Don't Trust Anyone Under 30?

     For years, older generations have been criticizing the younger generation.  There is always something wrong, always something to fix, always something to point out.  It just so happens that our generation (all people under 30) are being judged as being the dumbest generation exhibiting narcissistic behavior.  Just now in the previous sentence I could not think of another word for criticized, so I went into Microsoft Word and looked up synonyms for criticized and found the word, judged.  Now, the fact that I did that, does that make me dumb or does that make me resourceful?  This is the basic argument at hand.
     Some of Baurlein's arguments I can agree with, but others seem to be overblown and a little extreme.  Of course, you need to keep in mind that he did write this book for a reason.  He not only did it for the self-interest of gaining extra wealth, but he got to be on multiple talk shows/interviews/news about this and ultimately got a response out of the public.  He argues using the picture below that this is what technology is doing to our students.  

     In the article "The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb" Bauerlein brings about the following quote "Multitasking adversely affects how you learn.  Even if you learn while multitasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily..."  I believe this quote is true.  It makes sense that doing multiple things at once causes your brain to go into overload and remember some things while disregarding others.  I can connect to this, because being a college student, I find myself multitasking a lot of my time.  I find that my grades stayed constant with my grades in highschool, so I don't know if I am learning the same amount, but multitasking allows me to get the most accomplished. 
     It is not that I think our generation is dumb, but I do think it could use improvement.  For improvement we need to analyze where the information we are getting our knowledge is coming from.  That is teachers, parents, and the internet.  Teachers need to prepare children starting at younger ages.  Over in Europe, an elementary school kid will know 3 languages by the time the American child will know 1.  The child can absorb more information at the younger ages which is needed to prepare the child for future education goals.  We cannot just blame college professors, because students are not prepared entering into college which leads back to a more difficult highschool curriculum. 
     Parents are the next place we get knowledge from.  It is ironic that most parents are indulging in these technological toys as much as the next generation.  Instead of setting an example of what is expected they are performing the same activities including going on facebook, listening to the Ipod, watching television.  The point is everyone needs to be on board if the goal is to create an overall smarter generation.  Lastly, the internet is of big debate concerning information.  Students these days have a multitude of information at the touch of a screen, but what students need to learn is to dissect true knowledge from misinformation.  The teaching of this resource should be regulated and enforced by schools.  In order to fully digest what is on the internet, people need to reclaim their reading skills and practice the skills of an active reader.  Overall, Bauerlein does a good job stating his opinion and encouraging others to realize their position and make a change.