Technology's Effect On The Mind: The Dumbest Generation By Mark Bauerlein

551 Words2 Pages

Collin Anderson Mrs. Vermillion AP Language and Composition 17 February 2017 Technology’s effect on the mind Young people, normally under 20 years old, tend to read less. The book The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein portrays the ignorance and lack of knowledge in teenagers as he connects this disparity to their declined reading habits. Bauerlein says that the young American mind is being tarnished by technological advancements that draw children and teens away from books. He often states how he fears for the country’s future because of the intellect of the younger generation. The author provides several examples of how engrossed kids are in their devices. He gives a specific example that kids have a ridiculously large amount of screen time per day: around 295 minutes, which is almost five hours! Most children and teens responded by saying that the only reading they do is for school. 99 percent of eight to eighteen year olds that responded said that they have a television in their home and over 65 percent said that they have a television set in their own room. He provides a counterargument often presented by non-readers which states that screenplay provides all the intellectual skills that reading a Most of the young generation cannot name their current senator or congressman. He states that they should use the gadgets to their benefit by learning about the world around them. However, teens are not doing this, they are using technology to look into pop culture and/or worry about their social status when they should be learning more in order to become a knowledgeable citizen. The technology is also reducing the knowledge of grammar. Texting incites the use of improper behavior through the use of incorrect punctuation and incorrect capitalization. All in all, the use of technology has tarnished the minds of children and will affect the rest of their

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