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THE DUMBEST GENERATIONHOW THE DIGITAL AGE STUPEFIES YOUNG AMERICANS AND JEOPARDIZES OUR FUTURE Mark Bauerlein. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, New York, 2008; ISBN 978-1-58542-639-3 Having worked professionally pre-Internet in engineering forabout25 years,Iappreciatetheefciencyandeffectiveness of the Internet, cell phones, and other information technology IT . With it, we can do research in ve minutes that, a few decades ago, may have taken ve days elapsed time using our local library. Geographically dispersed members of a project team or a committee can interact via e-mail, share data and information, conduct analyses, discuss issues, and prepare reportswithfew,ifany,face-to-facemeetings. Todays effectiveness of and easy access to IT almost makes some of us well into our careers wish we could restart them. Given todays communication tools, perhaps we could have accomplished even more, or accomplished as much, with less effort. Todays young peopleincluding students and engineer internsare fortunate. They use communication technology to learn, conduct research, share, collaborate, network, and create,inotherwords,todogreatthings.Ordothey? Not according to Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupees Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. He claims that U.S. young people, which he denes as those under about 30 years of age, are under-using or misusing IT and related electronic gadgetry available to them. Bauerlein argues that todays youth employ IT to extend and deepen adolescence and to connect even more with their homogeneous peer groups rather than using it to reach out and learn about the world and its inhabitants. This use of IT shifts the young even more into pop culture while takingthemawayfromworldculture. Forexample,insteadofusingtheInternetafterclasstolearn more about what was presented in class, many of todays students use the Internet in class to visit YouTube or MySpace. Rather than viewing the Internet as one of many sources of data, information, and knowledge, Bauerlein argues that todays young professionals use it as the source and, therefore, they do not verify or dig deeper or explore wider, often no deeper or wider than the rst Web page on which they nd something relevant. Instead of reading books, which tend to includehigher-levelvocabulary,todaysyouth,againaccording to the author, skim the Internet, much of which employs very simplevocabulary,thusincurringopportunitylostcosts. Theauthoriscarefultodenethescopeofhisbookwhichis the development, or lack thereof, of the minds of U.S. youth. Hewrites:Thisbookisanattempttoconsolidatethebestand

broadest research into a different prole of the rising American mind. It doesnt cover behaviors and values, only the intellect of under-30-year-olds. As an added caveat, this book, which is subtitled Dont Trust Anyone Under 30, addresses youth, in general. It does not single out sub-groups such as current or aspiringengineers According to the author, this under-use and misuse of IT and related electronic devices has very negative consequences forouryouth,andeventuallytheUnitedStates.Hisview: Instead of opening young American minds to the stores of civilization and science and politics, technology has contracted their horizon to themselves, to the social scene aroundthemthemoretheyattendtothemselves,theless they remember the past and envision the future . . . The founts of knowledge are everywhere, but the rising generation is camped in the desert, passing stories, pictures, tunes, and texts back and forth, living off the thrill of peer attention. Author Bauerlein claims that serious study and the resulting learning of knowledge and skills of todays youth are slipping. He uses the results of many studies to conclude that the bulk of todays youth are anti-intellectual; uninterested in world realties, past and present; decient in use of the English language; and unable to think critically. And, to reiterate, he attributestheseliabilitiestomisuseandunder-useofIT. Im not convinced that the situation is as dire as Mark Bauerlein claims. Frankly, at times this college English professor sounds frustrated and even angry. However, anecdotal evidence suggests to me that todays youth make heavy use of the Internet and electronic gadgets and that much of the use is frivolous. Perhaps, on the assumption that the books thesis has some merit, each sector of the engineering profession should conductaself-examination.Forexample,arewewiselyusingITin engineering education? How might more, less, or better use of IT enhance our business and government operations? Do we really know how faculty, students, employers, clients, owners, and others use IT? And nally, outside of the world of business and the professions, how is IT being used in our homes? Neil Armstrong, astronaut and engineer, offers this relevant thought: Technology does not improve the quality of life; it improves the quality of things. Improving the quality of life requires the application of wisdom. Is our profession making wiseuseoftechnology? Stuart G. Walesh, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE

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