So, a new book has come out. Classic curmudgeoning of the burgeoning youth known as the  ‘digital natives’.

Reading has gone away! Our generation is of idiots!

I have wandered into Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation.

American youth have stopped reading at a precipitous rate. Bauerlein argues that the digital natives have become complacent and are preoccupied by their social lives. Access to information has gotten easier and easier, thanks to the internet and the spread of information. Yet, despite the ease of access, grades and scores haven’t gotten any better. In fact, they’ve gotten worse with the increase in screen time that has taken place the last 15 years. In essence, the digital age has made people dumber. Or so is the premise.

Before we go on, I must admit that I am of Bauerlein’s born after 1980 idiot digital native. That Death by Black Hole was only the 3rd book I’ve read in my spare time since 2006 (the others being Moneyball and The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball). But I must also agree that some of the digital natives are, quite simply, idiots. Sure, we can multitask (I’m writing while watching an M’s game, listening to music, checking Facebook and reading Welker’s Economics), but there’s a big crowd out there that is awesome at using Facebook, iPods, and Google, yet are absolute numskulls.

So… Here I am reading this book. And so far, this is what I’ve felt.

- Sure, we’ve stopped reading and have gone over to watching YouTube videos and futzing on Facebook. But despite what is quite possibly the biggest change in data storage since the invention of the printing press, education itself has changed very little. Has technology weakened the intellect of students or has the education system failed to cope with a new breed of human neuroculture and congnitive thinking?

- Just as education systems haven’t change, the predominant models of examinations and assessment haven’t changed either. If we are to acknowledge that students have changed over from living hard drives to living search engines, does the classic exam culture remain relevant?

- I still can’t figure out what is ‘right’ in terms of education. Digital defenders are quick to say that because of search engines and instant knowledge, the human shell doesn’t need to retain as much information as in the past. But a person must be cultured and experienced to be able to do anything with information. Without a reasonable amount of preexisting knowledge for a person to refer to, the data immediately loses contextual meaning. With this in view, I completely agree with Bauerlein: educators that shirk and tip toe around the issue of illiteracy aren’t helping the situation.

Overall, despite all this thinking, I remain perplexed as to what Bauerlein is trying to convey. After 90 pages, I’ve read argument after argument, statistic after statistic showing how dumb we’ve become, but he hasn’t really talked about solutions and changes.

Regardless, it’s still a good read. Onward!