I don’t really know much about author Mark Bauerlein or his book The Dumbest Generation: How The Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future but my initial impression is not a good one.

Bauerlein recently contributed a Boston Globe piece on 8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation that achieves the rare double-feat of being both incredibly out-of-touch and remarkably ironic — it’s a piece that hopes to demonstrate how dumb, vacant and empty-headed Generation Y (and Gen Z, or Generation TBD, or whatever) is made up entirely of stock photos and three-sentence descriptors.

In any case, I think it’s supposed to be pithy and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but even allowing for that it’s mostly stupid. So, in response, here are eight reasons why this is the smartest generation, presented without stock-photos and not split up across nine different pages.

They’re more politically & socially involved than ever before

Bauerlein writes that this generation is “encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond — friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.” This immediately brings to light the biggest problem with his arguments: while he claims to be criticizing this generation, he’s really just criticizing teenagers. Do teenagers tend to be egotistical and caught up in the goings-on of their own lives to the point of melodrama? They sure do. Is this a new phenomenon? Not at all.

Hell, the fact that Bauerlein thinks this generation is preoccupied by sitcoms shows how out-of-touch he is.

The big point is this, though: our generation is more politically involved and socially-conscious than ever before. Check out these stats from a USA Today article:

61% of 13- to 25-year-olds feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world, suggests a survey of 1,800 young people to be released today. It says 81% have volunteered in the past year; 69% consider a company’s social and environmental commitment when deciding where to shop, and 83% will trust a company more if it is socially/environmentally responsible. The online study — by two Boston-based companies, Cone Inc. and AMP Insights — suggests these millennials are “the most socially conscious consumers to date.”

They spend way less time watching TV and more time reading

Bauerlein trots out the old “Kids don’t READ any more!” argument, referring specifically to books. And, sure, books don’t sell great — they’re on the decline. But that doesn’t mean Gen Y doesn’t read. In fact, whereas the boomers and Gen X tended to employ television as their major source of media, Gen Y is turning to the internet. And even with advances in video & audio online, you know how the vast majority of the internet is experienced? By reading.

From an article in World News Australia:

The survey, commissioned by social networking website MySpace and conducted by UK-based analyst The Future Laboratory, found a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds had reduced their television watching in favour of social networking on the web.

They have massive networks to call upon

Bauerlein brings up the abundance of typos, abbreviations and misspellings in IM and Texting communication as a point to prove this is a ‘dumb generation’. I don’t much like that kind of typing either, but it’s hardly a sign of ‘dumbness’. In fact, most of these short-forms emerge because Gen Y is trying to cultivate an absolutely astronomical number of friendships and relationships.

The networking we’re seeing with young people today is unprecedented and of incredible value to business. Whereas in the past people didn’t start building their networks until they were in their late teens or early twenties, this generation is establishing these connections at 12 years old.

They have a worldwide platform for expressing themselves creatively

Bauerlein makes the ridiculous argument that “On MySpace, if you write clearly and compose coherent paragraphs with informed observations on history and current events, ‘buddies’ will make fun of you.” I’m really not sure where he’s getting this, unless he’s hanging out in some really stupid corners of the internet.

One of the benefits to social networks, blogs and other online platforms is that young people can and do share their thoughts and ideas on everything from TV to video games to politics. The opportunity to make yourself visible at a young age leads to career and portfolio opportunities that were roadblocked before. Just look at the legion of bloggers who have found book deals.

They seek entertainment that’s active, not passive

Bauerlein points to the blockbuster sales of Grand Theft Auto 4 as a reason for this generation’s ‘dumbness’, but he doesn’t offer much in the way of argument. I’d make the argument that Gen Y’s appetite for video games as opposed to television or movies is a sign of intelligence, not anti-intellectualism.

Gen Y demands interactivity with their media. TV shows like Lost have derived popularity from the fact that fans love to come online and talk about them — develop theories and look for clues. Even American Idol, a show that takes a lot of crap for lacking substance, succeeds with youth because they feel like they can be a part of it.

Involvement, in a lot of respects, IS intelligence. There’s a lot more to be derived from playing Grand Theft Auto 4 than, say, watching an episode of Miami Vice.

