Dumb Generation? Teens Are Just as Smart as They Ever Were

The USA Today commented on two books related to the digital age of Gen Y (ages 16-29). The first book is The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future by Mark Bauerlein.

Bauerlein an English professor at Emory University in Atlanta, claims in his book that young generation have acquired skills not being useful in the marketplace, and that they've lost track of human ways to relate to unknown people. The author recommends to parents to: "Talk with your kids. Kids can't do this by themselves."

In the other hand is Gary Small, director of the Center of Aging at the University of California- L.A. and co-author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. And this is the posture we take part in. Small asserts clearly that, "teens are just as smart as they ever were."

Multitasking for example, creates a barrier between the old and new generations. The Gen Y may be good with technology but weak in face-to-face communication but still they interact with no prejudices. This young generation, familiar with MySpace and Facebook, is just as smart as any adult but in different ways. Small concludes: "In some ways (technology) is hindering, in some ways it's advancing" education, and adds, "It teaches our brain a different way of processing things."

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