While researching teen culture I often stumble upon books, blogs and magazine articles that claim that today’s young people are an illiterate generation of tech junkies who squander their time and mental ability text messaging, watching MTV and playing video games. While there seems to be a large body of evidence to back this up, I still have a hard time believing that my generation is “The Dumbest Generation.”

However, Mark Bauerlein, of Emory College, thinks we’re in some serious trouble and he wrote a book about it called “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future”. Those that share Bauerlein’s view contend that the decline in adult literacy over the years, and the growing lack of geographic, historic, and literary knowledge of the current generation are all evidence that today’s teens are less intelligent than previous generations. This has people worried because if this is the case, the consequences will be catastrophic. In a few short years today’s uneducated young people will become intellectually deficient adults that control every corporation, government, and educational institution in the world.

While I find it disturbing that in 2001, 52% of my peers identified Germany, Japan or Italy, and not the Soviet Union, as America’s World War II ally, I don’t think that today’s teens are any less intelligent than previous generations. If anything they are actually more intelligent as is evidenced by the fact that IQ scores worldwide have continued to rise since the 1930’s. What I do worry about, however, is how today’s young people acquire and retain knowledge.

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I’m not a gamer. This is painfully evident everytime I sit down to  an Xbox to play Halo 3 and within the first 5 minutes of play the other players call me a “noob”.  Sure gaming is a nerdy pursuit , and I’m prone to delighting in nerdy pursuits, but I never really got into the whole video game thing.  Maybe it’s because I have poor coordination or maybe it’s because I’ve never been very competitive. Either way, I think I’d rather watch a documentary about video games rather than play one myself.  

Even though I don’t count myself among these armies of “Couch Commandos” that daily strive to save planets and princesses, I do think they are a bit misunderstood by the rest of the world.  For example, I don’t believe that every young person that plays a violent video game on a regular basis is going to stockpile weapons and try to recreate this game in real life.  I also don’t think that video games make teens more violent.  I believe that if someone is set off by playing a video game, then there was likely something going  on in that person’s life long before he or she picked up a controller. I also think that some video games are actually making people smarter.  To read more about this I suggest you pick up Stephen Johnson’s “Everything Bad is Good For You.” 

Anyway, I understand that there needs to be a scapegoat for the world’s problems and that things that are misunderstood are often the ones that get blamed.  I mean TV was supposed to be the downfall of our civilization and it seems like the majority of people have learned how to balance that pretty well.  In the same way that adults in the past didn’t understand TV, many adults today simply don’t get why teens love video games so much.  

As a result, the majority of the public view video games as something that primarily male children play and that cause them to be aggressive, violent, socially isolated, desensitized, and is an all around waste of time.  But according to MIT professor Henry Jenkins, the public is wrong.  To walk you through each of these misconceptions he has posted an article debunking the myths about video games.  It can be found here. Meanwhile, I’m going to go play Tetris.

As tuition increases at colleges across America,  incoming freshman at some universities may see a little added value in those costs  This of course will come in the form of a free Ipod of Iphone.  THe New York TImes reported in an article found here, that schools around the nation are giving students these cutting edge tech devices for a variety of reasons.  One reason is that a school that gives away cool tech gadgets must be cool and tech savvy.  According to the recent State of Our Nation’s Youth survey, better technology is one thing that high school students feel would make their education better, so as recent graduates choose schools, the one giving away the latest Apple gadgets might also be the one that seems to be the best choice.  

Giving students Iphones could also allow schools to track where students congregate and allow the school to contact them in case of class cancellation or other emergencies.  However, this seems to worry some professors.  When students just had notebooks, it could be hard to keep them from doodling long enough for them to hear the content of a lecture.  Now with cell phones and laptops, students have even greater distractions at their fingertips. Iphone’s complicate things even further as they are small and compact, but also packed full of distracting possibilities.  

