11 years later, and she nailed it on all accounts. i see people everywhere that can't do anything, don't know how to find anything, and don't know how to properly sequence regular conversation. at least not without checking to see if their favorite 'content provider' has told them specifically how to do it and what to think about what they should expect to see. if things don't happen how they saw it in the video, they're absolutely lost and it's not their fault.
If you don't believe this, just post any educational article or link to your Facebook. Even a great literary book will receive few, if any likes. Twilight and Breaking Dawn, however, will. Virtually no one enjoys learning anymore. They just want to keep their heads buried in sand and hope for the best outcome. Not a good practice, faith based on nothing but false hope with little action.
Yes, yes, yes!!!!! I love when others have a brain... I keep saying that reality tv was introduced to dumb down.. I love to educate myself. I am 48. Dropped out of school at 16. Late 80s. We had so many manufacturing jobs. Refugees weren't fleeing to western countries in masses. My night off and enjoying a few cocktails while learning. I shared many documentaries... I am rewatching about Thomas Paine again... Sick and dumb is how the globalists want everyone
The problems are obvious, yet people won't stand together to do something about it. It's perfectly clear that we're being missed. And no one will say a damn thing because you'll be called crazy.
This is true. Last week I asked my daughter (12 yrs. old) where is the Artic Ocean, she looked at me like I was speaking a third language.. She had no clue because she wasn't taught geography outside of cities in Florida. This year we will be doing the Virtual School deal.
Tracie Smith Why does your daughter have to be quote "taught geography" ? Through natural curiosity why cannot your daughter inspect a world globe sometime in her childhood and see the words 'Arctic Ocean' printed on the globe ?
BRAIDERMAN Being taught is being 'spoon fed'. Much of a child's education could be facilitated by using that innate curiosity that all children have - until the television replaces curiosity with mind control.
+Tracie Smith Have you ever thought that parents should not rely on schools alone to teach their children? I don't know about you but my parents and other family members taught me all sorts of stuff, they didn't leave it in the hands of my teachers. I was constantly surrounded by family members of all types talking about history, politics, plants, animals, diy, sewing, music and tons of other stuff. This is how you develop a rounded knowledge base. Parenting isn't about handing off responsibility to others.
+BRAIDERMAN Well, the thing there is that natural curiosity is kind of beaten out of us, I happen to be a high school student who actually cares to learn outside of school, but for most of the other kids, the curiosity is essentially beaten out of us, kids are unmotivated to learn outside of class, then you have the kids who dare to ask questions, but the teachers who supposedly encourage questions always reply to the questions by calling the question unimporant, off-topic, or irrelevant
This is a topic that should be covered in every school in the nation. But those with an interest in knowledge are not likely to be found in schools. This clip should have 658,646,448,339, 420, 472 views.
I remember my junior year in high school, early 1991, shortly after I turned 17. I had decided to completely give up watching TV because the Iraq War was being televised and something about watching it -- plus a bout of sorrow/reality after the loss of a loved one -- awakened me to the unnerving insight that I had wasted years of my life "watching" and was sitting there watching it still. A pastor at my church encouraged me to start keeping a journal -- writing down my prayers, my thoughts, my reflections, my feelings, etc. I became a reflective person. Not "woke," not an activist, not a rebel without a cause; just someone who looked at his life, thought about it a little bit, and tried to push distractions away as much as possible. I am forever shaped by that period of time -- and it takes time. And it takes effort! I can hardly stomach television nowadays or "social media" or much else in popular culture. Yet I have to live in it, as most do, just to eek out a livelihood. My mother-in-law was reporting some melodrama she had seen on a "reality TV" show a few months back and how "awful" it was; i suggested that it was a farce. You might've thought I cursed her to her face by the way she looked at me! People, please, turn off your TV. Stop and reflect a bit. Like Thoreau said, don't read the Times (he was literally referring to the New York Times), but read the Eternities (meaning, the literature that has survived millennia). Look at your life. Make improvements. Create something. Give something away purely for the joy it brings to the receiver. My heart and spirit are free, if nothing else. If you've read this far, I hope you have been inspired. The Lord bless you.
Absolutely spot on. I hadn't heard of Susan Jacoby before, but I have been extremely worried about my own ignorance and even more worried about the takeover of technology in the lives of the young. I am trying to reverse this trend in my life by reading more books, but I am not optimistic about how young people, who are abandoning handwriting and reading physical books in droves, will be able to overcome this. I think homeschooling may be one small solution. A fantastic, erudite interview.
