Don't Trust Anyone Over 30
A new book bashing the Millennial generation may have its facts mostly right, but the reasoning is all wrong.
By Lauren Yingling
December 1, 2008
Emory professor Mark Bauerlein argues in his book that Millenials are the dumbest generation ever.“Don’t trust anyone under 30.” This is Mark Bauerlein’s advice in his book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future. The book is a well researched, but ultimately incomplete, examination of how today’s young Americans—or the Millennials, born between 1978 and 1996—may make up the “dumbest” generation ever. Bauerlein, a professor at Emory University, notes that test scores have dropped significantly in recent years, college students are taking more remedial courses, and interest in reading and the arts that has taken a nosedive. He argues that a large drop in reading levels among today’s youth, coupled with their apathetic attitudes toward academics and a much greater interest in new technology, are to blame for this crisis. Unsurprisingly, Bauerlein predicts a bleak future for our country.
Overall, Bauerlein has the facts to back up his argument: Test scores and reading levels have dropped in recent years among students not at the top of their classes. But Bauerlein doesn’t adequately take into account many of the reasons why Millennials are “dumb.” He fails to acknowledge that many of the reasons for the country’s “dumbing down” are not the fault of Millennials. In fact, it can be traced to huge problems with public education, revealed in the debate over the No Child Left Behind Act; a shortage of qualified teachers; the growing inequality gap; massive cuts in school funding; and less emphasis placed on the arts, social studies, and civics and government in favor of improving test scores in math, science, and reading. Bauerlein either briefly mentions or outright ignores these problems, which have largely been perpetuated by members of Bauerlein’s generation.
But the biggest issue Bauerlein ignores is the rising costs of higher education. Bauerlein implies that today’s college students are “too dumb” to finish college—that they are so unprepared for the rigors of college study, or too lazy to keep up with their classes and homework, that it is near impossible for them to attain a four-year degree. While the reasons for dropout rates are varied and difficult to assess, he fails to consider the 35 percent jump in college tuition over the past five years. In 2003 alone, tuition jumped 24 percent at some state schools. Furthermore, federal aid has done little to keep up with skyrocketing tuition costs and the rise in the number of college students, thus less aid money is available.
Millennials know that a college education correlates highly with an increase in income, but due to the rising costs of higher education, more and more of them are being forced to take out private student loans. These loans can have more than twice the interest rate of federal loans, as well as disastrous penalties and collection fees for defaulted loans. It makes perfect sense then that today’s college students are the most in debt of any previous generation, accruing thousands of dollars worth of student loan and credit card debt before they even graduate. So maybe the reason why so many Millennials are struggling to finish college isn’t because they are too dumb, but because they are too poor and in debt.
According to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid, over the next ten years 4.4 million students from households with incomes below $50,000 will not attend a four-year college and 2 million will not attend college at all. Just think of the number of lawyers, teachers, doctors, scientists, diplomats, researchers, or even future Noble prizewinners our country will lose because college is becoming increasingly unaffordable for so many young Americans. Furthermore, recent studies show that many qualified high school students—nearly half of qualified students of color—don’t even choose to attend college. Many expect this is due to the cost of education.
Bauerlein also argues that Millennials are more interested in updating their MySpace page then in keeping updated on politics. But he never mentions how Millennials have used networking tools on the Internet to influence politics. In recent years, Millennials began using YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and even self-created websites to endorse certain candidates (like the Generation Dean movement created in 2003 by Michael Whitney), raise money, further an issue, or intensify get-out-the-vote efforts. This new movement has revolutionized political campaigning and American politics more than anything else in recent history. This is largely due to Millennials.
Bauerlein repeats a tired old argument that Millennials don’t really care about politics and civics. He says this despite the numerous studies proving youth engagement in politics today is greater than it was for previous generations, that youth voter turnout has increased in every election over the last eight years, and that an enormous number of youth activist organizations have popped up in recent years building grassroots movements for various social and political causes. When it comes to civic engagement, Bauerlein couldn’t be more wrong.
Take, for example, the 2008 presidential election that, according to some estimates, saw an increase in youth turnout at levels not seen in four decades. Furthermore, Barack Obama wouldn’t even have had a chance at the presidency if it weren’t for Millennials. It was Iowa’s Millennials who helped him canvass to victory in the first caucus where the number of young Democrats participating jumped 135 percent from 2004. Obama, who was a huge underdog going into the Iowa caucus, won this demographic by a margin of four to one, and that win gave him the momentum that carried him to the Democratic nomination, and eventually to the White House. Dumb, politically apathetic Millennials played a huge role in electing the nation’s first black president.
