Wired for Success

I'd like to see some links for those articles.

I'd also like to point out that the information you claimed asked about is irrelevant in day-to-day life. Any Gen Y kid can easily google it on their smart phone any time they need access to that information. Why would they waste brain cells on something like that?

Another thing I'd like to point out, is that school isn't exactly human-friendly. It's a pretty harrowing experience for a child to be told "Don't play. Don't talk. Don't have fun. No fun allowed. Now pay attention to boring stuff." when there's an infinite world of possibilities blocked off only by an invisible force field called the window.

Most Gen Y kids get so many mixed messages about Gov't that they'll all generally reach the same conclusion; it can't be understood, don't try. That's the same conclusion that even my economics professor has come to! If a Master's in Economics isn't good enough to figure out Government, why would someone who doesn't even have ambitions that high care?

Your "data" is largely irrelevant or based off of arbitrary information with context completely unobserved. It's not a far throw to get to "this plate is warm and that one is cold because they are made of different materials" when actually one is hot because it's sitting on a fire. You ignore the circumstance and the changes and claim that the new generation is stupid? They're not stupid. They're responding to incentives and beliefs just like you did; they just don't respond to the same incentives or share the same beliefs.

The only difference is the context, which you've entirely failed to consider in this article.

So consider this an expression of outrage from a Generation Y college undergraduate.

I found your article interesting, and I agree that it seems the general intellect of Americans is decreasing.

However, I do wonder if you have any statistical backing for your claim that children are being targeted for their intellect, any more than in the past? I graduated high school in 2006, and was one of the "smart kids who ask a million questions." I got some gentle teasing from my friends, but never experienced any notable levels of bullying or taunting. I don't recall anyone else being taunted about their intellect (some of the popular kids were also in all the AP classes); if they were socially awkward, then yes, there was bullying, but that occurred regardless of academic ability.

Maybe I have rose-colored glasses because I went to a small high school in the Midwest . . . but I would argue it's not peers who are reinforcing ignorance.

We are told of the Flynn Effect: unadjusted IQ scores have risen 3 points per decade ever since the tests were first administered a century ago. (New scores are constantly renormalized from the raw results so that the nominal average always stays 100.) Yet Jay Leno has little trouble getting good comedy material by asking simple questions of people on the street. Nominal average SAT scores are very little different than they were 40 years ago, but, if Wiki is correct, this is only because the tests are so much easier that, if you took the SAT back then, you should add 70 points to your verbal and 30 points to your math in order to compare your results properly to current scores. Apparently, having more brains does not ensure using them.

Is anti-intellectualism on the rise? Is anti-scientific thinking on the rise? (For measuring the extent of anti-scientific thought, there is a hazard in picking political questions in which the potential for bias -- either way -- is obvious; tabulating beliefs in crystal power, tarot cards, ghosts, and the like probably would be better.) I don't know, but it is fair to say there seems to be no shortage of either.

I take issue with some of the facts that you listed as proof that we are "dumber". For instance, it used to be the norm to teach creationism in school, so how does wanting to teach the subject now make Americans "dumber" than they were in the past? Also, there are a number of valid and scientific arguments that can be made against global warming (for instance, looking at trends over millions of years as opposed to the past few thousands shows that the earth has been significantly warmer at other periods) so the fact that some dispute its veracity doesn't make them "dumb."

In short, I think to equate being religious and/or skeptical with being dumb (or, "dumber")is quite a false equation. I think your definition of "dumber" lacks clarity (dumber in comparison to who and when?) and while some of your examples have merit, others seem nonsequitur, poorly researched, and even pointlessly mean.

Would anyone have a problem, issue, moral pause, at the idea of a micro/nano chip being implanted in a person's brain so that they could bring up the internet at any time.

Don't chastise me on the how yet. I'm just wondering if people would have any problem with a permanent addition that would make us as smart (or as dumb) as all of the internet.

I already have a 4 inch phone that can do this, how long until they put the phone into my head?

Just a personal suspicion here: if Americans seem to be getting dumber even while academic training has steadily become more complex, then what could be driving this behavioral trend? And I do stress that I believe it's purely behavioral, not intellectual.

My guess is that it has to do with technological development and urbanization. It's a simple fact that people who live in densely populated areas often self-isolate and end up with all sorts of anxiety and depression issues (and worse). Current technology enables this self-isolation and marketing trends are aimed at exploiting the isolationists' anxieties and other problems to maximum effect.

So you end up with people who never feel the need to assume responsibility for their actions or develop a sense of consideration for anyone outside themselves, because we live in a culture where there is no apparent need to take those developmental steps. The culture becomes one of impulsive, self-centered, childish adults.

Is there a "fix" for this? I don't think there is. Nothing short of nationwide poverty and suffering will wake the people up. I imagine our current economic problems might be foreshadowing more serious problems as time goes by. Those of you who are at least in your early 30's might remember pictures and video of what Soviet Russia looked like near the end of the Cold War. I suspect the US will have to go through a similar cultural trough before we reach the next peak.

This article is an interesting read. As a member of Gen Y and a current PhD student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, this issue is something I regularly confront and consider. I see students sitting in the classes I teach and wonder if my perspective is skewed or if they really are "dumber" than what I perceive their parents must be. I wonder if I'm dumber than the PhD student who held my spot 30 years ago. I think it's very tempting and easy to say so.

However, I think simply chalking these young people up as "dumber" handles the issue in a very reductive manner. I see another force at work in the examples listed and in the actions and attitudes of the college freshman I teach. I wonder if perhaps the disconnect between what we expect from young people in terms of "smartness" isn't, at least partially, the result of the way we measure "smartness." It's no secret that the type of knowledge and literacies we utilize in today's societies differ from those of even 20 years ago. Yet, we expect students to present intelligence via assessment that emphasizes outdated literacies. The way we communicate and share knowledge is different, and yet we ask students to fill bubbles on scantron cards the way their parents and grandparents did.

Certainly, part of the issue must lie at the hands of an American society that views education and intelligence in a counterproductive and anti-rationalist way. Through an American ideology and education system we build within children the life-long hatred of and resistance to learning. We pit them against each other and take every opportunity to point out their deficiencies until the idea that learning is personally fulfilling is completely squashed. Of course, they don't want to go to college. They've been told (or they've perceived the message) that they're not worthy of education for 15 years.

But in reality our issue is a perfect storm of these factors: valued literacy shift, a broken US education system, and increased democratization in schools. That's what people forget. While the early 1960s may have seen great things from some people, it also excluded a number of black, latinos, women, and lower class Americans. Now, more minorities are attending college than ever before. Women outnumber men in post secondary education, and the lower classes are using education as a spring board for socio-economic mobility.

Perhaps what we need to look at is not whether we're getting "dumber," but what it will take to make sure the best of American educational intentions can work together. Right now, it seems like educational institutions are behind the times if they still favor the assessments of our parents and grandparents. In fact, it does very little to concern ourselves with test scores and rankings on the world stage, which are themselves linked to the sick, power crazy attitudes dominating the educational conversation. Instead of worrying about how we "stack up" in tests that may or may not accurately reflect the knowledge bases and literacies prized in an ever-changing society, why not think on how we might change an education system to actively kills the learning spirit in so money young people, that helps create generations of people hell-bent on ignorance.

Yes people are dumber not by choice, but what this society trys to cramm down us through the media. We are getting more and more distracted, less focused and very dissipated. Amen on that.