The two yutes

Last night I was engaged in a wandering debate about the generational division on issues such as health care, taxation, and what extent, if any, perception subjugates fact therein. To summarize: Are kids really dumber these days? Certainly the news abounds with stories of rising test scores. Many traditional metrics seem to suggest an increase in academic performance, paired with a decrease in academic standards. So, without raising the ghost of Ebonics, is it fair to question the accuracy of such measurement?

I’m not sure I believe that the youth of today are any less intelligent than the youth of any given time period. They simply have the means to broadcast their silliness to a greater extent than previous generations did. In the past, the world did not often hear from genuinely dumb people. Publishers weren’t putting out books of dumbisms and the great unwashed weren’t massing to hear the latest thoughts of “Average Tom” from around the way. You had to be, or come across as, intelligent, fascinating or at least dangerous, to get any serious attention.

These days, even the dimmest bulb can access and be heard in a wide range of formats. This is the “You Tube phenomenon” My point is, perhaps they’re not dumber than any previous generation, just louder? On the other hand, I can’t remember hearing of a past generation of young people that the preceding generation truly approved of.

-N