Cell phones and internet creating a dumber youth

Author, Mark Bauerlein in his book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young American and Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, Or Don't Trust Anyone Under 30 argues that the younger generation download, upload, network, watch TV and and play video games. They don't read (even when online), follow politics, keep a strict work ethic or vote. His claim is that modern electronics are creating this situation.

He does mention that in the 4th century BCE, Plato in his dialogue Phaedrus, has Socrates lamenting the development of writing, which he feared would weaken minds that used to have no problem carrying reams of history and philosophy in memory. In the 15th century, Gutenberg's printing press caused some observers to fear an oncoming wave of intellectual laziness and an undermining of religious authority.

Evidence that things have changed is that articles in magazines and newspapers are getting shorter and even the The New York Times is now devoting two pages of each edition to abstracts of its articles.

The result is the few people these days seem to be building the complex and intricate understandings of history, art and what it means to be human that was considered de rigueur for any educated person only a few decades ago.

A 1998 survey of teenagers showed that only 41% could name the three branches of of the U.S. government, though 59% could name the Three Stooges.

Bauerlein's fear is that 50 years from now "Education will be oriented toward careers and worldly matters, and its former goal of producing learned and responsible citizens will be completely gone."

Unfortunately, I will not be here to observe where or not he was correct but it will be interesting to watch in the interim. I am certainly always amazed at some of the information that I am able to find on the internet on sites like Wikepedia- wonder who is posting information on that site?