-
The Dumbest Generation
- How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's summary
Let's take stock of young America. Compared to previous generations, American youth have more schooling (college enrollments have never been higher); more money ($100 a week in disposable income); more leisure time (five hours a day); and more news and information (Internet, The Daily Show, RSS feeds). What do they do with all that time and money? They download, upload, IM, post, chat, and network. (Nine of their top ten sites are for social networking.) They watch television and play video games (2 to 4 hours per day). And here is what they don't do: They don't read, even online (two thirds aren't proficient in reading); they don't follow politics (most can't name their mayor, governor, or senator); they don't maintain a brisk work ethic (just ask employers); and they don't vote regularly (45 percent can't comprehend a ballot). They are the dumbest generation. They enjoy all the advantages of a prosperous, high-tech society. Digital technology has fabulously empowered them, loosened the hold of elders. Yet adolescents use these tools to wrap themselves in a generational cocoon filled with puerile banter and coarse images. The founts of knowledge are everywhere, but the rising generation camps in the desert, exchanging stories, pictures, tunes, and texts, savoring the thrill of peer attention. If they don't change, they will be remembered as fortunate ones who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be the generation that lost that great American heritage, forever.
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- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating guided tour of the complex, fast-moving, and influential world of algorithms - what they are, why they’re such powerful predictors of human behavior, and where they’re headed next. Algorithms exert an extraordinary level of influence on our everyday lives - from dating websites and financial trading floors, through to online retailing and internet searches - Google's search algorithm is now a more closely guarded commercial secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola.
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Not about algorithms. Not an original book.
- By Landon Rordam on 12-02-14
By: Luke Dormehl
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Fail U.
- The False Promise of Higher Education
- By: Charles J. Sykes
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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With chapters exploring the staggering costs of a college education, the sharp decline in tenured faculty and teaching loads, the explosion of administrator jobs, the grandiose building plans (gyms, food courts, student recreation centers), and the hysteria surrounding the "epidemic" of campus rapes, "triggers", "micro-aggressions", and other forms of alleged trauma, Fail U. concludes by offering a different vision of higher education - one that is affordable, more productive, and better-suited to meet the needs of a diverse range of students.
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Very glad I listened, not enough resolution
- By James Collier on 03-01-17
By: Charles J. Sykes
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Weapons of Mass Instruction
- A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
- By: John Taylor Gatto
- Narrated by: Michael Puttonen
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling.
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I will never see school the same
- By Nicole on 05-21-15
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Too Big To Know
- Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room
- By: David Weinberger
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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We used to know how to know. We got our answers from books or experts. We'd nail down the facts and move on. But in the Internet age, knowledge has moved onto networks. There's more knowledge than ever, of course, but it's different. Topics have no boundaries, and nobody agrees on anything.Yet this is the greatest time in history to be a knowledge seeker - if you know how.
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Good to know ...
- By John B. Fisher on 01-24-12
By: David Weinberger
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Creative Schools
- The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education
- By: Lou Aronica, Ken Robinson
- Narrated by: Ken Robinson PhD
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Ken Robinson is one of the world's most influential voices in education, and his 2006 TED Talk on the subject is the most viewed in the organization's history. Now, the internationally recognized leader on creativity and human potential focuses on one of the most critical issues of our time: how to transform the nation's troubled educational system.
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The Answer to Why Students Stop Trying
- By Alison Sattler on 07-21-15
By: Lou Aronica, and others
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How Children Succeed
- Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control. How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character.
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Article based on interviews
- By Anonymous User on 10-24-24
By: Paul Tough
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The Smartest Kids in the World
- And How They Got That Way
- By: Amanda Ripley
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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How do other countries create "smarter" kids? In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year.
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a Wanna-be fiction writer avoids the subject
- By Niall on 11-23-13
By: Amanda Ripley
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The Shallows
- What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
- By: Nicholas Carr
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Weaving insights from philosophy, neuroscience, and history into a rich narrative, The Shallows explains how the internet is rerouting our neural pathways, replacing the subtle mind of the book reader with the distracted mind of the screen watcher. A gripping story of human transformation played out against a backdrop of technological upheaval, The Shallows will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.
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It is not consistant, so it is frustrating.
- By Adam Shields on 08-03-12
By: Nicholas Carr
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The Importance of Being Little
- What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
- By: Erika Christakis
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A bold challenge to the conventional wisdom about early childhood, with a pragmatic program to encourage parents and teachers to rethink how and where young children learn best by taking the child's eye view of the learning environment.
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Points out many problems; offers no real solution
- By K. Lynn on 08-06-18
By: Erika Christakis
What listeners say about The Dumbest Generation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jack
- 11-03-11
Thesis: Tech-hip new kids are actually dumb.
Prof. Bauerlein argues that technological changes have affected literacy and learning in such a way that students in US high schools and colleges are actually radically deficient in a number of skill and knowledge sets. This argues against the perception of over-worked "super students," common in the US media. Bauerlein is a professor, so he speaks from experience as well as statistics. My own experience as a teacher in college largely confirms what he says, though I do think Bauerlein is perhaps a little hard on what are overwhelmingly well-meaning students.
The larger problem is that the promised radicalization of learning introduced by technology has had, for Bauerlein, the opposite effect. Despite having access to databases of knowledge, students won't know things like the dates of the Second World War, or the current speaker of the house, to say nothing of diagramming a sentence. The problem is that students use technology for entertainment, rather than education. In the defense of these students, they're faced with marketplace pressures to sell technology one way or another, and most things that can be used for learning can be used for entertainment. Cf. the Microsoft deal where you get an XBOX 360 with a new computer over 699 dollars: "So you have everything you need for college," I think the catchphrase went. Yeah. Or Tablets and smart phones that are advertised through games and movies.
