Mark Bauerlein said he has received numerous e-mails from students, including many with “four-letter words,” since labeling theirs the dumbest generation last May.
But Wednesday, UNC students reacted with a markedly civil tone to the 49-year-old Emory University professor’s lecture on the social influences that “conspire” to hinder the intellectual growth of today’s students.
“I pretty much, actually, agreed with almost everything he said,” said Chris Hartle, a sophomore business and economics double major.
“I thought that some people may think that it’s harsh, but it’s always difficult to have an objective view of yourself. I thought he made a lot of really good points about how social life can really take over and drive your life.”
Bauerlein’s lecture, “Wise America: An Antidote to Wayward Teens, MySpace Addicts and Bibliophobes,” focused primarily on the Internet’s role in drawing students away from intellectual pursuits.
It was co-sponsored by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the UNC College Libertarians.
“I think that the central message is for them to realize the powerful social meaning of the tools,” Bauerlein said, in reference to text-messaging and online social networks like Facebook, MySpace and blogs.
“They are invested with deep peer-to-peer significance. This does not lend itself to their intellectual development or their maturing process.”
For Bauerlein, such obstacles pose a threat to the performance of one’s civic duties.
“To grow as an individual, to function as a responsible citizen in a democracy, you have to acquire a measure of historical knowledge and civic awareness, and you don’t get that spending all your time with fellow 17-year-olds,” he said.
Bauerlein credited students’ preoccupation with their social lives as a major distraction from intellectual development.
“They care about what adolescents have always cared about — one another,” Bauerlein said. “Seventeen-year-olds care about what other 17-year-olds think.”
He added that students no longer have a refuge from the intense social environments created by high schools with the onset of Web sites like Facebook.
“This means that you’re always aware of one another,” he said.
Bauerlein said much of what he discussed appears in his latest book, titled “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”
While many attendees told Bauerlein after the lecture that they agreed with his argument’s basic premise, some did object.
“I think there are stupid people in every generation,” said Nat Shelness, a senior American studies major. “I think it was unfair of him to blame us for being the stupidest one.”
To learn more about Mark Bauerlein check out www.dumbestgeneration.com.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
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