Of course, one thing we know about the current generation of young people is that they love to create things.  As a group we are always pushing the limits.  The Iphone is a great indication of this.  When first released, the Iphone and Ipod Touch were pretty basic devices.  But young people saw the possibilities of this technology and a 15 year old boy found a way to break into the software and create his own applications.  Developers around the world used this to create games, themes, communication programs, productivity utilities and more.  As a result, Apple launched the App Store as a way to provide an outlet for these creative minds.  Similarly, I believe that through providing college students with these devices, schools are going to find that their students are utilizing this technology in amazing ways that they never could have guessed.  I’m excited to see how this unfolds.  

I got my first cell phone at about the same time that I delved into the world of online communication.  It was right around the year 2000 and I was 16.   What I immediately noticed from all of my friends was their use of shorthand terms like LOL, GTG, BRB and numerous other abbreviations (most of which aren’t palindromes).  As soon as I saw that these acronyms were not a passing trend but a new form of communicating I got worried.  I hate texting acronyms and I can honestly say I’ve never used them. However, most of my generation does and unfortunately it has snuck out of informal instant messaging and texting and into their “real” lives.  

This is troublesome for young people like me who are now grappling with what it means to “grow up”.  No longer are we high schoolers and college kids in ripped jeans.  Now we have to find real jobs, wear ties, create a more professional looking facebook and begin to finally communicate like adults.  But some young people are actually having trouble with this transition.  It seems that many employers are reporting that texting acronyms are sneaking into job interviews and prospective employees are sending follow-up e-mails that say things like “thx 4 the interview”. This turns employers off because to them it seems like they aren’t worth the time to type out the entire word and that the young person views them as a casual friend rather than a boss and leader. 

While texting acronyms can be useful as a way to save time when communicating with friends (and also as a way to avoid developing texter’s thumb)  it’s important for young people to know that there is a line to be drawn when such things are appropriate and not. Read the full article about it here.

An article on the telegraph.co.uk  website has reported that people who text message excessively may be risking some serious injury.  What teen’s have referred to for years as “texter’s thumb”  now has experts worried that by spending so much time pressing small keys on phones that are not ergonomically designed, a large portion of young people will be suffering from swelling in the thumb and wrist as well as pain in the hands, wrists, shoulders and neck.  The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy has released research that shows that as many as 1 in 6 young people could be suffering from pain associated with text messaging and they have issued a number of tips for safe texting.  You can read the full story and the tips here. Frankly, I think the development of conditions like “texter’s thumb” and carpal tunnel as a result of texting or too much computer use are kind of our bodies way of saying “lay off the technology.”  If your thumbs are swollen from text messaging it may be a good sign that you shouldn’t be text messaging so much. 

This past May research reported that 50% of people who watch television shows online consider it a replacement for regular television viewing.  This is bad news for networks who have insisted that the option of watching TV shows online is additive and not a replacement for viewers tuning in to shows on actual TV’s. From personal experience I can say that I watched most of last season’s LOST and the Office episodes on my computer and not on TV.  The reason for it is that many times I was unable or unwillling to dedicate my Thursday evenings to sitting in front of a TV. 

This convenience can be both a good and bad thing.  For instance, if there is a show you’d like to watch with your teen but your schedules don’t exactly allow that to happen, now the two of you can enjoy watching it together at a time that is convenient for both of you.  Or maybe you’d like to hang out with your teen some night and play a game or go out to eat but your invitation is met with, “I can’t.  My show comes on at 7 and I can’t miss it.”  (I know that happened more than once when I was a teen and the latest developments on Dawson’s Creek, The O.C. and Friends seemed to take precedence over any other event that might be occurring during the show’s time slot.)  Well now, thanks to online viewing, your teen can catch the episode the next day online. 

Of course, the bad part about all this is that if there is a show that you don’t want your teen to be watching, it might not be as simple as keeping the TV off of a certain channel at a certain time.  An easy way for them to circumvent the watchful eye of mom and dad is to just watch episodes online when you’re at work or after you go to bed. 

