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Shocker: academic thinks videogames make people dumb photo

GamePolitics was cool enough to introduce the world to Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein. In an interview with Canada, Bauerline talks about his ridiculously largely titled book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30).  At one point in the interview, Bauerlein spouts that the “digital age” and its crazy contraptions like the Internet, blogs, and videogames has made us all idiots.

Something insidious is happening inside their heads. Young Americans today are no more learned or skilful than their predecessors, no more knowledgeable, fluent, up-to-date, or inquisitive, except in the materials of youth culture.

Emory earned his doctorate in English at UCLA, which clearly gives him the academic groundwork to write about the psychological and physiological ramifications that the 21st century has had on young adults. Fortunately for us, we’re too dumb to realize these things and therefore will stay in the dark forever.


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21 comments | showing # 1 to 21

eternalplayer2345's Avatar
eternalplayer2345 at 08/20/2008 17:25
Throw down you game boy shackles, you joystick junky and read a book!
J03yyz's Avatar
J03yyz at 08/20/2008 17:25
i totally agree with him, although it is a combination of things... we are lazy

need proof? look at all the family guy fans out there
Ratcliff's Avatar
Ratcliff at 08/20/2008 17:33
Well he's an english expert, maybe he's referring to the fact that "internet speak" is starting to bleed into normal writings (No wut u talking bout?)
In that sense I agree with him, however I don't think the youth are getting dumber overall.

Also what does he recommend we do about it? Get rid of the internet??
Gyrael's Avatar
Gyrael at 08/20/2008 17:37
How elightening.
charlieduke's Avatar
charlieduke at 08/20/2008 17:39
smart people are dumb.
NobodysDream's Avatar
NobodysDream at 08/20/2008 17:45
Getting an English Degree at UCLA has the same academic merit as jerking off in a bathroom stall at Arby's. Would've saved him $100,000 and four years of education.

Studies show that IQ has increased steadily over time. No one I know over 30 can do an integral, or has any interest in the sciences or scientific advancement. They have no personal philosophy other than the ideas pounded into them since birth, and they tend to live adequately mediocre lives. They don't read books, except tripe like romance novels and poorly worded serial killer crime sagas.

Old people are stupid. Yeah, a lot of kids these days are dipshits, but most kids are always dipshits, and they grow up to be old dipshits.

Stupid people are stupid. That is all.
sweetchuck's Avatar
sweetchuck at 08/20/2008 17:51
I think wikipedia and the internet in general has made so much information so accessible that the ability to retain that information isn't as necessary as it once was. But what's gaming got to do, got to do with it?
CosmicQueso's Avatar
CosmicQueso at 08/20/2008 17:55
What's gaming but a secondhand emotion...

Who needs to game when there are PhDs to earrrrrrrrn...
TheDirtyHobo's Avatar
TheDirtyHobo at 08/20/2008 18:04
Just a heads up, if he's an english major, I think you're kind of proving his point.

You spell his name in two different ways on the same line.

You also said that a college got its degree at a college.

Other than that, I'd have to agree and disagree with him in a way. I'd really need comparative graphs to express what I'm trying to say, but I'm too lazy to make them so I'll poorly explain it. Technology is, all in all, raising the average intelligence of most human beings, and it's allowing the very smartest of the curve to extend out even further, but it's also drawing those that are above average but not too far ahead back in. You could think about it like a black hole in the center of the graph, I guess. Those that are far enough away from it aren't as effected by those who are near it.
wardrox's Avatar
wardrox at 08/20/2008 18:06
The people I meet on Xbox Live do seem on average dumber then people I meet in real life....hmm
the_real_one's Avatar
the_real_one at 08/20/2008 18:06
wait, the internet actually stores so much more information than books couls, by looking at the world's past (through recognized sources) we can learn about events and discern the causes of situations meking us able to have our own philosophies, most political science books from the 60's (before internet) were pretty much the author's opinion combined with facts. In that era anarchist professors might have not even gotten a publisher while now anyone can blog about it. Ppl with an elitist point of veiw could b booed off stage in an open forum in many places while in the interneet they cannot be silenced, this english teachers needs to get with the program.
TheDirtyHobo's Avatar
TheDirtyHobo at 08/20/2008 18:07
Sorry for the double post but...