Finally, Bauerlein says we shouldn’t trust anyone under 30. More accurately, we shouldn’t trust anyone over 30. Today we see that inequality has reached levels competing with those seen just before the Great Depression and inequality around the world is even worse. Furthermore, global warming threatens the survival of our planet—scientists warn that in just 10 years some of the effects of global warming will be irreversible. Bauerlein’s generation has done little to address this problem until now. And let’s not forget about the worldwide economic crisis, an inflating national debt, millions of lost jobs, a broken healthcare system, a failing education system, a Social Security and Medicare crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the list could go on.
To be sure, some Millennials may have lower test scores and struggle to finish college, and some may be more interested in technology than in academics. But let’s face it: We aren’t as bad—or as dumb—as Bauerlein makes us out to be. In fact, we are quite the opposite of how Bauerlein portrays us. We volunteer in higher numbers and are much more tolerant than other generations. We also care deeply about important issues like the environment, healthcare, education, inequality, poverty, and genocide. And we are more politically engaged then other generations were in their youth.
In the last sentence of the book, Bauerlein writes that “if things do not change [Millennials] will be remembered as the fortunate ones who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be recalled as the generation that lost that great American heritage, forever.” I guess Millennials are the “fortunate ones” who will inherit a trillion dollar deficit and a broken health care system. And Millennials will also inherit such “privileges” as a severe climate crisis and increasing inequality and poverty. It appears that instead of losing that “great American heritage,” Millenials will be the ones that will have to try to restore it.
Lauren Yingling is a freelance writer and proud Millennial. In 2005 she graduated from the University of Delaware. She can be reached at lymd22@yahoo.com.
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Comments
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Gotta agree with you on civic engagement, Lauren. Especially given the heavy lean toward Obama—2 to 1—you guys are a political force that both parties must reckon with.
MB
— Mark Bauerlein - Dec 1, 03:52 PM - #Gotta agree with you on civic engagement, Lauren. Especially given the heavy lean toward Obama—2 to 1—you guys are a political force that both parties must reckon with.
MB
— Mark Bauerlein - Dec 1, 03:53 PM - #Gotta agree with you on civic engagement, Lauren. Especially given the heavy lean toward Obama—2 to 1—you guys are a political force that both parties must reckon with.
MB
— Mark Bauerlein - Dec 1, 03:53 PM - #Mr. Bauerlein (if that’s really you), if Lauren is right here, does it undermine your entire book? Did Nov. 4th, 2008 change your mind?
— Conor Kennedy - Dec 1, 06:02 PM - #The Zogby election day poll proves that Bauerlein’s conclusion about the Millennial generation being clueless is correct. It shows that Millennials, despite their vaunted technological abilities, know surprisingly little about the presidential campaign or their candidate. You can’t blame that on tuition rates.
(For the Zogby results go to: www.zogby.com/news/w….)
— Sig - Dec 2, 01:35 AM - #Lauren, very well written and concisely to the point. I couldn’t agree more with your statement regarding the tolerance and activism. Millenials are more apt to have their own voices and question things when something appears out of sorts, rather than follow along blindly.
— Karen Pruitt - Dec 2, 10:54 AM - #Good lord, Sig. That Ziegler-funded poll is bunk – even John Zogby himself ran away from it. blogs.wsj.com/number…
Good article, Lauren. The crucial question is: how many kids are on Mr. Bauerlein’s lawn, and does he want them off it?
— For Student Power - Dec 2, 11:44 AM - #I’m glad people enjoyed the article. Thank you all for your kind words and for those who are critcal of me, I welcome your comments and your debate.
And as far as Millennials not knowing anything about Obama when they went to vote, I’m sure most voters of any age knew just as much—or as little—as Millennials. And futhermore, at least Millennials didn’t vote for someone just because he is black, or has a Muslim name, or we mistakingly thought he is a Muslim, or because he is an evil liberal who will “spread the wealth around”. That’s why many older Americans voted for McCain as opposed to Obama, which tells you just how much other generations knew about the two candidates on election day.
— Lauren - Dec 2, 12:40 PM - #I Couldn’t disagree more.
Watch the Zogby poll on Youtube. The participants knew nothing substantive about the candidates. When asked to name which candidate had made certain silly or controversial statements, they overwhelmingly and incorrectly named the republican candidates.
