The Dumbest Generation.
Mark Bauerlein's "The Dumbest Generation"purposes the idea that we have the alarming problem that our youth, could be the dumbest generation so far, despite all of our advancement technologically. He describes that with all of the advances that ease day to day life, us youngsters have taken it too far and we are slipping intellectually.

Agreeable quotes
"brazen disregard of books and reading."
I have noticed that many of my peers are more likely to go and donate all of their worldly goods rather than sit down with a nice book for an afternoon. Many of my friends are relatively affluent as well which does seem to support Bauerlein's idea that this generation is definitely not the most well read of past generation who had nothing to do but chew on straw and read. I think that this is a problem because yes this generation still reads news articles on the internet maybe, but generally I feel that the reading level of my age group has decreased visibly. I have come across more than one instances where I will use a word that I think is maybe a little bit special and it will be received with a blank face. This problem is trivial and it may lead to nothing more than generally slightly less in depth vocabularies, but it could go further. Who knows. 

"Social life is a powerful temptation, and most teenagers feel the pain of missing out."
Once again, I have definitely noticed this very strongly in my peers. It can be seen in the boy checking facebook during class, or a girl who tweets eighteen times a day. I know if I no longer had a twitter, or a  facebook, or an account on reddit, I would have many, many more hours of usable and unobstructed free time. Bauerlein is also very correct in saying that teenagers feel the pain of missing out. I think this is the driving force behind pretty much all of teenagers risk taking. Whether it's sneaking out, in hopes of being a part of that once in a lifetime, badass excursion, or having some crucial piece of hilarity about some person's dog that you can obtain from the twitters. This want to be a part of everything new and popular drives teens to do anything social really. So, again with the progression of the digital age, where is it going to?

Disagreeable quotes
"America's youth know virtually nothing about history and politics."
This statement I think is dependent on different situations and areas, but I don't see this cultural deficiency as strongly as Bauerlein makes it seem. I know that Wayzata offers more in depth, and many more histories that it was even conceivable for my mom and dad, and I think that being as these classes are being taken, this statement isn't true. There are many things in history that I've described to my mom and dad that they have never heard before. Not just that they had forgotten, but they had never heard of the migration of African Americans after the civil war, and other little tid bits and ideas either. There are too many outlets for people to learn now that I can't get behind the validity of this statement. 

"going online habituates them to juvenile mental habits."
By juvenile habits, Bauerlein refers to  a want for instant entertainment, and I think that he is wrong with this statement. Not completely, but that instantaneousness about information and entertainment in the present technological age is what makes it so special. What would you do in 1953 to find an answer to a trivial question like who was the Queen of France in 1634. You'd go to the library, find an encyclapedia and search through through the book until you can obtain your answer. Now, it's type, enter, and be dazzled by all the options. That instantaneousness is whats special now in the academic realms and consequently the entertainment world too. Internet usage doesn't lead to juvenile mental habits, but new habits that are just different, and as the trend of this blog implies, it's not known where this change could lead to, but I don't think this is the right way to describe the effects of internet usage. 

Effectiveness 
Through Bauerlein's utilization of countless statistics, he does make a point about parts of the general trend of us youths. But I think he goes about it incorrectly. As we have discussed in class multiple times, Bauerlein fails to address those competitive, striving students for the rest of the book. He just throws them out, and he doesn't seem factor them into much else. Not only that, Bauerlein seems to only choose negative statistics. He tosses out the IQ progression, and the fact that standardized tests have been showing progression in difficulty and success from the 70's. He only cites statistics that contribute to his idea and it makes the argument very one sided. I'm not saying that he doesn't have a point, this moving away from novels and growing concern with social status is a problem, but Bauerlein fails to show really any positives, or solutions to the situation. He just states all of the negative, then says "Yes. That'll do." And fails to really make a round, whole argument. I got a lot from the book, but (it may partly be my want to defy his idea) I didn't think Bauerlein was correct in his assessment, and conclusions in this book.