Why are the youth so uninformed?

[Booldawg]

Considering how the internet has opened up a world of information on our fingertips, how come the youth of today are generally clueless dullards with hardly any general knowlegde skills, bad grammar and poor wit and repartie.

For me, the net HAS widened my knowledge and skills. I've been able to attempt alot more task such as fixing stuff round the house I'd NEVER touch before. Today I've been reading up on how to ripen my tomatoes, yesterday I was using the net to make an informed choice on what car to get and how much I should be paying.

Are kids blinkered into using the net to abuse their school-mates via 'social networking' sites and playing mind-numbing games created in Flash?

[B00]

Oh c'mon Booldawg, lets me fair here. Can you honestly say at 18 or thereabouts you were interested in DIY and ripening tomatoes??

I'm willing to bet that if you had access to the net as a kid you'd have looked at nothing but music, games and networking sites too, not to mention p0rn ;-)

[angel21]

Yeah thats true BOO.

When they get older they may well look at comparing the price of cars - when they are old enough to drive - or comparing cheap holidays - or findign out how to make chicken casserole or how to fix an engine - but they don't really need to do that at the moment.

[sqad617]

BOO....quite correct, at the age of 18yrs, I was only interested in Sport and girls........not necessarily in that order......LOL

[B00]

Combining the two would have been golden eh Sqad?

[Booldawg]

Of course, guilty as charged! But thats only one half of the argument.

At 18 I may well have used the net for 'other things' but then again at 18 I and nearly everyone else I know in my agegroup were alot more clued up despite having access to alot less reference information.

More readily available info seems to equate to alot less rounded education.

[jake-the-peg]

Why are so many older people mathematical dullards?

"Oh I don't do maths"

"I can't even add up a restaurant bill - darling - <titter>"

etc. etc.

[SeaJayPea]

"how come the youth of today are generally clueless dullards with hardly any general knowlegde skills, bad grammar and poor wit and repartie."

Let's leave aside the lack of a question mark and the mis-spelling of repartee. Also we'll accept that 'knowlegde' (sic) was a typo.

How can you make these sweeping assertions about kids? Of course there are thick ones about, there always have been, but many of the youngsters I encounter are every bit as bright as my grammar school classmates 40-odd years ago. They may have different interests, it would be surprising if they don't, but it's most unfair to say that all youngsters are clueless dullards.

Autres temps, autres mouers.

[rojash]

"Today I've been reading up on how to ripen my tomatoes, yesterday I was using the net to make an informed choice on what car to get and how much I should be paying."

Wow! You've really been stretching yourself intellectually, haven't you?

[daffy654]

I have an 11 year old son who is far more intelligent than most adults I encounter,especially in the areas of history,medieval warfare,geography,science and astronomy.

[Ankou]

i would rather my teenage relatives were out seeing the cultures of the world and mixing with friends / visiting places of interest together than sitting in front of a monitor.

i have a nephew touring china at the moment and a niece doing summer work in paris. they keep in touch with me and their other friedns back here through social networking sites.

i think they are special, but they are not unique.

[Booldawg]

rojash - I was simply researching information relative to what I needed to know; quantum physics can wait until tomorrow.

Talking of research I googled this within about 2 seconds.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3265302/T eenagers-are-less-intelligent-than-a-generatio n-ago-claims-study.html

[BeatySwalls]

they had libraries before but they generally leave it to the boring do gooders who have nothing else to do apart from complain

[Clanad]

Pedantically, I'd give the venerable Booldawg the benefit of the doubt in choosing repartie since: "...rep�ar�tee (rpr-t, -t, -�r-)
n.
1. A swift, witty reply.
2. Conversation marked by the exchange of witty retorts.
[French repartie, from feminine past participle of repartir, to retort, from Old French, to retort, to depart again : re-, re- + partir, to depart (from Latin partre, to divide, from pars, part-, part; see per-2 in Indo-European roots).]

It would appear he/she has imported la Francaise, no?

Additionally, in two sentences within the above deconstruction of Mr. Dawg's response, a semi-colon, at least is demanded and, finally, no comma is allowed following "... there always has been, but..." since the word but is, in and of itself, a conjunction... again, pedantically, don't you see?

Si hoc legere scis, nimium eruditionis habes

[jake-the-peg]

Maybe the youth of today doesn't need to know about how to ripen their tomatoes?

The point is what values you are use to judge others by.

You have homed in on those things that you have thought are important and assumed that these values are universal.

You have singularly failed to see the world from someone elses perspective.

And then you have used the word "blinkered"

And they say irony is dead!

[Booldawg]

'Maybe the youth of today doesn't need to know about how to ripen their tomatoes?'

No, its not an essential life skill. I think you're well aware I was using to illustrate how the internet can be used as a source of information.

'You have homed in on those things that you have thought are important and assumed that these values are universal.

You have singularly failed to see the world from someone elses perspective.'

Have I? Where? I was simply pointing out that despite the wealth of easily available information, teenagers in general are less informative that generations that didn't have such access.

'And then you have used the word "blinkered"

And they say irony is dead!'

As in totally ignoring the news link that backs up the OP.

[123everton]

Most boys can't seem to find their own pockets with both hands these days.
The short answer is drugs and a change to the standards of education around 1989, added to that we now have a culture that values power above kindness.
I had a family to support aged 19 (parents split up) and I bought my first house aged 20, similarly kids 40 50 years ago were more capable, tougher more resilient and struck out on their own far sooner.
Young adults (for that is what they are) in other countries tend not to behave in this manner, I saw a programme the other week about the orphans of cyclone Nargis in Burma, the kids on it (especially the 10 year old boy and his 6 year old sister) could teach some of the adults here a thing or two, I'd say

[Schutzengel]

The education system was failing the youngsters as far back as 1970, and has continued to deteriorate since then. Spelling and grammar appear to have been the worst affected, making some youngsters virtually unemployable in situations were these skills are necessary.

[Ankou]

you should see some of the emails that come out from our privately educated company directors who are in their 50s and 60s. would make my english teacher furious.

[jake-the-peg]

Boldwag

Did it even occur to you for a fleeting second that the things that you think are important in life like maintaining the particular style of grammar that you were taught might not be very important to many young people?

This is what I mean by failing to see the world from other people's perspective.

Your post seems to basically just say

Young people are stupid not like me I'm clever because I can use a browser

Generally young people are more impressed by creativity - which this post seems to sigularly lack

I am always amazed by older people's inability to use the web.

Mostly they seem rather limited to typing in www.ford.com.

Most it seems would not know RSS from IPv6.

I think you may find that many of the mind numbing flash games have actually been written by younger people.

Why don't you have a stab at doing that when you've finished ripening your tomatoes?

[123everton]

JTP but mind numbing flash games are no good on a sandwich.
An inability to spell most anything sygnifies a problem, I'm happy for any parent whose child is creative and artistic, just so long as they can get or hold down a job between bouts of inspiration.