This begs the question, from where do Millennials get their information? They apparently get much of it from the same few misleading, mean-spirited comedy television shows. That is very troubling.
I read the Zogby poll article recommended by Karen Pruitt, above. While Zogby does appear to be playing down the poll itself, he is not backing away from the validity of its results. Rather, he seems to have belated realized that it is not a good business strategy for a professional pollster to alienate a significant segment of one of the two dominant political parties. I guess not.
As for Millennial social and political activism, if they lead such parochial lives that they can’t get the basic facts of a prolonged presidential campaign right, what’s the use of it? In the real world, one does not get an “A” for effort.
Get real people.
— Sig - Dec 2, 08:36 PM - #More proof that college education is becoming increasingly unaffordable: According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, “The rising costs of college—even before the recession—threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans.” Also, “Tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007” while “students from lower income families… get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.”
— Bailey - Dec 4, 11:30 AM - #Anytime anyone older than GenX (Bauerlein outdates us Xers, thankfully) starts slinging around the Boomerisms, I get turned off and doubly suspicious. As someone who benefits from technology to overcome what Boomers force us to view as disabilities, I have to say I had a much better education the second time around with the millenials than with my own generation in the late 1980’s. Millenials are on a different wavelength than even Xers and frankly, it’s refreshing. NCLB, a brainchild of the Boomer craptastics, has done more damage than anything, ever. It’s time to drop the horsehockey and start working together because we’re all facing an extreme suck and we don’t have time for this generational divisiveness hoohah.
— JustJack - Dec 4, 05:50 PM - #Well put Lauren. I don’t know how the blame game is going to help at all anyway. Let’s not point figures at individuals and look at society factors, as you have done.
— J.S. - Dec 5, 11:58 AM - #That was a great article. Another thing that I’m sure was hinted at was that students are also working while going to school so it makes it harder to finish assignments and school in general.
— Ian - Dec 5, 09:19 PM - #That was a great article. Another thing that I’m sure was hinted at was that students are also working while going to school so it makes it harder to finish assignments and school in general.
— Ian - Dec 5, 09:19 PM - #Brava Lauren! I’m 50 and finishing up my MSW. I had put my BA on hold for a couple decades and in 2000 started out at the community college.
I was saddened that so many students didn’t know how to draft a simple research paper. Yet, blaming the victims is certainly not the answer.
I feel fortunate that I went to high school back in the day when the only standard test was the SAT. I had teachers that actually taught me how to think critically and fostered a joy of reading.
Today teachers are forced to teach to the test, kids to read to the test. No wonder the Milliniums don’t read more in depth analysis of issues than what they see on this and similar blogs.
Despite that, I am personally pleased with the new direction America’s young adults seem to be going. My generation (tailend of boomers, pre-X…was it the “me” generation?) As blogs go however, your’s offers a competent overview of issues. Thanks.
— Virge Parks - Dec 6, 06:09 PM - #oops. I left out part of a sentence! ....one might say that ….My generation was all about New Wave and new drugs, yet some of us turned out okay.
— Virge Parks - Dec 6, 06:47 PM - #Unfortunately what Mr. Bauerlein and many from his generation do not seem to understand is that our generation has only just begun to assume a leadership role. Our earliest college graduates have only just matriculated into the workplace, and to make a blanket statement that we cannot succeed seems a little simplistic, especially with very little solid data about our performance in the workplace. From what I have seen of the 70s, nearly the entire adult population was on some type of drug when they were in college, did the images and stereotypes of the 60s and 70s actually manifest themselves? I think not. If he takes a closer look, older citizens are actually electing young people to lead them because they have grown dissatisfied with the older, ‘wiser’, and ‘smarter’ politicians. This year will mark the first Millennial Representative entering Congress, and Pittsburgh’s mayor (who is also under thirty) has led an incredible resurgence in that city, specifically by attracting young professionals to the city.
Also, it seems like every time an older person writes a book about the Millennial generation they claim that we are entitled. I remember my mom telling me about a time not too long ago when women were asked and negatively affected in job interviews if they said they wanted to start families soon. Was their demand to not be discriminated against unfounded? Were they acting entitled for wanting to work?? Millennials entering the workforce have seen the problems and defecits with the current system, and are attempting to change it for the better of all. In general we are calling for a more concerted effort from corporations to respond to our needs, and no longer ignore us as interchangeable inputs or assets. Instead of calling us apathetic, this agitation should show how active we actually are. Mr. Bauerlein has completely mislabeled our generation because we have chosen to revolutionize the system from within instead of without like the Baby Boomers.
