
I hate to be the one to say it, but it must be said. We are handicapped. And it’s all due to the tiny mobile devices we carry with us 24/7. We don’t feel the need to know or study, because we know at the click of a button the answer will be in the palm of our hands. LITERALLY!
Now, I know you may be thinking of other countries that too have the same access to the internet as us. But the difference is with most of those countries most of the technology is assembled outside of the United States or the questions we search on Google are answered by people outside of the United States. We as Americans must admit, we aren’t advance as we think we are. Especially in comparison to countries surrounding the U.S.
As stated before, I don’t believe that book knowledge automatically equates to an individual being the smartest person ever and I do understand no one on planet earth truly knows EVERYTHING about everything. But we limit ourselves about knowing anything about anything because of our devices.
So when reading The Dumbest Generation, I was offended at first but at more times than once, all I could do was nod my head in agreeance at certain things said. The argument was valid and I agreed with this generation not living up to its full potential ( much nicer words used than the book), but I don’t believe our generation is dumb but simply lazy.
Nyah Speaking. 