You can't be dumb to become free, it is like eating sand to quench your thirst. If someone thinks ones sovereignty is not important, then can be assured they are truly ignorant to the most important fundamental principles of Universal Law/their own consciousness. Defending your own consciousness/Universal Law, is defending it for your children too. Defending your own consciousness for other people, is defending it for you, and your children. IT is all the same one, heart, defend it.
The internet makes the dumb dumber and the smart smarter. It motivated me to read Plato, Spinoza and Goethe and to get into science and history. But it also entertaines me with idiotic videos on youtube and games like GTA V, which I buy on steam to play them when no ones around... What's wrong about this versatility? Jacoby needs to think a bit more humanistic...
Then why is this nation so far in debt? Why are most Americans so unhappy and unsure of the future? Where are we going as a civilization and a people? People in this country used to have a sense of purpose. The will and freedom to follow our dreams. That is what made us exceptional. Everything is owned by corporations now, even the people. the "big" picture is freedom and happiness. I think that video games and such are fun, but this modern world allows way too many escapes from reality.
When i boarded ship headed for Vietnam in 1967 at age 18 i had no idea where Vietnam was but i knew we were going there. The ship had a map posted on the bulletin board show Vietnam.
Excellent video. My great-niece, age 19, moved in with me a year ago and it took months to break her out of bad habits. She never took the time to wind down and drove me crazy doing everything from sleeping with the headphones to her I-phone in her air so that she could hear or feel the cellphone ring in the middle of the night or access FB 24/7. She wake up exhausted. I took the phone from her for three months and she couldn't believe the rest and good night's sleep that awaited her.
It is the pursuit of ratings and advertising revenue that drives the dumbing down of content. Providing content that is intellectually challenging to viewers turns most people off. They want entertainment, and don't want to expend the effort to actually learn something.
In times gone by it was a matter of physical might. In today's world it is a matter of KNOWING, and the public educational system has been aiming at the very bottom for the sake of controlling The Herd. Welcome to Nightmerica.
I KNOW in 1989 Bush passed the no child gets left behind. Which is the STUPIDEST THING I've ever heard of. Now as long as you show up for school you pass you don't have to learn. Just pay the teachers.
It's not a knock, since choice wasn't involved, but every generation is born into an inadvertent ignorance of knowns which older generations lived through/with. Acknowledge as much, and get out of your own way. Over the past century, into current times, the world has seen changes of breadth, depth, and rate, unlike any previous similar period in the human experience, pre-historic and historic. Nobody really knows what we've done to get us here, and nobody knows where we're headed. The ride is happening and we don't have control, regardless of how much we pretend otherwise.
IMO, parents don't encourage learning. They rely on 'public education' to teach everything. You may not like what your kids are interested in, but by not supporting their 'self-education' you limit what they can learn. Ask questions about what they want to know. Learn about it yourself. Too many rely on 'experts' and don't bother to investigate for themselves. Teach by example. When your kids see you learning something new, they might learn to how to learn.
In the past early 1980s and throughout the entire past decades of the 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s, 1930s down to 1900 and below it, the average American home has one room which is 2 times to 3 times as large as the largest room and it is a printed book based-library adjacent to a library-study room, library-workshop room, and library-office room. But as the 1980s starts to go forward you cans still see each bedroom having several library bookshelves and a study room section, but by the 1990s they started to gradually disappear until you can only find one bookshelf or a cabinet converted to a bookshelf, and now according to several friends who went to visit their relatives in America, they rarely find the average family having a dictionary! The housing sector even conspire to encourage the dumbing down of the average American family by gradually, over the decades and years, eliminate the printed book based-library adjacent to a library-study room, library-workshop room, and library-office room and the only room which is the largest is the television entertainment room! So how the heck can you stop and reverse the dumbing down of Americans when even the infrastructure design of their houses are even designed to dumb them down?
Wow she mentions richard hofstadter and he mentions neil postman. I am impressed. I am on youtube or inside a book inside my phone 24/7. I love finding stuff out. My books are excellent and my youtube files are all suitable only for Brights. Long live davinci, dawkins, darwin, and other polymaths who groove on knowledge.
What happens when new tools fail? It's not just an "if" matter. I find it sad that people can't make change when a register's power goes out or if they don't have a calculator on hand. It breaks my heart that many people can't form a coherent sentence. Can they build a house, use a tape measure, dig a well just because they can 'school' us on the uses of the internet?
20 years ago, it was normal for me to read a couple dozen non fiction books a year. Nowadays, I read 1 or 2. The reason for this is that virtually every time I read such a book now, I find that I already know everything I am reading, and worse, often the book is out of date, even though it was just published. This because I have already read it on the internet. She thinks the internet is a passive entertainment system, or at best, and easier reference book. She could not be more wrong.
