In class on Thursday we listened to a radio talk show host interview with a man who recently published the book “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”  Mark Bauerlein, diligent researcher and professor at an Ivy League school, is the author of this book and his interview with the host of the talk show.  During the interview Mark failed to show an unbiased opinion the entire time.

                Mark compares Ivy League students to students of other universities and says that the ones attending the prestigious schools know how to research properly, they actually use books for research and not the internet, and they are “better” in a way.  I wanted to bring up an argument that not many kids can afford going to colleges as expensive as those.  I’m sure that if we tested every kid at every university there will be numerous kids who score just as high as Ivy League students on tests.  The fact that Mark insists that these kids are better enrages me.  Another point Mark himself brought up was the fact that parents/ grandparents will criticize their kids/ grandkids on the fact that they are on the computer too much, or they aren’t reading enough books.  This could be argued in that we are using the computer to do our homework, and finish up projects.  Elder people think the computer is just a leisurely activity that teens now-a-days use to socialize, and just as a web browser.  I, for one, use the internet as an ultimate research tool.  It helps me complete my physics homework every week, and if it wasn’t for the internet I’d be failing many classes.  The internet is a place that has every tool you need to do almost anything you want to.  Technology has changed and people need to understand that with that change means we are becoming a lot more efficient.  Almost every book, encyclopedia, dictionary, writer (Microsoft Word), presentation (Microsoft Powerpoint), etc. is right there on our desks at home. We don’t need to go to the library to find an article or type a paper.

                As one of my class mates said kids now-a-days have a lot more drive to go to college.  If we don’t go to college, we will not amount to anything.  The fact that our parents criticize us on being lazy is complete hypocrisy.  Back in their day, college was not a necessity; one could get a job just by knowing someone in the business.  Mark should know that we aren’t lazy, we are EFFICIENT.  We find ways of doing something in half the time that it would have taken him to do it back in the 70s.