"the ability to retain that information isn't as necessary as it once was. But what's gaming got to do, got to do with it?"

Oh God, this made me laugh so hard.
ace of knaves's Avatar
ace of knaves at 08/20/2008 18:09
Games don't make people dumb, idiots just tend to gravitate towards shiny things with lots of explosions. I doubt the eleven-year olds shouting homophobic slurs over Halo matches on Xbox LIVE are the same people gushing over Braid is the main point here.
GrayFox's Avatar
GrayFox at 08/20/2008 18:23
Yeah, pretty much what nobody's dream said. There are always going to be stupid people who never think about anything other than what's right in front of their face, and people who do. If these people are so helplessly inundated by television and the internet that they can't step away from it and pick up a book, then they were stupid to begin with.

On the other hand, like sweetchuck said, the internet has made an incredible amount of information available to everyone if they choose to accept it. The non-dumb ones will, and will be better for it.

I think he's just being sensationalistic to pander to the baby boomer's fears in order to sell some books. In the article he claims he gave the book that ridiculous title to grab the attention of young people, but I really doubt his sincerity. I think he just wants his 15 minutes on Glen Beck.
VashTS's Avatar
VashTS at 08/20/2008 18:24
I would have to strongly disagree with this man. The people that are dumb in our generation are not the people playing video games, but the stupid idiots watching MTV and other horrible television shows. On another note, does he not realize that the generation before video game players was full of drug addicts. Coccaine in the 80's, LSD and other psychedelic drugs in the 60's and 70's. Im not saying that these drugs aren't around today, but far less of the general population abuses them.
SWE3tMadness's Avatar
SWE3tMadness at 08/20/2008 18:36
Sadly, there's actually studies done on this that might suggest a similar conclusion. One result I saw was that college students with a roommate that had a gaming system, or easy access to a gaming system had a .3 drop in their GPA.

And then it went on to say that the probable cause of this was their roommate's gaming was distracting the student. Not the student actually playing games themselves.

As for actual mental ability, I do suspect that increased access to the multitasking functions available with the internet, cell phones, etc, has had an effect on certain generations' thought processes. However, I don't think we're any dumber, just more ADD. You can be smart and still game and watch TV, you just have to know when to switch it off and actually do something constructive.

Jesus, I sound like my dad. o.O
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 08/20/2008 19:14
I don't think we are necessarily getting dumber, we just A) see more and more dumb people online instead of being able to evade them in RL, B) skillsets are diversifying (as SWE3tMadness says above me) which means older tests based on old skillsets may no longer apply.

In Holland, kids can no longer write normal Dutch anymore it seems, but that doesn't mean they can't handle themselves or interact with things intelligently. There is just a lack of oldschool quality control with most things, it seems.

But think of all the MMO's who take their group management skills to the workplace, there are already studies that show that these skillsets are highly valuable and managers are even getting some courses in the same kind of stuff to become better group leaders.
Sharpless's Avatar
Sharpless at 08/20/2008 19:38
Well, duh, overexposure to anything for too long can have a numbing effect. I think people need to be well-rounded and not overemphasize one activity too much. But to say that I'm dumber because I game a few hours a day? Not buying it. I was born this dumb.
Cube's Avatar
Cube at 08/20/2008 20:33
Only madden and GTA games make people dumb, and possibly halo.


The guys in the picture are obviously madden freaks of nature, and a smoking a little of those sucky GTA games on the side while hid buddy there paints his body in a lustful fashion.
CelicaCrazed's Avatar
CelicaCrazed at 08/20/2008 22:14
Wasn't this 30+ generation the one that voted in Bush. Twice. We (the under 30 gen) are clearly the dumb ones >.>

And yes I know I'm lumping demographics but I can do it since this dolt does the same thing ;).
Too Much Coffee Man's Avatar
Too Much Coffee Man at 08/22/2008 03:02
just like that newfangled techno-contraptoion Television corrupted his mind...

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight
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