If you include people reading text on computers, I'll bet we're reading more than ever. Also, she probably didn't anticipate that her wisdom would be transmitted on youtube .. on a computer.
keep in mind that our media , after TV was used in the 50Z and with the Elvis culture..adults stayed home and movies were made for the young and not so learned yet..
Kids who play video games grow up to be adults who understand how to solve problems creatively, cope with frustration, and persevere after repeated failure.
She must have missed the fluoride. The one thing too that she might have said was that the electronics keeps the kids from bouncing off the walls. When we were kids, we had to go outside. Mom wouldn't let us in the house. But today, it's safer in the house (for the kids).
Computers are the same as paper. Yes, computers are tools, like computers. But if a person puts garbage on a bunch of paper, and gets a book, the book is just like the computer... you can get bad info from a book, too. Let's look at public school text books. They change depending on you are in Tecas, California or New England. And they change based on periodic votes by a commitee of politically influenced board members. Maybe we teach reading comprehension, not just promote book over computer
I did not mean to infer that the internet could not be used as an easier reference book, but no reference book in history has ever enabled instant interactive feedback and a multitude of perspectives and media. The internet is vastly more than just an easier reference book, it is that and an infinity greater. It is a phase shift in how human beings think.
I wasn't trying to insult you. I apologize. All I was trying to say is video games are an escape. There is nothing wrong with playing them sometimes, but they have very little to do with reality. I also believe exercise and physical work is key for creative thought and pumping oxygen to the brain. Your right in your next comment though. You shouldn't let others do your thinking for you. peace.
I dread the parent that takes this woman's perspective to heart, that forcibly denies their child the social interaction medium their erstwhile friends have chosen, that limits their exposure to the tools the future will assume they have mastered. Because this woman and the parent are utterly lost in the dust of the new paradigm, and assume therefore that our ignorance of their old one is stupidity, they would keep their children ignorant of what is today, the new reality.
American Exceptionalism does NOT mean we're better than everyone else. America is an exceptional nation because it's founding principles are based on the idea that our rights are inherent at birth and are not bestowed by government or monarchy. "American" is not a race. It's an idea and it doesn't matter if you were born here or came yesterday. If you believe in "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" you're an American. That's what makes America exceptional.
Pretty sure you missed the point. She said people should be trained in how to use the tools correctly. Not that they shouldn't use the tools. It's amazing how people will completely overlook what they don't want to hear in favor of what they think they will or do want to hear.
I think what she's trying to say is that we've built up an environment where it's easier to attain facts without context. I'm gonna go on a limb here and say that the majority of people watching these economic videos already read up on whatever subject interests them, as you say you yourself do. The pessimist (Her) sees the millions of views a cat video has. The optomist sees the trend of the ever growing momentum of ideas contributing to the acceleration of knowledge.
Status: We currently have no evidence to confirm that Thomas Jefferson ever said or wrote, "If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed." --- Found on the Monticello site
Interesting that in the entire conversation she mentions not once our vaunted public schools and spends virtually her entire time denigrating media, the internet and computers, as if the dumbing down of America was something recent. I completely agree with her about people being dumb. I think her conclusions are 100% ass backwards. People are reading and writing, and I dare say thinking, more now than at any time in the last 50 years, due to the internet and computers.
Marketing techniques creates insentive for people to spend, spend, spend, spend money on stuff; not to find the Jefferson statements or investigate chemistry experiments.
Very few other countries make their children go to school for the amount of years we do as well. 16 years old and you're either starting an apprenticeship or going on to the next level of education. I find that the public schools in America spend a lot of time re teaching things from year to year so that you're spending a good half of your schooling learning things you were already taught.
I expect that people 'like' the video, not necessarily because that agree with the point of view being expressed as rather that they appreciate LibertyPen's daily postings.
While I agree with the guest about the saddening lack of curiosity which plagues our culture, the Internet has been a huge asset in terms of what Sowell calls "consequential knowledge." You may not be able to find Iraq on a map (which I agree is appalling), but you can find out about the things that directly affect your life, allowing you to make more informed choices. Notice I didn't say "better choices:" just having more knowledge doesn't make you any more wise.
This is so true. just go to to any store and buy something. Give any person who is under 45 years old and buy something lets say under $10.00 and give them a $20.00 bill and see if they can or WILL count your change back to you. 95% of the time they won't and can't count it back correctly. When I was 16yrs old and got a job at a grocery store they would make sure you could add, subtract and could count back change. I have made people count back change to me before. And some just couldn't do it.
