Millennials: The Dumbest Generation in History?

[Separatist]

[Juliet]

Guilty as charged. Now what do we do?

[markharr]

I can't watch the video at work meaning I don't know whether this is sarcastic or not but I hear this frequently and I used to agree.

I don't think they are dumb, I think we failed them. We pampered them. Told them that they were special and that their opinion mattered more than anything else. We didn't allow them to lose because we felt that that would harm their fragile egos. We handed out participation trophies instead of taking advantage of the age where they could learn how to lose in a safe environment. We told them that if they went to college they would be happy and could be anything they wanted as if that is all it took.

They went off to college with this idea that they were special and that everyone had to bow to their needs. Then when they couldn't handle rejection or failure with failing scores, we changed the grading system so that they didn't fail even though they turned in failing work. even though they were technically adults, we as parents still fought their battles for them giving rise to the new term 'helicopter parents'.

Now we are shocked when after graduating college they found that it took more than just a college degree to land that dream career, dream job, and dream family. They still have to work hard for that stuff. Now we act shocked when they riot because their candidate loses.

They should take responsibility for their own actions but older generations should also take responsibility for ours in how we failed them.

[SmallFarm]

Nope. You've had comedians making videos of people saying stupid answers to general knowledge question since the invention of the television. It's all about selective screening, out of context interviewing, and getting people to act silly.

[gkearney]

It is also about showing only the silliest answers and editing out all the correct ones.

[tribrac]

They can't be, they all have 4.8 GPAs

[Separatist]

Nope. You've had comedians making videos of people saying stupid answers to general knowledge question since the invention of the television. It's all about selective screening, out of context interviewing, and getting people to act silly.

It is also about showing only the silliest answers and editing out all the correct ones.

Party poopers.

[skmo]

Nope. You've had comedians making videos of people saying stupid answers to general knowledge question since the invention of the television. It's all about selective screening, out of context interviewing, and getting people to act silly.

It is also about showing only the silliest answers and editing out all the correct ones.

Party poopers.

While those points are correct, I can also tell you that overall, the level of things considered "common knowledge" has precipitously dropped in recent years. Modern kids are much better at finding answers, as long as they have the all-knowing Google close at hand to ask, but take that away and the level of knowledge drops to somewhere between my dog's chew toy and a paramecium.

People's ability and level of dealing with technology has grown, but that's only valuable to help find knowledge learned by others, knowledge which rarely lingers in its new owner's brain. I was in Junior High in the 1970's, and if you'd have asked the 600-800 students in the whole school who won the U.S. Civil War, I doubt you'd have gotten as many "I don't know" answers as this guy got.