Summary: The Dumbest Generation

In the past several years, the use of technology for social purposes has become the mainstream form of communication for many young Americans. Adolescents, particularly those in high school, have embraced these forms of communication as their primary way to connect with family and friends and showcase their social lives. While the use of social media promotes increased interaction with friends and family, facilitate social and political change, and spread useful information rapidly, the growing use of social media comes with many negatives consequences when abused. In his book, The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein reveals how the youths of America are being dumbed down due to their reluctance towards reading anything of substance and their

According to a survey done by Pew Research in 2012, 75% of teens ages twelve to seventeen text and half of teens send sixty or more text messages a day, or eighteen hundred a month. This staggering amount of text messaging means that half of all teens are being interrupted in their day and are being distracted from what they were doing. With 15% of teens who are texters sending more than two hundred texts a day or more than six thousand texts a month, it is obvious that texting has become an addictive form of social media and is distracting many teens from getting any work done at all. Homework is interrupted when teens become distracted from notifications of a new chat messages from a social networking site, texts, or emails. There are even some young Americans who find themselves checking their phone for messages, alerts, or calls despite not hearing their phone ringing or vibrating. Research by Professor Larry Rosen at California State University shows that around 64% of those born after 1985 are checking their texts every fifteen minutes and nearly 40% are checking in on Facebook. With many young

As explained in The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, “there is a core set of survival skills for today’s workplace, as well as for lifelong learning and active citizenship” (14). One of the seven skills Wagner listed can be tied directly to social media and how it hinders the development of strong communication skills. Instead of having a face to face conversation, teens are sending messages as a means of communication without the actual verbal part. Texting has made communication easier for young Americans by making unpleasant phone conversations a thing of the past and making a quick “Hello” much easier. This trend slowly builds a habit of poor communication skills. As previously mentioned, 75% of teenagers text regularly, and one in three sends more than 100 texts per day. We can see that texting is the preferred method of communication among young people. To make messages quick and maintain a steady flow of conversation, acronyms and dropping nonessential letters are used to shorten messages. Instead of typing out “laugh out loud” they’ll use acronyms like “LOL” to signify they find it amusing.. They’ll also use homophones like “gr8” for “great” and drop letters from words like “would” to make “wud”. It is obvious to see why texting and messaging through social networks negatively