I completely agree with regard to public schools. That was much of my point, sadly constrained by RU-vid's 500 character limit on comments. With reference to the 'cause' of the dumbing down, she spends all her time maligning that which might rectify the problem and none of it addressing the actual cause, the absolute travesty 'public' schools have made of what should be education.
I thank God that the first order of Joseph Stalin is to gather all the books printed in the world and all natural species and varieties of each specie of plants in the world. In one of the many duplicated microfilm archives of the Kremlin and in many parts of Russia I have seen text books meant for students grades 1 to 7, high school students 1st year to 4th year high school. And college text books for college students from 1st year to 4th year college in all fields of science, engineering, technology, trades, vocations, shops schools, etc. And everything were systematically well organized using the dewey decimal system and based on the systematic grades level from elementary, high school, and college up to bachelor degrees, masters degrees, and doctorates degrees. The search and gathering and collection started in the 20s going way back to 1900 and then to 1800 and 1700, etc and at the same time going to the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, up to the present year 2016. Microfilming is sill extensively used by my government for it was already a matured technology in 1900 and the technology has constantly been improved on and expounded upon continuously. And all of the books, magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, conversion tables, mini-mags, pocket books, hard bound books, paperbacks, maps, etc were all systematically searched for, collected, duplicated, microfilmed many dozens of times over, carefully preserved, AND PROTECTED AS IF WE ARE PROTECTING A STATE SECRET because these are our insurance against both man-made catastrophes and natural catastrophes. We even went so far to set up the numerous laboratories and machine tool shops needed and used by these scientists, engineers, technologists, technicians, master machinists, doctors, surgeons, etc. The books were reprinted many times in both English and in Russian, the other books written in foreign languages such as German, France, Japanese, etc were translated into English and in Russian and in their original languages using high quality archival printing ink and high quality archival paper. I also have seen the old books of Europe printed many centuries ago and their quality is VERY HIGH INDEED AS IF THEY WERE PRINTED JUST A WEEKS AGO! Unlike today's so called quality ink and paper.
Actually, I buy most of my books these days so I can read them on my iPad. It's great to able to carry around so many books in one device. We aren't all Tweeting when we are looking at our iPads (and I can read on my iPhone as well).
Once again, she wasn't decrying the internet. She was talking about the stuff that most people with a brain find kinda annoying. the cat videos, the memes, the trolls. I am not completely agreeing with her, because I'm a bit of a movie buff. But she makes a great point.. 10hrs straight of the wiggles, or angry birds or cat videos isn't great for a kid.. and parents should be mindful of that.
I agree with most of what she said. Our culture as a whole has definitely been dumbed down. The body of knowledge it is expected a person will be familiar with has also shrunken. It used to be expected that people would be well-versed in at least the central books of the literary canon.
I agree to a point with her, I think she is incredibly pessimistic. Yes the internet is a tool, a fantastic tool, a tool that enable us to know what's happening around the world, and the opinion of the world is. It's more than that what this woman seem to think it is, much more.
Agreed. In fact it was video gamers who solved a certain medical problem (I think is was a virus or something) that actual medical and health specialists couldn't. Ah, yes, it was the structure of a retrovirus enzyme... which could lead to cures for a number of diseases.
A number of school systems, Germany for example, separates the hands from the heads at some point, sending the hands to apprenticeships and the heads to higher education. That's a bit of a simplification but I think that is more or less the case. The US attempts to educate everyone, equally with dismal results. I think if schools are ever going to improve they need to compete and specialize and let the "consumers" make their own choice.
I agree and was about to write something similar, but I would add, that the public schools are among the least dynamic institutions around. I recall my own education at "above average" public schools where we were taught virtually nothing about economics for example. We did spend a month on Whales though. I guess I should give the teachers credit for teaching that baleen is made out of keratin. I don't know where my life would be without that information.
I take issue with the "read a book" sentiment. With Newsweek going all digital and Kindles all over the place, does reading an eBook or reading a book online still count as reading a book?
I think it's more likely that you simply did not understand a word she was saying. The Web is a calculator, as a calculator is a tool in the same manner as the web. You are one of the people she is speaking about.
And who is going to train the kids to use the new tools? The aged parents and teachers, most of whom could be schooled by the kids in the use of those tools? I am the first to admit that what passes for education in today's world is a travesty, but Mrs. Jacoby goes on at length decrying the internet, the very thing that could fix the problem, without a word about schools, the very source of the problem. The way for adults to prepare the kids for the future is IMO, to simply get out of the way.
A calculator in the hands of someone who only knows basic math isn't as useful as it is in the hands of an accountant or engineer. It's even worse with those who learned to entertain themselves with said calculator.
