'Intelligence cause for concern' author says

Mark Bauerlein, author of "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future," left the audience of his Tuesday night lecture with valuable criticism concerning the intellectual lives of today's youth.

Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University. He recently served as Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Although his book has offended many young Americans, Bauerlein insisted he would like nothing more than to be proven wrong.

"Your generation is just as smart and motivated as any generation before," he said, adding that the title of the book was meant to be a provocative measure to attract attention.

Bauerlein stressed the importance of being a voice of doubt in order to invoke discussions on issues he and others have noticed. Bauerlein also offered hopeful sentiments by saying the current trend of decreasing intellectual curiosity could turn around.

"It [the lecture] basically reinforced a lot of the trends I've seen in our generation," Anthony Cole, a junior electrical engineering major from Jonesboro, said. "It also eased some of my worries about how our generation will turn out."

Bauerlein spent about half an hour discussing how technology has affected the social lives of Americans under the age of 30. Then the floor was opened for an extensive 90-minute question and answer session.

Question number one: Does the presence of current technology in communicating, such as e-mail, text messaging and social networking sites, effectively disconnect people who utilize it from human to human contact?

Bauerlein's answer was yes; face-to-face contact occurs less, and without it young adults growing up do not get the experience needed in reading nonverbal cues for face to face interactions.

In response to another question, Bauerlein explained that, while more information is available through the Internet, many have lost the ability to evaluate the quality of that information.

As stated before, Bauerlein focused on the social aspects of new technology. More interconnectivity and immediate availability have expanded social space.

"Now social life is 24/7," Bauerlein said.

This expansive social pressure has led to less private space. He said "kids" no longer want to be alone and backed up this assertion with his observations of ASU students walking to class and text messaging.

"It was interesting to realize how, in today's society, no one is ever out of reach," Anne Marie Cason, a junior pre-professional biology major from Bryant, said.