Bauerlein claims that today's youth are becoming dumber, yet scores on IQ tests have been rising steadily for decades. Who knows, maybe Grand Theft Auto IV will manage to reverse the trend! The fact is, every generation has its prophets of doom, warning us of some evil trend that is corrupting the hearts and minds of children. Sixty years ago, it was Doc Savage novels; today, it's XBox. As for "buddies" making fun of anyone who makes coherent, informed observations, heck, I can remember college students behaving that way 30+ years ago.

I have seen this over as short a period as 10 years -- my oldest son knows 16X16 (memory) the youngest goes for his calculator. Same genes same nurture different consumer electronics environment. Brings the movie Idiocracy to mind: "What is the minus of 54 and 23. I think it is 3."

What I have observed is a tendency for the TV generation to be impatient. More than once I have been asked to repair a perfectly good autoclave because the student didn't understand that timing for sterilization started only after the water had boiled and built up the temperature and pressure to the operating point. Their minds are able to grasp ideas better if it is done in less than 8 minutes. I'd expect to see more patience from gamers. At least they don't get their attention stunted by commercials.

Don't get me started. If I'd thought people would buy the book, I'd have written it years ago. The continuous over-stimulation of the young is contributing to their deteriorating attention span. There was a study that said that the watching of TV is too stimulating for small children. Apparently the only programme not too stimulating is Barney...

For more than 30 years I have been giving a simple test to applicants for engineering and technician openings. I have observed that the trend is to learn less and less about the basic principles with more concentration on "fun activities". We call it the "Sesame Street" effect where anything that requires more concentration than the letter A is too much. We have an increasing number of applicants who won't even take the test or cannot answer a single question. Examples of questions are a simple RC time constant calculation, voltage dividers, Ohms law, simple AND/OR gates logic, etc.

It is a global effect. In Spain, where I am living see also another factor. But we should not forget the adult factor: we have a lot of influence on new generation and we have to demostrate right balance on usage and learning. Our parent use as well top technology in 60's and 70's which are very obsolete for us. They balance time for fun, for work and for learning and we have to transmitt this concept as well. Learning provides way to apply technology on improve life

Indeed & Amen! kids today have so little use for any task requiring more than a 5 minute attention time span. Unless, of course, it's another rev. of an X-box game or the equivalent. Spelling & punctuation errors abound, and life is OBA (one big anacronym !)

The real sad part is that as long as Grand Theft Auto and the likes are selling like hotcakes, what incentives does the industry have to produce products of more educational value?

The real sad part is that as long as Grand Theft Auto and the likes are selling like hotcakes, what incentives does the industry have to produce products of more educational value?