This shocking, surprisingly entertaining romp into the intellectual
nether regions of today's underthirty set reveals the disturbing and,
ultimately, incontrovertible truth: cyberculture is turning us into a
society of know-nothings.
The Dumbest Generation is a dire report on the intellectual life of
young adults and a timely warning of its impact on American democracy
and culture.
For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular
culture available to young people and the impact it has on their
futures. But at the dawn of the digital age, many thought they saw an
answer: the internet, email, blogs, and interactive and hyper-realistic
video games promised to yield a generation of sharper, more aware, and
intellectually sophisticated children. The terms "information
superhighway" and "knowledge economy" entered the lexicon, and we
assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of
technology to set themselves apart as the vanguards of this new digital
era.
That was the promise. But the enlightenment didn't happen. The
technology that was supposed to make young adults more aware, diversify
their tastes, and improve their verbal skills has had the opposite
effect. According to recent reports from the National Endowment for the
Arts, most young people in the United States do not read literature,
visit museums, or vote. They cannot explain basic scientific methods,
recount basic American history, name their local political
representatives, or locate Iraq or Israel on a map. The Dumbest
Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and
Jeopardizes Our Future is a startling examination of the intellectual
life of young adults and a timely warning of its impact on American
culture and democracy.
Over the last few decades, how we view adolescence itself has changed,
growing from a pitstop on the road to adulthood to its own space in
society, wholly separate from adult life. This change in adolescent
culture has gone hand in hand with an insidious infantilization of our
culture at large; as adolescents continue to disengage from the adult
world, they have built their own, acquiring more spending money,
steering classrooms and culture towards their own needs and interests,
and now using the technology once promoted as the greatest hope for
their futures to indulge in diversions, from MySpace to multiplayer
video games, 24/7.
Can a nation continue to enjoy political and economic predominance if
its citizens refuse to grow up? Drawing upon exhaustive research,
personal anecdotes, and historical and social analysis, The Dumbest
Generation presents a portrait of the young American mind at this
critical juncture, and lays out a compelling vision of how we might
address its deficiencies. The Dumbest Generation pulls no punches as
it reveals the true cost of the digital age--and our last chance to fix
it.