In that case it’s really hard to prevent them from watching it.  However, I tend to think that what’s better than trying to constantly block your teen’s access to bad things is to help them understand why you object to them.  If your teen understands that you want what’s best for them and they are honest with you and respectful of your wishes then maybe you won’t have to worry if their catching episodes of Gossip GIrl online while you’re not home.

But in the end, whatever your teen sees on TV, hears in music or watches in a movie is no match for the influence of a caring and involved adult. 

  In my browsing of the web today I found a great film made by Child Net International  that addresses the issue of cyberbullying. The film follows a teen boy as he finds himself the target of bullying.  It’s something all parents should watch in order to gain a better understanding of how these things happen and what effect it has on teens.  I think it’s easy for adults to sometimes brush off the idea of cyberbullying because it was never a part of their adolescence.  I mean it does make sense that being bullied through text message or online chat would seem less threatening than getting physically beat up for your lunch money.  However, the issue with cyberbullying is that it’s impossible to escape from because you never know where it will show up.  It’s not as easy as avoiding a certain group of kids while at school or walking a different way home. Cyberbullying allows you to be harassed through instant messaging, threatened through e-mail and humiliated on myspace.  It is everywhere and with the far reach of the internet, a humiliating photo could be e-mailed to everyone in your school or posted on myspace for the whole world to see.  For teens, this can create the feeling that their world is over and they can’t handle it.  That’s why we’ve seen so many tragic cases of suicide related to cyberbullying cases.  To find out more about cyberbullying and for some tips on how to prevent and address it you can visit articles here and here. Also, you can watch the film below or HERE. 

Apparently Facebook.com is in for a bit of a makeover.  A couple years ago we read stories about employers who were doing a little research into their prospective new employees lives by Googling their names and checking Facebook profiles.  These employers were able to look past the young professional with a sparkling resume and right into their personal life, which often included embarrassing photos from drunken college parties.  This was also an issue for High School students who lost athletic scholarships once it was discovered through Myspace profile pages that they too were documenting their engagement in some risky activities. Well, today Facebook is seeing that many of their users are growing up and entering the job market and as a result they need a professional look and feel to their Facebook profiles that can impress employers.  But at the same time, what about the young users who are just getting into the social networking craze? They don’t want to grow up and they don’t want their Facebook to either.  Well, this is the problem Billionaire 20 something Facebook  creator Mark  Zuckerberg and his Facebook team have tackle as they figure out how to keep the users who are growing up while still attracting teens.  Read the article here….

The Christian Science Monitor has run a story this week about online fight videos and cyber-bullying and how social networks are being pressured to put restrictions on what users are doing to hurt and humiliate others online. This past year there was a big to do about a group of teen girls in Florida who video taped themselves beating up a classmate and then posted it on Youtube. Additionally, other ways of cyber-bullying and intimidation have found their way off the schoolyard and onto the internet. This raises questions about what role companies like Myspace, Facebook and Youtube should play in preventing this type of user abuse.

The article is pretty long but it’s informative and should be read by anyone who works with or parents teens.

A study released last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that today’s teens are becoming increasingly lethargic. In the study, the movements of 1,000 children were tracked, starting at age 9 in 2000 and ending in 2006 when the participants turned 15. The research found that at age 9, participants engaged in physical activities for about 3 hours per day. But as they grew older, they began to exercise much less and by age 15, the participants were only engaging in an average of 42 minutes of physical activity per day.

Another study found that one of the major factors in girls between the ages of 14 and 21 gaining weight, was using the Internet for more than an hour at a time. And in yet another study, Canadian researchers found that young people who eat meals while watching TV consume an average of 228 more calories than those who eat with the television off.

Without a doubt, researchers involved in each of these studies believe that the decline in physical activity among today’s youth is in large part due to an increase in media and technological consumption. Rather than playing outside for hours as they did as children, many of today’s teens would rather play video games, watch TV and spend time on Myspace.

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