Togo of Grand Smials ([info]hfx_ben) wrote,
@ 2008-08-01 00:00:00
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A long-held belief:
I just tweeted this:
"that my cohort (fecklessly narcissistic sellouts that they are) have raised a buncha kidz who are as though brain-damaged. Just now, I found a book!"

"Mark Bauerlein thinks that young Americans are the dumbest generation ever, and he blames it all on the internet.  Specifically, he thinks teenagers are using the internet to communicate with other teenagers, as opposed to learning something.
I suspect that every generation thinks the next generation is a bunch of idiots, and blames it on something recent.  The internet, television, rock and roll, comic books… the technology changes but the story remains the same."
from ReGruntled.com
see also "The Dumbest Generation" - "How dumb are we? Thanks to the Internet, dumb and dumber, this author writes." LATimes book review

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[info]threeandnine
2008-08-02 06:03 pm UTC (link)
I love the internet, but I fear the day when kids all get their college degrees without ever setting foot in a university...then we're all toast.

; )

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[info]hfx_ben
2008-08-02 07:24 pm UTC (link)
Hi there ... I'm painfully aware that I've yet to respond to a couple of comments you left (and thanks for this one). That sloth is indicative of how I'm, well, sort of running out of steam.

I reverted to an earlier lifestyle and went pubbing last night. There are so many nice kidz ... but the general climate of violence and low-grade fascism is chilling. Very nearly got swarmed on my way home, a 5 block running battle with young hooligans cursing at me for following them, an attack that continued even after I crossed to the other side of the boulevard.

I anticipated this dark age decades ago, is why I trained so oddly (Zen and cog-psych) but never anticipated that I would find myself side-lined and depressed. "Disconcerting" only barely begins to describe it.

Ah-lah, and so it goes.

stay well

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[info]minveg
2008-08-04 10:55 pm UTC (link)
This is all very interesting... But I don't blame the internet at all for the stupid fucking Americans of today! Americans are becoming what is asked of them - they are only taught enough in school to become drones who will fulfill some societal cog, some job that will use the rest of their life, provide that small service with the minimal amount of fuss (read: Don't complain you can't live on minimum wage, don't complain you don't have healthcare, etc).. I mean shit, these kids are going apeshit over this series of books, more people showed up for the 4th (and final) book than for Harry Potter, and these are FAT books, so it's not like the kids can't read, it's just that they want to read crappy shit about vampires and "true love."

I would like to note that I think the internet is a GREAT tool at our disposal, and that's the reason the Bush Admin opposes it so strongly. We have knowledge at our fingertips, and it's incredible. Of course stupid, lame teenagers probably aren't looking it up, that's to be expected.

Although I DO agree that all these electronics distract from reading books... So, go that guy. All part of the Luceferian Revolution, you realize. :-)

I used to think it was technology that fucked everything up, too, but then I realized the problem really started with agriculture... Which, I suppose, IS a technology, of sorts.

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