People under the age of thirty are not dumb because time can be used more efficiently with technology in the Modern Era. The people of today do not have to read through the chapters of a book to find the answer to a question. Students in the Modern Era can get work done much quicker with the use of technology, thus giving people much more free time to play video games or spend time on iPhones. Generation Y has an advantage over the older generation because the younger generation has grown up with technology at their fingertips and learned to use the Internet and its information efficiently to solve the current problems of today by thinking critically.
The use of technology has not made people dumber, but has made everyone think differently. The fact that the majority of people turn to the Internet to find facts does not make those facts less valuable than if they were found in a book. Today, people process much more information than people used to because technology has increased the amount of information that can be viewed. Due to the Internet, people have access to much more information. “Since the 1930s IQ scores have been on the rise” (Begley) With the rise of technology, IQ scores have risen. How can technology be making us dumb?
With new technologies like video games, brains have been trained to process mass amounts of information at one. Some people say that video games make people dumb, but further studies have proven that video games increase the dexterity of the brain. (Johnson) Older generations say that the people in Generation Y are not reading enough, but they do not take into account that the younger generation is reading the step-by-step tutorials to complete a game like Grand Theft Auto III. In the tutorial, there...
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... by youth today are on the Internet. Why spend time to go to the library, or spend money to buy a magazine when the identical article is free on the Internet. Using the Internet does not make us dumb. It’s an advantage that the older generation did not have. The fact that the Older Generation criticizes us for using the Internet is rash and dumb. Why not use a tool that is given to us. It is like someone was given a hammer to hammer a nail into a wall, but you do not use the hammer—that’s dumb. Before you criticize a generation, take in account that things change. If you cannot adapt, you will not survive. Being able to adapt is the key to survival whether its school or survival.
Works Cited
Shea, Renée Hausmann, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Second ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin Mm, 2013. Print.
“The Dumbest Generation” is a title no group of people want to behold. Nonetheless, people under age thirty have been given this belittling title. To those who go off questions about obsolete general knowledge rather than the ability to take in and evaluate knowledge, this title may seem quite fitting. However, Millennials aren’t quite as dull as they’ve been perceived to be. The ability of Millennials to absorb information, rather than know general facts, and their use of contemporary technology as reading and writing resources has proven that they are quite an innovative and bright generation.
In “Cultural Illiteracy,” a preface to the novel The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein critically evaluates how technological distractions affect the younger generation. Bauerlein states that “digital diversions” are cutting the younger generation off from culturally enhancing mediums and is in turn making the younger generation less intelligent. Though Bauerlein is correct about the increase of peer pressure due to technology, he is mistaken about how technology is making the younger generation unintelligent.
Video games do not make us more intelligent. They may however, make us more prone to violence and sex. Video games are preventing us from screening out distractions and making thinking deeply a difficult task. Our brains become overwhelmed when multitasking. Moreover, Johnson states “... a modern video game can take forty hours to complete”. Forty hours keep kids from homework and as Rachael Rettner states in livescience, “The results show that boys given a PlayStation II are slower to progress in their reading and writing skills and have more learning problems reported by their teachers than those not given a system”. The sole reason studies come back positive for video games being productive is due to the fact that they test a regular video gamer with a non-gamer. Regular video gamers will do better in the study because the more they play, the better they get. Not many realize the effect of these “fully realized imaginary worlds”, it is making it harder for people to differentiate their virtual life with their real
Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. Literature for Composition. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print
Gitlin, Todd. “TheLiberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut.” The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric. Ed. Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlonn, and Robin Dissin Aufses. Boston: Bedford, 2008. 155-157. Print.
Have you ever wondered if our generation is the dumbest? Well, there’s some evidence to prove so. Generation ‘Y’ is considered to be the dumbest generation of all. This is based on numerous experiments, polls, surveys, etc. While everything else in this world is rising, intellect of each generation is falling. With the ignorance of facts, by choice, and lack of some education, Generation ‘Y’ is considered to be the dumbest generation.
