First off, I was highly offended by what Bauerlein said about our generation being “lazy and ignorant”. Frankly, I don’t find myself or my friends to be that way at all. Sure, we sometimes sit around and just play video games or make fun of each other, but I have highly intellectual conversations about politics and over various subjects with them almost every day. I will admit that there are some kids my age out there that don’t care about what is going on in the world and would rather drink all weekend then pay attention to the world around them, but not all of us are like that. I think every generation looks down on the generation following them and assumes they are all stupid. What people don’t realize is that over the years school curriculum changes and we learn different things. I think it is important to know about our rich history and other cultures, but should I memorize every piece of music that Mozart ever composed? Or be able to speak fluent Latin? Would that make me smarter in his eyes? I don’t think I should be required to know everything that you know, or your friends know, or your parents. We all have a specialization in some area of knowledge and I think that is what is best for society. I may know more about psychology than you, but you may know more about human anatomy. We can combine our knowledge and do great things. Just because we all don’t know everything there is to know in the world doesn’t mean we aren’t intelligent.
Bauerlein also stated that we are abusing the internet for social use rather than informational use. I’m pretty sure that I use the internet all the time to find out new things, not just to chat with my friends. Besides, so what if we use the internet for social interaction. We are human and socializing is a key need in our lives. We live in a busy world when we are in college where every second of our day is consumed by fifty million tasks we need to complete each week, along with work and other activities. The internet and cell phones help me keep connected with people using the little time I’m able to do so.
I think that Bauerlein needs to go out in the world and notice that there are many people from my generation that are intelligent and will change the world just like others in his generation. We may do it in a different way, but we will make a difference none the less. I’m confident in my intelligence and I don’t think that I should have to live up to standards like his by learning things that he may think are important. The problem is that the media loves to focus on those that mess up because it’s funny to us. It’s just like that interview with the pageant queen. That was quite a moronic response, but I’m positive that many of the other contestants are nothing like her and were able to clearly convey what they believe.
I do think that people need to take education more serious and try to become well rounded, but to say that we aren’t intelligent is offensive. People like him need to praise those of us that try to do well in life instead of focusing on those that can’t form a sentence.
When he threw out that stat that the average American teenager watches 2.41 hours of television per day, I wish I had that kind of time to watch TV. That stat is reliant on the outlier of the few teenagers that literally do nothing but watch TV, a good majority of our generation would love to have the luxury of to sit down for 3 hours and watch TV. I can say I don't follow politics thoroughly but at the same time I know what is going on around me for him to call us unintelligent is insane.
ReplyDeleteMegan, I like how you brought up the fact that not all of us know everything and anything. I don't think we should have to be fluent in 3 languages and know every war that ever took place because were not all genius minded. I do believe many of us are intellectual or know alot about one certain subject, or that many of us are well rounded and maybe know a little bit of everything. As far as what Matt said, I know I definetly don't sit around and watch t.v. really at all unless footballs on. I don't even own a game consol, never have and never will. So that statistic offended me alot as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's feasible to know everything about everything and the older generation is delusional to think they do. I agree that our generation is going to do great things, and honestly I think it's things that are much greater than what they've done. Technology is here to stay and our generation is there to embrace it and do big things with it.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you say people in our generation will change the world just as the generations before us did. This is so true we are different because be will build off of what others have learned and continue to increase our knowledge in diffident ways.
ReplyDeleteWhat is truly going to help our future generations is the fact that we know so much about technology now, not if we know specific historical facts. I am not saying it is unimportant to know general information but becasue some of oour generation doesn't, doesn't mean we should fear for what will happen in the future.I agree that each person has something they know alot about and that we do not need to know everything to be consider not dumb.
ReplyDeleteYes, he makes generalizations; however, is there any merit within them? If you look at society as a whole (meaning not every individual) do they fall somewhere near these generalizations?
ReplyDeleteYou also mention " I don’t think I should be required to know everything that you know, or your friends know, or your parents." I agree. People know different things and people can put their knowledge together to create something great, like you said. But, do you think that some things are important for everyone to know? Does our society in any way support this? If you think about what we have to know to graduate from each grade, I think the answer would be yes. We do have to have some basic level of the same knowledge.