Kids today have easy access to information, such as the internet. Back in the day, we had to use encyclopedia's. Are our kids the "smartest generation" ever? Why/why not?
2006-11-02 10:19:24 · 18 answers · asked by Matthew R 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
If smartness if equated to intelligence, then 25 years is too small a time for the human brain to have developed more (it is constantly getting newer and newer layers, but over millins of years). They are more gadet savvy and have more access to information. The internet has made geography history, the world flat (See Thomas Friedman's book on this), if just easier acess to accumulation of information is smartness, then yes, they are smarter.
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2006-11-02 11:27:37 · answer #1 · answered by Starreply 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Kids may now be more street smart, but they are not more book smart. You referenced Internet usage as opposed to encyclopedia usage. I think that researching on the Internet for the average student does not teach anything. Hit a couple of buttons, copy something or other off, and presto! Instant paper. That way, the student probaly doesn't even give a cursory look over the paper. With an encyclopedia or even books in general, the student is required to look at the information,at least for a second, so as to retype or rewrite it for the purpose of turning it in. Our kids are not the smartest generation ever. Maybe there are greater oppurtunities for the garnering of knowledge, "smartness" if you will, but those oppurtunities are not utilized.
2006-11-02 12:04:55 · answer #2 · answered by R. D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Speaking as an educator, I believe kids today are smarter. I'm often suprised at the knowledge some of my students have. Generally speaking, they know alot more than I did when I was their age. I think access to the internet has contributed to such a wealth of knowledge.
2006-11-02 10:31:07 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think so. We take a lot of things for granted. Such as the internet and whatnot. So we don't really learn the hard way and think we knopw everything just because we have a computer and a spell check on Word. Everything is so easy this generation and we've become lazy. Don't study. Cheat and look up the answer on the Net. That's what I think.
2006-11-02 10:22:57 · answer #4 · answered by Hitori M 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yep. As you said easy access to info via the net. Also think about how much has been discovered since the '50's for example. Kids today simply have MORE information to learn. If you pulled someone from the '50's who knew everything there was to know then and someone from today that knew everything there is to know now, the person from today would know conciderably more than the person from the '50's.
2006-11-02 10:27:34 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes and no. Yes: we have access (easy as you say) to a much higher mass of information. this skills that come with this are basic reseach skills which allow us to navigate this mass and separate "usefull" from "extraneous" information. People of today have had to master "filtering" skills that were not needed 25-50 years ago.
no: while I don't know what the academic situation was 25 years ago, certainly 50-75 years ago the students had to work much harder, the disciplinary and authoritarian structures forced people into much more "mastery of the material" as opposed to "mastery of the information matrix".
I think that this is why the graduate school drop out ratio is much much higher today than it was: students who make it to the phd level of studies are finding that the graduate school style still retains much of the 1940's style... (comprehensive exams, defense of the dissertation etc) while the Bachelor and undergrad degree programs have changed significantly...
jmk
2006-11-02 11:19:13 · answer #6 · answered by dingwallplayer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know that kids today are "smarter" but I would venture to say that they are exposed to more things that we, at the same age, were not exposed to. If we had had the same technological advances and exposure, we would likewise have had the same "smarts" as today's kids. In fact, thinking it over, I think that we were smarter because WE had to figure things out and those are the same things that WE are exposing OUR kids to today! I still remember the first handheld calculators made by Texas Instruments that my wife got when she started college... it was about 3 1/2" x 5" and I thought it was so tiny! Then, when I saw the first credit card-sized calculator I was in awe... then, I even saw a wrist watch with a calculator (and even bought one). But, I still remember in school, before calculators, we had to do our own calculations and we knew the times table before graduation elementary school.... today's kids use calculators and graduate high school without knowing the times tables! Today's youths are lazier, expect everything given to them and want things immediately. Look, instead of kids looking up information, then enter this forum to ask the same questions their teachers assigned to them for homework, do you really need more proof?
When I was a child, I had access to libraries, my parents did not. I did not have access to a computer until I was 7 years ago... my mother has never touched a keyboard but she can distinguish different kinds of plants or fruits by just looking at trees, or what materials are good for what kind of shirt or pants, or how to make exotic meals and pastries and wedding cakes... I have trouble boiling an egg! I can type, my mother has never touched a typewriter, let alone a computer keyboard. My grandchildren have never seen a black and white TV... or have ever had to kill a scorpion or poisonous centipede...
Who among us would survive if transported to the 1700s... or if transported 300 years into the future? It's all a matter of being exposed to conventions and inventions and the availability of information for anyone at any given time.
We had to EARN our rights and privileges and fight for today's kids now take for granted. The generations before mine had to fight for the right to vote, for freedom to speak without reprisals, not to be spied upon, and incarcerated in secret without legal cousel, etc., and today's generations are so eager and willing to yield and give up their rights, freedoms and liberties because they did not have to fight to achieve them! If they had, they'd be fighting to KEEP their rights, freedoms, and liberties that others before me shed so much blood, sweat and tears for. Today's youths are benefiting from what my generation and the generations before mine accomplished, from what our generation and those generations before us learned and made available to them!
Today's kids smarter...? Nah... I doubt it! To paraphrase a very old and famous quote, today's youths are able to see farther ahead because they're standing on the shoulders of giants... and the generations that will follow today's generation will hopefully do the same, speaking as a former educator trying desperately to be optimistic, that is.
2006-11-02 11:30:50 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, they have more access to more technology now than then but as far as Intelligence, people may think we are smarter than we were thousands of years ago, but there were great minds and philosophers in those times and look at all they accomplished with the little technology that they had then.
2006-11-02 10:31:24 · answer #8 · answered by RWIZ 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe that 'we' (as I am one of them) are smarter in some things, technology things, but it really depends on the child. Some kids will just look up answers on the Net and not pay attention in class. Some kids try there very hardest and are very smart. Theres no dumb geneoration, or a smart one. There about an equal amount of smart/less-smart kids.
2006-11-02 10:29:51 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think kids are more sophisticated and think faster than we did when we were kids ... but i don't think they are smarter overall. I think it's basically the same proportion of smartness spread across the population ... some smart in math or music or physical ability or words or emotions ... the kids with video game minds will excel in this generation ... because that's what our environment will reward ... but overall, kid's aren't smarter.
2006-11-02 10:24:09 · answer #10 · answered by mariamcm 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