“The Dumbest Generation”
The debate among generations of who is more intellectual is neverending. Blame for downfalls and shortcomings is passed around and is currently landing on one topic; technology is making the Millennials dumb, the dumbest generation to date. However, this is based on a very narrow scope on intelligence along with unjust comparisons. Generation Y is not the dumbest generation, Adaptations are just being made in how we intake and project information. As decades have come and gone the explanation for why generations are becoming dumber has always been the greatest argument. From rock ruining the Baby Boomer teens, jazz corrupting the Silent Generation, and now technology promoting ignorance in Millennials. Specifically, …show more content…
An excerpt from the United States Government Foreign Service Journal published 1962 argued against a similar problem being faced today; kids don’t know history and that’s going to ruin this country. The article was published after a test given to students and young adults about American History. Thus, candidates we declared “abysmal ignorance,” when not being able to name principal rivers, gross national products, or the Jimmy Hoffa influence in this country (Source 5). However, at this time, many of these young Americans could probably explain the effects of World War II on the country 's economy, people, and others around the world; Or scares of the Vietnam War and how America will further be involved; or particularly Neil Armstrong landing on the moon earlier that year. In addition, Ms. Begley of Newsweek even stated how generations are always adapting to survive, “We suspect that the decline in the percentage of college freshman who say it’s important to keep up with political affairs, 60 percent in 1966 to 36 percent in 2005, reflects at least in part the fact that in 1966 politics determined whether you going to get drafted and shipped to Vietnam,” (Source 2). Regarding this article, a look into a social concept called Social Darwinism can account for this way of elimination. The principles behind Social Darwinism state that in society the superior persons will evolve and adapts while the lesser and more inadequate to the environment around them will not prosper. Those young abled bodies in college were not just electing a president to fix the economy, they were electing a Commander and Chief, an individual who they could trust to lead them into war and back again. That was the social mindset of the time, those people were the adapters, and they had to form the best ideals possible to survive such a
The debate among generations of who is more intellectual is neverending. Blame for downfalls and shortcomings is passed around and is currently landing on one topic; technology is making the Millennials dumb, the dumbest generation to date. However, this is based on a very narrow scope on intelligence along with unjust comparisons. Generation Y is not the dumbest generation, Adaptations are just being made in how we intake and project information. As decades have come and gone the explanation for why generations are becoming dumber has always been the greatest argument. From rock ruining the Baby Boomer teens, jazz corrupting the Silent Generation, and now technology promoting ignorance in Millennials. Specifically, …show more content…
An excerpt from the United States Government Foreign Service Journal published 1962 argued against a similar problem being faced today; kids don’t know history and that’s going to ruin this country. The article was published after a test given to students and young adults about American History. Thus, candidates we declared “abysmal ignorance,” when not being able to name principal rivers, gross national products, or the Jimmy Hoffa influence in this country (Source 5). However, at this time, many of these young Americans could probably explain the effects of World War II on the country 's economy, people, and others around the world; Or scares of the Vietnam War and how America will further be involved; or particularly Neil Armstrong landing on the moon earlier that year. In addition, Ms. Begley of Newsweek even stated how generations are always adapting to survive, “We suspect that the decline in the percentage of college freshman who say it’s important to keep up with political affairs, 60 percent in 1966 to 36 percent in 2005, reflects at least in part the fact that in 1966 politics determined whether you going to get drafted and shipped to Vietnam,” (Source 2). Regarding this article, a look into a social concept called Social Darwinism can account for this way of elimination. The principles behind Social Darwinism state that in society the superior persons will evolve and adapts while the lesser and more inadequate to the environment around them will not prosper. Those young abled bodies in college were not just electing a president to fix the economy, they were electing a Commander and Chief, an individual who they could trust to lead them into war and back again. That was the social mindset of the time, those people were the adapters, and they had to form the best ideals possible to survive such a