Many people refer to this generation of kids as the "dumbest generation." I disagree, our present generation is not the "dumbest generation," our minds have simply been developed differently. Our minds are wired much differently than our parents, and our parents minds are wired differently from our grandparents. Everyone has been brought up at different times and everything seems to be changing generation to generation. Technology is an area that as changed the most over the past few years and has nearly influenced every aspect of life, specifically the way we learn.
Mark Bauerlain claims Americans under 30 possess lower knowledge levels than older Americans and deems them “The Dumbest Generation”. Many agree with this statement, believing that the rise of technology and the media has resulted in intellectual shortcomings in younger generations. While technology has changed how we process and learn information, it has not lessened the intelligence of younger generations. Numerous studies have shown that technology exercises minds, provides information, and improves thinking ability. Because of the added access to information younger generations gain through innovation, they are not “the dumbest”.
The digital age stupefies young americans. Young people are mesmerized by the new-age tools. Instead of using these tools to discover the world of knowledge, history, and politics, they are using it for their social life. Generation Y is the dumbest because they lack the ability to focus, which shows indifference of the determination in society.
First, we are the dumbest generation because it is a lot easier for us to find information than it was in the past generations. “Young Americans have much more access and education than their parents did, but in the 2007 Pew survey on ‘What Americans Know:1989-2007,’ 56 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds possessed low knowledge levels, while only 22 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds did”(Source A). The under 30 generation has Information at the tip of their hands and they still are not smarter than older generations. How can the under 30 generation be dumber than the older generations if they have more access to information. The under 30 generation is being lazy, they can look up any thing in a matter of seconds but don’t care enough about retaining the information because they can search it up again. Students aren't taking advantage of having a better access to internet. The expected results would be that the under 30 generation would be smarter but in this case it is not, this is ironic because there is a difference between the expected outcome and the actual. Next our brains are starting to act
Those under the age of thirty are not dumb, they may not be intelligent either, but they are apart of a generation that provides them with unlimited resources in order to be immersed with knowledge. The younger generation had no other choice but to grow up in a world where technology was at their fingertips. How someone uses technology is a choice that they have the freedom to make. Technology is a beautiful thing, not something that has the power to make those under the age of thirty “dumb.”
The foremost reason video games can help the human brain is their ability to increase cognitive flexibility. Several studies have shown how different parts of the brain are stimulated while playing video games. “Fast paced, action-packed” video games propose the benefits to “boost visual acuity, spatial perception, and the ability to pick out objects in a scene” (Anthes 2009). Starcraft, a fast thinking strategy game, showed results where participants became “quicker and more accurate in performing cognitive flexibility tasks” (Queen Mary “Playing video games can boost brain power”). It has also been noted that complex strategy games can “improve other cognitive skills, which include working memory and reasoning” (Anthes 2009). Different genres of videogames help augment the cognitive functions of the brain.
With the help of the same fundamentals and technology used for video games, schools can change the way our children grasp, and understand the world around us. Children and schools are not the only ones who are able to reap the benefit of gaming. A study from the University of Toronto, lead by Professor Ian Spence, demonstrated that adults are just as easily affected by video games as children. “Playing an action videogame, even for a relatively short time, causes differences in brain activity and improvements in visual attention (“Central Nervous System; Action videogames change brains”).” After studying twenty-five adults, tasked with playing a video game for 10 hours a week, Spencer had learned that those adults did not only have increased
Everyone sees the future in a different way; some see greater technological advances while others might see a more peaceful mankind. This indecisiveness leads to the ongoing debate as to whether or not this generation, Generation Y, has a role in America’s future. Considering our teenagers and children are the adults of tomorrow, I would argue that, in fact, they do have an impact. Every new generation has a role in the future of our country, as they fill the gaps of other people that can’t work anymore or have passed away. It just becomes a matter of how we use this power to impact society. Although the generation is very capable of producing great leaders, politicians, and a hands-on community, we cannot predict how those will choose to fill the gaps.
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Scanlon. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 525-529,546-551. Print.