[Air-L] Dumbest Generation?

Mark Chen markchen at u.washington.edu
Thu May 15 08:23:34 PDT 2008


I haven't read the book, but a counter point could be Stephen Johnson's
Everything Bad Is Good For You where he argues new media is making us
smarter by training us to see patterns from fragmented information.

The issue I had on Johnson's book was that, sure maybe we're getting
smarter, but we sure aren't getting wiser.  We can grok systems in some
settings but somehow aren't able to grok the bigger social world and make
decisions that reflect our understanding.  Maybe this new book is actually
talking about being foolish, not dumb?

mark

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 8:09 AM, Steve Jones <sjones at uic.edu> wrote:

> Thank goodness. I wouldn't want any future generation to usurp my
> generation's claim to being dumbest.
>
> Hang on...since it's probably those of my generation who are writing and
> scoring those IQ tests....
>
> Sj
>
>
> On May 15, 2008, at 9:55 AM, Aram Sinnreich wrote:
>
>  yet somehow american IQ scores continue to climb...
>>
>> a
>>
>> Casey O'Donnell wrote:
>>
>>> Huh... I thought it was Nintendo and videogames that did that... ;)
>>>
>>> Sheff, David. 1993. Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American
>>> Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children. New York,
>>> NY: Random House Inc.
>>>
>>> Best.
>>> Casey
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:40 AM, Katy E. Pearce <kpearce at umail.ucsb.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>  Mark Bauerlein's new book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age
>>>> Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future and its critics...
>>>> great debate on Metafilter, with links to MSM stories/review on the
>>>> book:
>>>> http://www.metafilter.com/71648/Now-Get-Off-of-My-Lawn
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
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-- 
Mark Chen | PhD Candidate | Games researcher/designer | Tech instructor
College of Education - Ed Tech | University of Washington - Seattle
My games research and life in academia blog: markdangerchen.net



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