They have quick access to an astounding amount of information

Bauerlein, again, makes a confusing argument: “Digital natives, however, go to the Internet not to store knowledge in their minds, but to retrieve material and pass it along. The Internet is just a delivery system.”

I don’t really know what he’s getting at, but that may be because I’m not storing enough knowledge in my mind. I just keep giving all my knowledge away to my online buddies!

One of my favourite archetypical Gen Y traits is their ability to quickly settle an argument. A group of people will be sitting around a table wondering, say, who Bob Dole’s Vice Presidential candidate was and suddenly, within seconds, someone will have pulled the answer from their laptop or cellphone. This tends to mystify the hell out of a lot of baby boomers.

If Gen Y memorizes less information, it’s because we know how to wield the enormous repository of information that is the internet.

They’re forcing huge changes in education

Education is a topic I’m passionate about, and there’s no doubt that a lot needs to change in the way teachers approach their Gen Y, and younger, students, but Bauerlein’s argument that we’re in an “era of child-centered classrooms and self-esteem grading” is just tired. Especially since nobody is really able to prove that today’s students are really lacking in the smarts department globally:

According to Reena Nadler, program director of LifeCourse Associates, a marketing and human resources consultancy in Great Falls, Virginia, founded by generational experts Neil Howe and William Strauss, the millennial generation is turning the clichés on their heads. “Student achievement is rising,” says Nadler, a millennial herself. Today’s youth dedicate more hours to their studies and extracurricular activities than previous generations did.

I think there’s very real issues that arise when the students are digital natives and the teachers barely know how to turn a computer on, and we’re seeing the fruits of that, but that doesn’t imply there’s anything inherently wrong with this generation. That they’re forcing change in the way education happens is actually a testament to their abilities.

Because we’re young

It looks like Bauerlein just plain runs out of arguments with his eighth point. He probably should have just gone with seven reasons. Seven is lucky. His eighth argument is simply “because they’re young.” And young people are… stupid.

He’s sort of right, actually. Young people lack experience and, indeed, tend to be egocentric and melodramatic and prone to screwing up (all part of learning). But youth also brings with it, by its very nature, an incredibly wellspring of potential, which is what a lot of companies are just starting to realize:

“We have the best qualified generation since history,” says Patricia Vendramin, a sociologist at the Work & Technology Research Centre of the Fondation Travail-Université in Namur, Belgium. Millennials get work experience early, they’re flexible, they’re willing to relocate, and they’re open-minded, she adds. Also, “they are very skilled at using technology” and they’re true team players, Redmond says.

So much left to say

It’s unfortunate that authors like Bauerlein are able to draw booksales by treading on the same old “kids are stupid” ground so many others have walked for decades. I bet when he was younger there were older people saying he was dumb, too. You would think that experience would have taught him better than trotting out this the-kids-aren’t-alright nonsense. But, then, maybe those calling him dumb back then just happened to be right.

Thanks to the Brazeen Careerist Forum for the link to this article.

Via Chris Bird: a nifty map of social networking sites based on their popularity in countries around the world.

Some thoughts:

• I’d love to see some historical data. It’d be neat to see Facebook’s growth versus myspace in English-speaking countries
• Why has Facebook been so so slow to launch international (non-English) versions of the platform? It’s only now that they’re getting going on that. It seems to me that the time spent developing the application system would have been better spent shoring up mindshare in big markets like India and Latin America.
• Friendster? REALLY, Asian Pacific?

This stuff may seem trivial now, but consider the future of business as a peer to peer network of contacts and resources. Your chosen platform may end up meaning more than you think.

Ed Gottsman at ZDnet writes:

The workplace won’t change because of Gen-Y’s values. It’ll change because of their tools. In particular, social networking tools. Now, if you’re like me you are sick unto death of hearing about MySpace, FaceBook and LinkedIn. But part of the reason they keep coming up is that they’re important.

There’s a bit too much exasperated-old-foginess coming out of this article, but Gottsman makes a good point here:

So one of the most important assets Gen-Y will bring to the workplace is its Facebook account: an enormous “rolodex” of acquaintances–probably larger, more varied and better maintained than those of top management. Enterprises will be well-advised to encourage cultivation of this contact list–in other words, to let their employees “play” on FaceBook–since this activity will serve as a source of new customers and recruits.

