Is Google Making USupid: The Dumbest Generation

In terms of lacking common sense and the relationship of physical things, yes, today’s generation is dumber. Technology robs people of the ability to think for themselves and have creativity and willingness to discover on their own. It is so easy to pick up a phone and ask Google a question and get a simplified answer that’s easy for comprehension. According to the Dictionary, the definition of dumb is, “simplify or reduce the intellectual content of something so as to make it accessible to a larger number of people.” That statement instantly makes me think of the internet. The web provides information that is easy to understand and it is available at any moment, making the population “dumb”.

Mark Bauerlein the author of The Dumbest Generation

says that the world of technology presents no hardships, or in other words, life has become too easy. “For the young American, life has never been so yielding… The material gains are clear, and each year the traits of worldliness and autonomy seem to trickle down into ever-younger age groups.” From my own experiences, I have seen children get phones younger and younger each year. This also applies to teens getting cars. Many adolescents don’t have to pay for their own cars, it is just handed to them. Bauerlein states, “... 56 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds possesed low knowledge levels, while only 22 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds did.” What this means is the young's brain power falls short of their media, money, and given possessions.
Elementary students today know less than before.

The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” by Nicholas Carr, “The net is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” This makes sense to me, a teen living in the technological age. Thanks to the internet, information can be acquired at rapid speed, making teens have less of an attention span. We expect to find information so quickly, that when we don’t, we give up. That means our natural skills are being stripped away from us due to the internet and technology. “The New Literacy,” by Clive Thompson explains how kids are losing their ability to write. “Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into ‘bleak, bald, sad shorthand’.” This piece of evidence makes sense. On a daily basis, texting and its language is a skill that’s always being sharpened by adolescents. After a long spring break of texting and spending time on social media, personally, turning right around and writing an essay becomes a challenge. The world of texting and regular dialogue is vastly different. Because we spend so much time on social media, our capability to compose pieces of writing has

suffered.
Many will say that technology isn’t making anyone dumber; just introducing more skills to the masses. “Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project”, by Mizuko Ito Et Al, says technology and the internet isn’t necessarily making students dumber. “New media allows for… freedom… that is less apparent in a classroom setting. Youth respect one another’s authority online, and are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.” I agree with Mizuko’s view on this. The internet provides endless information and covers topics that don’t get covered in a classroom. On the other hand, students don’t use technology or the internet for mainly educational purposes. The average teenager doesn’t google what interests them or watch TED Talks, we communicate with each other and use it to entertain us.
Technology is making today’s generation dumber, stealing our knowledge, using out time, and creating a generation that is under- performing.