Generation Dumb

Summary
“Generation M” starts off by saying how children and adolescents have always had a major effect on new media and how people have always given attention to the role of media in children, ranging from the how the Brothers Grimm edited their fairy tales to social scientists actively studying children and media. It gives statistics on how much media has changed from the mid 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century and provides statistics on a wide range of new media objects present in American homes such as the number of televisions in each household, the number of computers, and the amount of video games children and adolescents possess. It concludes by stating that the average young person spends six and a half hours a day using media and that over a quarter of the time a person is using media they are using two or more forms of media simultaneously. The study found that in homes where parents control the amount of time their children are exposed to media the more they read and the less they watch television, play video games and use the computer. One conclusion was a fairly obvious one, which states that a child with some form of media in their room will also use other forms of media more.

The video states that multi-tasking is not effective and argues that this generation of students is far below the level of previous generations. It supports its claim by showing a student who says he has not read a book in years and that he simply uses a website such as SparkNotes, where he can learn the content an entire novel in five minutes. It also goes on to say that professors are no longer able to assign books that are longer than two hundred pages because they know that students are simply not going to read the book, rather they will find other ways to learn the material.


Inquiry

I was surprised by the conclusions of the study but, unfortunately, it was not a huge shock. It is evident that new media is being overused and can be seen by something as basic as someone telling their children dinner is ready by calling their cell phone instead of telling them in person and watching television while eating dinner, something that was previously strictly a time for family with no other distractions. The study was done six years ago, and the use of media has only increased dramatically since then. There has been no attempt to stop the overuse of media and media use shows no signs of declining. As for being the dumbest generation, with such a large quantity of resources available online providing anything from a simple summary to a character analysis to an in-depth discussion about the plot of a story, it is easy to see how students would gravitate towards the less time-consuming route and simply use a readily available source, such as SparkNotes. In previous years, technology was not as advanced and information was not as readily available, meaning students were forced to complete their assignments in order to pass the class. Now, with a multitude of distractions such as social networking sites and other forms of new media, most students prefer to spend less time on homework and more time using new media so the depth of the completion of assignments depends on how accurate the quick information found online was.


1. Do you believe that this generation of students really is “dumber” than previous generations?

2. Do you feel that the growth of new media is what is to blame for what is now known as the dumbest generation and what do you feel needs to change in order for this generation to get rid of that title?

3. Do you agree with the reading and how do you feel the use of media has changed since it was written?