The main defect to this book, and hence my three stars for story, is that it can tend to get repetitive, with repeating sets of statistics. There also isn't much of a meaty self-examination on the part of a liberal education to provide a concrete, meaningful motivation to study things like Homer, politics, and civic life. There are larger issues of justification lurking here, and it would be interesting to hear Bauerlein discuss. Heck, I'd even rather play Dead Space 2 on XBOX 360 than read some of the texts I was assigned as an undergrad... Another issue is the increasing specialization of faculty, who often won't know much about different time periods in their own fields, let alone other disciplines. So, it's entirely possible to have a highly specialized education in a few texts with massive knowledge gaps across the board.
On the whole, worth a listen and consideration of the arguments. Decently read.
(On a side note, I had freshmen students read his first chapter, and they are, no surprise, not receptive to his argument.)
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8 people found this helpful
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- John Michael Casilla
- 08-16-17
this widens the view of our younger generation
this book is very interesting to listen to because it delivers another point of view of the world today and how it differs just a few years back. it is somewhat boring if you do not like to listen to the details of the issue but you get to learn about things that are going on.
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- Scott Fabel
- 06-04-12
A Bit Too Whiny
I wanted to like this book... I really did! In many ways, I agree with the author's hypothesis, so I thought it would be supported with some good data. The problem was that the author used data (and a lot of it) to fit his hypothesis instead of allowing his hypotheses to come from the data. He seemed to be whining more than presenting actual, valuable facts. Many of his comments were sweeping generalizations, and there weren't enough data to back up those claims. Moreover, I am not a fan of presenting faults without recommendations for improvements. His recommendations were weak at best. Also, I'd like to mention that I'm (far) over 30 years old, so I don't feel personally attacked by this book. On the contrary, I agree with much of what the author posited, yet I dislike how it was done. It was flimsy, and informed readers will see right through his personal dislikes.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Well, Clean and Green
- 09-29-16
Yawn
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Lots of numbers and results from studies sprinkled throughout. Extremely boring.
Would you recommend The Dumbest Generation to your friends? Why or why not?
Not recommended unless is it necessary for political science research.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
I'm not sure if it was the content of the voice, but I fell asleep a couple of times.
Was The Dumbest Generation worth the listening time?
It would have been just as boring to read the book as listening to it (my best guess).
Any additional comments?
The author made a couple of good points, but the data presented seems bias.
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- Ryan
- 07-02-13
Ironically banal, dry, and unimpressive.
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
Boomer generation academics who pride themselves on their antiquated scholarly methods: reading texts in the library, spending an hour a day reading "objective" news in print media, and finding new ways to feign knowledge of social media like blogs, and MYSPACE by referencing those outlets as tech-savvy pursuits.
Has The Dumbest Generation turned you off from other books in this genre?
No, but this book's self-congratulatory undertone seemed to laud those of us who grew up into our own ivory towers yet, in doing so, displayed just how droll that particular lifestyle can be.
What didn’t you like about Danny Campbell’s performance?
It would sedate even the most caffeinated group of statisticians. Very dry, very slow. Print version might serve the argument better (which is probably the point).
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
The content touches a growing trend, but only tangentially. I agree with the educational and social trends, but the data used was unconvincing, and DATED (e.g., references to MySpace).
Any additional comments?
MySpace v. Facebook? Why is the FB not mentioned?
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-02-18
Limited argument
As a millennial on the younger end of the generational band, who feels very strongly about civic engagement, political awareness, education, and cognitive ability, I was very excited to read this book.
I was hoping for a thorough analysis of the impact that digital technology has had on my generations ability to think and engage with the world around them, for better or worse. What I was fearsome of was a one sided ignorant argument against a younger generation. The author repeatedly promises that this book is not a curmudgeonly argument against the millennials, but I was shocked at how simplistic and ignorant this book was.
I think there is an incredibly interesting discussion to be had about how the internet, a tool with incredible potential to widen our worldview and our intellectual capacity, seems to have been used to decrease the scope of our individual worlds and limit our ability to think critically. Is that a failing of our society, or does it say something bigger about our species cognitive capacity, maybe the internet is too powerful of a tool for us?
This book doesn’t discuss anything like that, instead this is another baby boomer complaining about how millennials don’t read classic literature, engage with the news enough, or pick up paper newspapers. As someone who does all three of those things, and many of the activities that the author bemoans about my generation not doing, I am far from convinced that these activities possess an inherent moral or intellectual superiority. Why are these activities inherently superior to the same activities being done on a laptop, or not at all? How do these activities equip millennials to handle the rigors of life?
I have my reasoning for believing that these activities are important, but to write a book with the central focus being critiquing a group of people for not doing certain activities, without ever articulating why those activities are important, comes off as incredibly ignorant.
This book is so condescending and judgmental it was astounding.
Millennials have grown up in an economy that is broken from the bottom up, a political system that is perverted beyond recognition, and a country that has been so consistently manipulated and mislead that they are divided beyond repair and dangerously apathetic about the erosion and decay of our institutions. Yet this author has the audacity to shamelessly write a book about how all of these disastrous outcomes are not a result of his generations mistakes or a flaw in their methods, having grown up in a post war boom, but rather a result of my inability to put my iPod down when I was 12 and pick up The Great Gatsby?
The fact that anyone can be so confident that their methods are right, when the state of the economy, country, and political system say otherwise, is astounding to me, and makes for a boring and frustrating read.
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4 people found this helpful