Summary: The Dumbest Generation

Technology has greatly impacted the prestige of society and brought a copious amount of innovations to the table, but some question is it a path to detriment? In Mark Baurerlin’s best-selling book The Dumbest Generation, he makes his claim just as it conveys in the title; today’s generation is distinctly the dumbest in all of modern history. It is easy to assume that because technology is at everyone’s fingertips, no one has to work for or learn anything; however, taking a closer look one can see that the Generation Y has developed differently, learns from their peers more effectively than from adults, and has not destroyed but revived their writing style. Gen Y is not dumb, but instead they are paving a new way to the art of intelligence.
In Mizuko Ito Et Al’s 2008 study, Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, he makes the argument that Gen Y is independent and can learn better from their peers and the internet than from everyday teachers. Many students can accumulate information through the media they tend to. In Ito Et Al’s study it says, “Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.” (Source 3). Gen Y has adapted to media; they care about their reputation on the internet and will learn as much as possible from others in order to stay in the flow of the popular. “Youth turn instead to specialized knowledge groups of both teens and adults form around the country or world, with the goal of improving their craft and gaining reputation among expert peers.” (Source 3). This shows that teens are not only eager to learn about their specialized talents but in fact go even further to try to improve them. Gen Y is not lazy and does not have the characteristics of what is defined as dumb. They are determined to become advanced in their individual skills by using what they know,
Those who oppose say that the advanced technology batters our writing skills, but keep in mind that Generation Y did not grow up with the previous existence. In Source 7, Clive Thompson’s issue, The New Literacy, it introduces the idea that a literacy revolution is upon today’s generation. Thompson’s excerpt is about a study performed by Andrea Lunsford who says, “Technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.” In order to back up her claim Lunsford goes on to add, “Young people today write far more than any generation before them. That’s because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text.” During the study it was found that most students wrote more outside of school than in school. Social media has played a big part of what contributes to teens and young adult’s literature skills. They have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the list goes on and on. Each network requires the art of one’s own words. This is where Gen Y is learning to use their writing fundamentals more freely and experiment the depths of their literature. Lunsford explores the idea that Gen Y’s writing is shifting gears and defying the proper use of writing in way no one could