Standardized test scores have always had historic bias, and I believe that actions speak much louder than studies. Countering his point that we are dumber, I would point everyone to a recent CBS News piece about technology use. In the short piece, neuroscientists demonstrate how Millennials use much more of our brains than older, non-tech people. One definition of intelligence could arguably be usage of the brain, and we would therefore have a major leg up on our ‘smarter’ counterparts.
www.cbsnews.com/vide…
Do not misunderstand me, I do not think Millennials are perfect, far from it. I believe we need to learn much from the older generation, I just hope they are willing to teach us instead of calling us dumb.
— Brett Hummel - Dec 6, 07:29 PM - #Great post, Brett. I liked how you pointed out that Millennials are trying to change things from the inside instead of the outside. I think older generations can find us intimidating (although they’d never admit it) and their negativity towards us is sort of like a defense mechanism. They tell themselves—and everyone else—that we are stupid, lazy and apathetic, but they know that isn’t really true. We are also very unique because of the times in which we grew up, and its hard for older generations to cope with our different attitudes and expectations. Also, I checked out your blog and its really cool. Keep up the good work!
— Lauren Yingling - Dec 6, 09:52 PM - #Mr. Bauerlein’s book may have its strengths and weaknesses, but as a 24 year old what I find particularly distressing is that, judging by the experience of the baby boomers, I can look forward to decades of being stereotyped and pigeon-holed based on the fact that my date of birth happens to fall within a certain arbitrary range. That may well be reason enough for me to get in line with the rest of my generation and stop reading the news (in my case, canceling my newspaper and magazine subscriptions).
— ARP - Dec 6, 11:56 PM - #My advice to the those under the age of 30:
Don’t listen to anything the Mark Bauerlein says. He is an ignorant, pompous, self-absorbed, late-born Baby Boomer.
And, more importantly, he ia a PROFFESOR of ENGLISH. He can teach, but he can’t DO anything.
This is just another throwaway book by another throwaway idiot.
Did I smear Dr. Mark Bauerlein with labels and innuendo? Yep.
Did Dr. Mark Bauerlein smear people under the age of 30 with labels and innuendo? Yep.
— hterrya - Dec 15, 12:44 AM - #Nice article. I’m glad that you were able to counter his points, because his constant labeling, discrimination, and bias was really bugging me. Yeah, so I’m on Facebook, I spend a lot of time online, and I think people actually read my Twitter feed, but I can still write an essay, read classic novels, and, most importantly, think for myself. The major benefit of the internet that Dr. Bauerlein missed is that it gives “Millenials” the opportunity to express themselves and think outside the box. You don’t have to have your ideas approved by society to start your own blog, after all. Sure, a lot of it is crap, but without the internet the real gems would possibly never appear. For every “teen confessional” YouTube video, angsty Twitter feed, and pointless Facebook app, there is a forum for Millenials to express themselves, affect others, and change the world.
— euterpe42 - Jan 14, 10:54 PM - #What a very well written article. The fact of the matter is it is the pre-millenial generations who have handed us a huge deficit and horrible economy. As far as the rise in college tuitions and financial aid, was it not the institution of the “cildren born after 1982 must go off of their parents income for qualification” that has hurt many applicants who desire to go to college? The fact is, many parents will not put down the money for their children to go to college because it has become so expensive, and the millenial generations are stuck in a catch 22 due to your generations institutions.
Pawning off your mistakes on our generation is not only poor taste, but shows a lack of responsibility in why we are where we are. It’s his sort of thinking that leaves Americans stuck in a rut. If your not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Thank you Karen.
— LJ - Jun 27, 03:27 PM - #What a very well written article. The fact of the matter is it is the pre-millenial generations who have handed us a huge deficit and horrible economy. As far as the rise in college tuitions and financial aid, was it not the institution of the “cildren born after 1982 must go off of their parents income for qualification” that has hurt many applicants who desire to go to college? The fact is, many parents will not put down the money for their children to go to college because it has become so expensive, and the millenial generations are stuck in a catch 22 due to your generations institutions.
Pawning off your mistakes on our generation is not only poor taste, but shows a lack of responsibility in why we are where we are. It’s his sort of thinking that leaves Americans stuck in a rut. If your not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Thank you Karen.
— LJ - Jun 27, 03:27 PM - #