Benefits Of Technology: The Dumbest Generation

According to Internetlivestats.com, the Google search engine is racking up over 3.5 billion searches each day, showing how dependent we are upon the internet in giving us information. Many searches can be found in other resources like books, but the internet overwhelms us with answers in a split second that does not make it easy for us to retain the information. In Source A, Mark Bauerlein tries to persuade the readers that we are the dumbest generation because we have all of the tools to gain knowledge, yet we are not taking advantage of the benefits they offer. The under-thirty generation is the dumbest because of the lack of common knowledge, which demonstrates how technology leads to ignorance. Over the years, technology has improved tremendously
The 18-year-old may have a Visa card, cell phone, MySpace page, part-time job, PlayStation 2, and an admissions letter from State U., but ask this wired and on-the-go high school senior a few intellectual questions and the façade of in-the-know-ness crumbles” (Source A). General knowledge is caving in order to make way for technology, transforming us into the dumbest generation. The author uses irony to describe how our generation has the many resources needed to be the smartest, but we are actually the dumbest simply because we are not using the resources appropriately in a way that allows us to maintain the material. We are quickly becoming ignorant of common knowledge as we grow to be more engaged in the world of technology. Many other authors, like Nicholas Carr, agree with the idea proposed by Mark Bauerlein about our generation being the dumbest. Nicholas Carr suggests that all of the technology we have easy access to is damaging concentration and reflection. Carr states, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Source D). The author first uses the metaphor “scuba diver