Summary
PBS’ video segment “The Dumbest Generation?” from Frontline’s Digital Nation makes the claim that because of the multiple distractions offered by today’s forms of media, today’s youth are not as “intellectually capable” as in previous generations. That new media allows for greater accessibility to information is a double-edged sword for today’s students. This phenomenon is especially relevant to college students, who were the primary focus of the segment. The same remarkable invention that allows students to browse scholarly papers online from the comfort of their homes also offers a plethora of distractions such as Facebook and YouTube, in addition to digital music and cell phones. One particularly interesting change from older generations identified by the segment was the current habit students have of “writing in paragraphs.” Because of the increased level of distractions, the student will write a paragraph and then become distracted by something else, then repeat the cycle. This causes a disjointed feel that keeps the paper from properly flowing like those written in a few focused sittings, (typewriter-style!) In addition to such disjointed studying, students are also taking shortcuts in their assignments. Professors are saying in polls and studies that students come to their classes less prepared than they should be, and lacking basic skills that students at their level used to have. One professor said he couldn’t “assign a book over 200 pages”, or it wouldn’t hold the students’ interest. Resources such as Sparknotes are making reading assigned material more and more unnecessary.
PBS’ Frontline is “American public television's flagship public affairs series”(from their website) The series aims to investigate controversial/relevant issues and educate the American public at large, or at least those that watch PBS. PBS, as a station and a source of information/news is known to be quite reliable. Its non-profit status lends to it a credibility not found in most current news stations. Frontline especially is known to have a reputation for being objective and unbiased, and has won several awards, including five Peabody awards. At stake for PBS in reporting this information is the education of the American public, as well as its reputation for reliability and accuracy of information. The call made by this segment, as with most of Frontline’s documentaries, is for Americans to act upon this information and seek to better the situation being reported on. The general strategy is to inform first, and let the viewers take whatever action they feel is necessary/possible in their own lives.
Inquiry
For the most part, I would have to agree with the claims made by this segment. There are so many more distractions today than there were in previous generations. Because there are so many things that you can do with the internet, so many articles to read, so many games to play, so much to learn about, etc. it’s almost impossible not to succumb to the temptation to multi-task while doing homework. The power that the techonology sitting in front of you holds is like a constant itch in your brain. You have to scratch it, even if that entails looking at your Facebook feed every few minutes, compulsively. I must admit that I have almost exactly some of the same problems that were identified in the segment. The “paragraph writing” completely fits the way I write my essays, and sometimes it seems like it takes me forever to churn out a complete essay, and by the time I do, I’ve forgotten some of what I’ve said in earlier portions of the paper. And assigned novels? This semester in my English 109 class, we were supposed to read Moby-Dick, spaced out over the course of several weeks. I barely touched the book, and used Sparknotes to gain the general gist of the novel as well as its themes. I got a decent grade on the essay for the novel, and moved on with life. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading, it’s simply the amount of other work I had to do, as well as the distractions technology offers that I’m not great at resisting in the first place. And I’ll also admit that while writing this very blog post, my work was diverted by YouTube and Facebook. Student productivity is certainly not what it was.
Discussion questions:
1. 1. Do you feel, as a student, that the distractions of today’s technology/media significantly cut down on your level of productivity and your intellectual capabilities?
2. 2. Did older generations, in your opinion, have an environment that was more conducive to academic achievement?
3. 3. What steps do you think should be taken to remedy this situation, or if you believe that you are not hampered substantially by new media, what steps do you take to ensure this?
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