Public schools used to be great institution though. In the UK in the 40 through to the 60s you could get a fantastic education in the grammar system. Pity about the secondary moderns (2nd tier schools) since they got neglected and ignored. so the whole system came down and we have shitty schools almost across the board.
Why is it ALWAYS assumed that more education for the average man better? By any measure, our citizens have always been dumber than citizens of socialist countries. But how is it that we are so wealthy? If you think that education is good, then explain why professors of the most prestigious universities are liberal by a vast majority. Notice that Jacoby gives as examples political questions. Why not take a survey of how smart the average person is, on the subject that he makes his living on.
Susan Jacoby comes across as a little arrogant and elitist in this video. Every one is ignorant about something. The trick is to specialize in what interests you as an individual, and with our combined efforts collaborate to create a more interesting, socially and environmentally sustainable world. Technology isn't "bad", it's neutral. It's up to the human organism to use it properly. Also, entertainment isn't a waste of time. Art of all mediums stimulates creativity. Context is everything.
Alice Oganessian I second that sentiment and plus polls are used to tell people what to think and what to do and from what I hear the pollsters ask simplistic questions that aren't designed for sophisticated answers
That is quite worrisome. Check out a movie called Idiocracy sometime. The internet is great, so is technology of all types but once you change your thinking so that you rely on it, you're kinda screwed.
Does art of all mediums really stimulate creativity? Even if it's partaken of to the exclusion of all else? Have you watched the news lately? I think what she's talking about IS the context. To me, it seems that the context, or tenor, of society--at least the part of society (which has increased incredibly over the last few decades) that has to do with participation with media--shows a social desire to comfort people for their ignorance.
START TEACHING THE BASICS! Basic science, basic math, basic physics, basic biology, basic astronomy, basic speech, basic reading, basic cursive writing, basic arithmetic, basic civics, basic history, basic chemistry, basic latin language, use phonics, use the Montessori system, make it mandatory for them to read the old "PRINTED IN ON PAPER" textbooks of the early 90s going way back to 1900 such as dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias, conversion math tables and formulas on weights and lenghts and areas of shapes, calendars, abacus, soroban mathematics, etc, "THE WORKS!" Avoid computers, tablets, e-books, and others which can be manipulated for dumbing down-brainwashing-evil indoctrination by liberalism/leftism, etc. TEACH DO NO BRAINWASH, EDUCATE DO NOT INDOCTRINATE. Use the Classical system of education called as "CLASSICAL EDUCATION". Stop the feminization of education against your young boys and men that indiscriminates against them and not in favor of them and discourages them from learning, separate the males from the females, and only allow them to be together during recess, lunch, and after classes. Originally public education is all 100% PRIVATELY OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY LOCAL COMMUNITIES, TOWNS, COUNTIES, AND COUNTIES IN BIG CITIES. All original colleges and universities were all smaller and owned and controlled by the local towns, local communities, local counties, and local counties inside big cities. All educational institutions were LOCALLY financed and supported by he local towns, local communities, local counties, and local counties inside big cities. PARENTS, NOT TEACHERS, ARE IN CONTROL OF ALL INSTITUTIONS OF EDUCATION IN 1800 TO 1900 UP TO THE 1920s, Parents are the final decision makers on which teachers to hire AND FIRE! The same policies goes to the local libraries and librarians also. There were no teacher unions, no corporate control, NO ILLEGAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WHICH SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE! Everything is 100% locally controlled by Christian parents only and by following the CHRISTIAN-BASED U.S CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN ACCORDANCE OF THE 6TH AMENDMENT! In the past early 1980s and throughout the entire past decades of the 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s, 1930s down to 1900 and below it, the average American home has one room which is 2 times to 3 times as large as the largest room and it is a printed book based-library adjacent to a library-study room, library-workshop room, and library-office room. But as the 1980s starts to go forward you cans still see each bedroom having several library bookshelves and a study room section, but by the 1990s they started to gradually disappear until you can only find one bookshelf or a cabinet converted to a bookshelf, and now according to several friends who went to visit their relatives in America, they rarely find the average family having a dictionary! The housing sector even conspire to encourage the dumbing down of the average American family by gradually, over the decades and years, eliminate the printed book based-library adjacent to a library-study room, library-workshop room, and library-office room and the only room which is the largest is the television entertainment room! So how the heck can you stop and reverse the dumbing down of Americans when even the infrastructure design of their houses are even designed to dumb them down? There is no such thing as too much learning for our ancestors knows too well that we need to learn all that needs to be learned or we won't be here or be living the life that we are living in right now. But there is such as thing as ignorance which can kill anyone or everybody if we ignore the dangers of ignorance.
