The Dumbest Generation

[tugmoose]

Here.

[John Smith]

Articles like this make for cutesy reading and allow us to poke fun at those coming behind us, Just like my parents ridculed the baby boomers and the boomers look down on gen-x and the WWI generation looked down on the WWII generation prior to the war etc... We alwayys look at those that follow us and justify our superiority by thinking that our upbringing was somehow superior. However... this article flys in the face of what i have been taught. I've been to a couple of seminars about hiring employees intodays job market and among the many things that was pointed out is that this coming generation of workers is one of the smartest generations. We may not completely understand how they are intelligent, but technology is where the heart of this generatiosn intelligence lays.

[Good Old Neon]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgOWTM5R2DA

[bobbob1313]

Dumb. I read the first one and decided it was dumb. I probably decided it was dumb before I read the first one, but that definitely cemented it.

 

It's easy to look back now and say "Man, my generation was so smart when were young." You weren't. If you remember being smart as a teenager, then you are just projecting your accumulated experiences and knowledge on your teenage self. But I'm sure most teenagers throughout time have been idiots.

[JUDE]

Jefferson, Adams and Franklin were of the smartest generation. We've been in a steady decline since then.

[Guest Jules]

Scarlett Johannsen has nice tits.

[JUDE]

Case in point.

[Mrs. Peel]

I don't think the generation is dumb. I do, however, think as a whole there is a glaring sense of entitlement that wasn't much of an issue in past generations. But, I try not to generalize about a hugely diverse group of people like an entire generation. So I'll say in my area, the majority of teenagers and 20 somethings I come in contact with have a disgusting sense of self importance and a horrible lack of work ethic.

[Guest Jules]

Case in point.

What generation are I in?

[Reni]

I don't think the generation is dumb. I do, however, think as a whole there is a glaring sense of entitlement that wasn't much of an issue in past generations. But, I try not to generalize about a hugely diverse group of people like an entire generation. So I'll say in my area, the majority of teenagers and 20 somethings I come in contact with have a disgusting sense of self importance and a horrible work ethic.

 

 

have you been hanging out with our Emily? Sounds pretty spot on.

 

In my experience, a lot of that article is spot on as well - at least among Emily and her friends. Like you, I can't speak for a whole generation.

[Mrs. Peel]

I'm glad you agree, but I'm sorry you agree because you're smack dab in the middle of it!

[bobbob1313]

Teenagers have always been like that.

 

And adults have always complained about teenagers.

 

And then, in 10-15 years, these teenagers will be complaining about the teenagers of their time, even though they told themselves they wouldn't 10-15 years ago.

[Gobias Industries]

Apparently Niko Bellic is what is wrong with this generation. Riiiiiiiiiight.

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

It's the not reading part that worries me. I thought of Em and her friends when I read this in Richard Wright's Black Boy.

 

"I known that not race alone, not color alone, but the daily values that give meaning to life stood between me and those white girls with whom I worked. Their constant outward-looking, their mania for radios, cars, and a thousand other trinkets made them fix their eyes upon the trash of life, made it impossible for them to learn a language which could have taught them to speak of what was in their or others' hearts. The words of their souls were the syllables of popular songs."

[Mrs. Peel]

Teenagers have always been like that.

 

And adults have always complained about teenagers.

 

And then, in 10-15 years, these teenagers will be complaining about the teenagers of their time, even though they told themselves they wouldn't 10-15 years ago.

 

I disagree that teenagers have always been the way they are now. I think SOME of them were. I feel now that the MAJORITY are. And it is carrying on well past the teen years.

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

Teenagers have always been like that.

 

And adults have always complained about teenagers.

 

And then, in 10-15 years, these teenagers will be complaining about the teenagers of their time, even though they told themselves they wouldn't 10-15 years ago.

Sure. Is it possible, though, that times could change in such a way as to negatively affect habits or character in such a way that creates dumb kids? It's not really an issue of blaming teenagers, as their flaws would really be the fault of the previous generations, no?

[myboyblue]

We didn't have cars when I was a teenager. We walked uphill, thru 10 feet of snow to get to work and we liked it. Minimum wage was $3.35/hr.

 

One of these statements is true.

 

That said, teenagers today are not the same and we cannot expect them to be. They grew up in the 'computer age' and life has been extremely different for them. That said, it should give many of us job security for the rest of our working lives. These fuckers aren't going to be competing for top-level positions

[Reni]

Adolescence is a social construction that emerged with industrialization.

