The Dumbest Generation

I'm starting to think that there's a lot of truth to the idea that every generation distrusts the generations younger than them. I remember thinking in college and in my early twenties whenever I had to deal with a crotchety, critical old person, "I will never be like that. I will not think younger people are going to ruin the world."

Well, I'm not exactly old, but I find myself thinking along the same lines as the old people I dealt with at a younger age. I would say at least once a day there is something that happens - whether I'm driving, or in a restaurant, or sad to say, at church - where I think, "Once these kids (read: anyone younger than me) take over the country, we're screwed!"

Of course, I don't have any facts to prove my fatalism towards the younger generations. Now I do.

I picked up a book from the library called The Dumbest Generation, by Mark Bauerlein. In this book, he does use facts to attempt to prove that young people under 30 only excel when it comes to social networking. Everything else they are failing at: reading, working reliably, voting, making decisions, etc.

We'll see if his facts back up his assertion. To be honest, I'm not worried about the generations under me, because I also see evidence to the contrary. Plus, as young people grow older, they will I'm sure become more responsible - just like me, right? Ha! However, this book I'm sure will give some insight as to what the problems are now and what needs to be done to fix them.