While I have mixed feelings on Facebook and its long term prospects (more on that later), there’s definitely something to the idea that Gen Y employees will bring social networking clout to businesses. Already businesses have seen the kind of success a timely link from digg, slashdot and BoingBoing can bring them. My own digg experience has shown that a front page appearance on a weekday during business hours can net a web site some 30,000 pageviews. Considering posting to digg costs $0, it’s hard to think of more effective advertising.

I do think this is an area where Gen Y will have to be smart, though. No matter how much the corporate landscape shifts, no one’s ever going to get hired because they have over 1,000 MySpace or Facebook friends. Especially if your social networking activities are limited to superpokes and Scrabulous. On the other hand, if someone happens to have regular IM or twitter contact with Jason Kottke, waxy or the gang at 37 signals, that’s an immediately valuable thing for business. That’s an employee who has the connections to get you major exposure across the web.

This shouldn’t just be limited to so-called ‘web’ companies, either. This is something that all businesses would do well to keep in mind, especially as more people — and not just the sketchy ‘SEO’ market lurking about these days — come into business with extensive social networking experience and knowledge.

Photo by Aristocrat. Licensed under Creative Commons.

One of the more pervasive memes about Generation Y is that we’re narcissistic. It goes so far that one of the other names for “Generation Y” (in addition to Millennials and Nexus Generations, both of which makes us sound far too much like robots for my tastes) is the “Me Generation.” This can be seen to various degrees in a lot of writing about our generation. There’s mild stuff, like the article Generation Y: Connectivity & Enjoyment which just sort of oversimplifies the generational issues and sums it all up as this:

Contrary to their parents, for whom “the job” dictated everything, for generation why-ers, enjoyment comes first. They choose where and what kind of lifestyles they want to lead and then choose their careers accordingly.

But then there’s the far more negative slant, such as in this article from the Christian Science Monitor. They write:

A little smug self-absorption might be a time-honored trait of at least some subsets of the under-30 crowd.

But over the past few decades the prevailing disposition among college students – today labeled Generation Y or Millennials – has slid into full-blown narcissism, according to a study released this week.

The “all about me” shift means much more than lots of traffic at self-revelatory websites such as YouTube and Facebook. It points, says the study’s author, to a generation’s lack of empathy, its inability to form relationships – and worse.

I think the they labeled YouTube & Facebook as self-revelatory is fairly telling of their inability to really understand both what those websites and the generational attitudes they refer to really mean. YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and the other Social Networking sites aren’t fueled by egotistical tendencies — they’re driven by social tendencies. It’s not just about logging on and telling the world what you’re doing. It’s also about seeing what everyone else is doing. And for most, that’s the real compelling reason behind being part of a social networking site. If it was just one person sharing their thoughts, activities & photos with the world, you wouldn’t see anywhere near the same level of popularity. (Plus, it’d just be a blog — not that blogs and blog authors are egotistical!)

This worry that Gen Y has too much self-esteem is actually pretty funny when you think about it. I guess the concern is that we’re too confident and have unrealistic expectations. But the subtext seems to be “life sucks, and you should know that already.”

Is too much confidence harmful? I guess so. But a good deal less so that a bunch of people who have no faith at all in their own ability. Nobody with ‘realistic’ or less-than-realistic levels of self esteem has ever created, invented or changed anything. If you want to see a parade of so-called narcissists, look no further than this video.

It’s the optimism — that so many write off as a negative thing — that separates us from Gen X, who were known for their cynicism, amongst other things. And, sure, the optimism can in a lot of cases manifest itself as egotism or narcissism — and I’ll be the first to point out that that can be really really annoying — but even in spite of that it is this generation’s hope and belief in change that has most strongly defined it.

And, yeah, we expect to enjoy the things we do, at work and otherwise. That some people find that difficult to understand seems to indicate a problem with them, and not us, doesn’t it? Not to draw lines in the sand or anything.

Photo by Huro Kitty. Licensed under Creative Commons