 

Child educator and theorist Maria Montessori said that the best thing for children, at the age of 13, is to send them to work in the fields. I am down with this.

[bobbob1313]

And what way are they? How do they have a glaring sense of entitlement? I'm honestly curious, because I couldn't even begin to try to explain to someone else what you mean by that.

 

I'll stand by my sentiment that it is teenagers jobs to piss older people off, and it is older people's jobs to get all pissed off at teenagers. It's been happening since the dawn of time. Teenagers could be polite, drug free, and listen to only classical music, and people in their 30's would be getting pissed off at them anyways. It's what happens. It is easy (and a lot of fun) to hate on an amorphous body like "teenagers", so I understand in that instance, but it's a lot harder to try and pin down exactly what you dislike about them, because usually it's some vague generalization based on a small amount of experiences.

 

Which is ok, I'm not saying you shouldn't, its natural. I am saying that most of the time those generalizations couldn't be further from the truth.

[Reni]

Emily got an iPod for Christmas from her Nana (my mom) and took horrible care of it - ended up dropping it in the toilet. It's destroyed. Now, she is angry with us (and heaps loads of abuse on us, thinks we're REALLY unfair) because we won't run out and buy her a new one ASAP.......how's that for entitlement? It is the right of all kids to have an iPod apparently.

 

Or how about this one.....when Emily is grounded she says, "it's YOUR FAULT that I am grounded!" I say, "no, it's because you did ______ that you are grounded. A consequence to your actions." She says, "nope, it's YOUR fault because you're the one who grounded me."

 

*sigh*

[bobbob1313]

Sure. Is it possible, though, that times could change in such a way as to negatively affect habits or character in such a way that creates dumb kids? It's not really an issue of blaming teenagers, as their flaws would really be the fault of the previous generations, no?

 

I think it is absolutely possible. But I don't think it is happening here. I think, in the case of the author of this book, he is making generalizations about things that some teenagers do that he doesn't like. So, in order to generate discussion and make a "buzzworthy" book, he took those things that annoy him and made broad generalizations that don't have much grounding outside of his subjective world view.

 

I will say that he tries to save himself there at the end, but in doing so he blows off his entire point from the previous 7 slides. By writing it all of as the ignorance of youth, he is saying that this isn't the dumbest generation, just the dumbest years of every generation.

 

And Kate, she sounds like a teenager to me. I hardly think that is a product of anything other than being a teenager and having an irrational dislike of your parents. Pretty much every teenager goes through it, and to blame it on anything other than being in a really uncomfortable, awkward time where you think you are an adult, but you aren't, is unfair. Teenagers get pissed off at their parents, they yell, they kick, they scream, etc. Teenagers don't want to understand their parents, and they expect their parents to understand them somehow. I don't think this is a fault of this generation, I think it is the way 13 and 14 year olds are.

[caliber66]

I like this one:

 

8. Because they're young

 

Because today's fifteen year olds are so much younger that I was when I was 15 years old.

[JUDE]

And what way are they? How do they have a glaring sense of entitlement? I'm honestly curious, because I couldn't even begin to try to explain to someone else what you mean by that.

 

I'll stand by my sentiment that it is teenagers jobs to piss older people off, and it is older people's jobs to get all pissed off at teenagers. It's been happening since the dawn of time. Teenagers could be polite, drug free, and listen to only classical music, and people in their 30's would be getting pissed off at them anyways. It's what happens. It is easy (and a lot of fun) to hate on an amorphous body like "teenagers", so I understand in that instance, but it's a lot harder to try and pin down exactly what you dislike about them, because usually it's some vague generalization based on a small amount of experiences.

 

Which is ok, I'm not saying you shouldn't, its natural. I am saying that most of the time those generalizations couldn't be further from the truth.

 

You're a cocky little sumbitch ain't you?

[Reni]

actually my 14 year old is a lot older than I was......doing drugs, smoking, messing around with boys....talking about herpes. oy vey.

[Mrs. Peel]

Absolutely. The parents may complain about their kids' sense of entitlement, but when you are giving your kids anything they want without having to work for it, as many of these kids are, what do they expect is going to happen? They don't think they should have to do anything they don't want to do, resulting in a poor work ethic and being argumentative if something unpleasant is asked of them. I don't believe this was common in past generations. Kids were taught the importance of hard work. Again, a sweeping generalization.