Our Generation is Stupid?

My ENC 1102 teacher was telling me that our generation has the lowest vocabulary since the caveman times. I don't know if this is 100% true. If someone could verify this with a link that'd be awesome.

However, the point is, in the past the advancements of technology were used to discover new things and to further our understanding with the world. Now it seems like most of the advancements that we have today just go to things we enjoy and we don't spend enough time learning about the things that are important. I'm not saying I want to learn about that or anything, but if curriculums were harder, it probably wouldn't hurt.

By the way, if the teenage generation now has the lowest vocabulary, it will only go downhill.

Thoughts?

Oh god, this is has such potential to get heated. To D&D


-moved.

It is my heartfelt opinion on the issue at hand that a guy using an overtly sophisticated and grandiose vocabulary has significant inadequacies in his sense of self-worth and reproductive prowess.

CarcharOdin said:

It is my heartfelt opinion on the issue at hand that a guy using an overtly sophisticated and grandiose vocabulary has significant inadequacies in his sense of self-worth and reproductive prowess.

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Yes shallow and pedantic. ಠ_ರೃ

Seriously though when I'm talking with people (especially in person) my brain often struggles to find the next word so just I use whatever comes to mind as long as it makes sense. Sometimes this leads to me using bigger words than necessary but I'm not trying to come as a genius even though it might seem like that's my intention.

I know some people like to be verbose because they are insecure but not everyone who uses big words is like that. My inadequate self-worth and reproductive prowess must be related to something else.

Well in many situations I've experienced, using sophisticated vocabulary will give you the label of a "nerd" or something of the sort. It seems that many people these days think the "OMG i haz da shwaggg lol lol"-er is cooler than someone who can actually speak/write. I honestly don't care what others think, and prefer to sound even partially intelligent, but as a whole, I have seen a decline in society in general.
This does not mean society as a whole is declining, but the "cool and hip" section of it is, in my opinion.

But does it mean that a person is stupid just because they use a bunch of abbreviations and on-purpose misspellings? A lot of people at my school use those when talking to friends and such, but they know when to dial it back when dealing with important things like essays. I feel like our generation is being hated on just because we were exposed to technology for a larger fraction of our lives than the previous, and with the spread of technology like this, obviously there are going to be some social changes. I don't really like how it's changed us to spreading memes at the speed of light, but again, is it impossible for a person to use the term "doge" in a sentence then turn around and give a lecture on the history of Spain?

Well spelling like five year olds surely doesn't give the impression of intelligence, whether the person is or isn't actually smart. And if nothing else, technology has made us one of the laziest generations, if not the laziest. And I doubt that's making us any smarter.

Aniyha said:

But does it mean that a person is stupid just because they use a bunch of abbreviations and on-purpose misspellings? A lot of people at my school use those when talking to friends and such, but they know when to dial it back when dealing with important things like essays. I feel like our generation is being hated on just because we were exposed to technology for a larger fraction of our lives than the previous, and with the spread of technology like this, obviously there are going to be some social changes. I don't really like how it's changed us to spreading memes at the speed of light, but again, is it impossible for a person to use the term "doge" in a sentence then turn around and give a lecture on the history of Spain?

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I don't know, there are people who can take a step back and enhance their vocabulary for an essay. However, I've also seen plenty of people who just don't have a sub-par vocabulary whatsoever. A lot of people at my school seem to tlk lik diz on social networks and stuff. And it's not like that helped you in any way. I actually gained grammar and vocabulary through forums from a young age and it's definitely helped me. However, there are so many people who just seem to portray themselves as lacking intelligence.

Your teacher's opinion simply refers back to my previous thread regarding use of Jargon Words making us smarter, which I believe is his initial goal. Take CharcharOdin's post for example, this is how your teacher wants us to talk like rather than speaking simplified/misspelled words on the internet.

Introvert said:

Yes shallow and pedantic. ಠ_ರೃ

Seriously though when I'm talking with people (especially in person) my brain often struggles to find the next word so just I use whatever comes to mind as long as it makes sense. Sometimes this leads to me using bigger words than necessary but I'm not trying to come as a genius even though it might seem like that's my intention.

I know some people like to be verbose because they are insecure but not everyone who uses big words is like that. My inadequate self-worth and reproductive prowess must be related to something else.

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It was less directed at people who are smart and more direct at people who act smart.

I think we use lesser vocabulary because kids are playing more and more video games, and not reading. Texting could have something to do with it, but not that much. Texting and stuff isn't that bad. We aren't dumber, we just may not be using our full potential.

To leave this segue of language and going back to the OP, I doubt that our generation is any more stupid. In fact, as you mention actually it's easier than ever to learn about new things and deepen our understanding of the world. At the same time, it's easier than ever to distract yourself. Putting the question of whether our generation as a whole is getting more stupid, the two factors I've mentioned would make the difference between people's intelligence more divergent - to put it one way there's a greater spread within the population as it's easier to move on the intelligence continuum in either direction. Since we usually only notice stupid people instead of smart people, I think the differences between smart and stupid have become more visible.

Your teacher is just going on a rant of "Back in my day...". Less vocabulary since the cavemen ages? Yeah, sure. I'm pretty sure that people back in year 400-500, where the closest thing to school was "priests teaching noble kids" and "priests teaching other priests" helped people have a rich and awesome vocabulary. By the middle ages, only priests and kings/lords knew Latin anymore, because people all over Europe had bastardized it into dozens of languages- because they hadn't been taught how to write/read for centuries. Damn, most people never ever saw a book in their entire lives. I'm sure they had more vocabulary than us, right? I'm pretty sure factory workers from the Victorian Age (who were the majority of the population, by the way) had time to read and keep phylosophical debates. I'm pretty sure the American slaves and the West pioneers had an extremely rich language.

Your teacher is just saying "when I was your age, we read a lot, at least when we weren't playing on the street or watching TV which uh was what we were doing most of the time BUT ANYWAYS you new generations are terrible in comparison to my nostalgia-filtered memories".

I will agree that texting lenguage is terrible in any way, but as long as it's kept for that and people still know how and when you should write normally, I don't think it's bad.

Am I the only one amazed at how sophisticated so many people are sounding right now, either in mockery of the teacher or of the subject at hand? I'm not going to sit here and spew out complex words for the enjoyment of everyone else, because that is just narcissistic. Instead, I will say that the way a lot of the kids write, talk, and text that were born in 2000 and up is extremely shameful.

I dunno. Stupid according to which standards? What is our yardstick for intelligence?

It certainly isn't an extensive vocabulary. Slang words are part of the natural evolution of language and have been for as long as they've existed; it's not some new phenomenon. I think it's faulty to equate it to a "dumbing down" of society.

I wouldn't go as far as calling our generation "stupid," I think there's more of an ignorance factor. Not trying to generalize to the world population or anything, but I feel like kids nowadays are unappreciative of history and what got humanity to this point in the first place. They refuse to accept anything else than what they already know. So I guess I'm saying people are more close-minded than they have ever been, and I'm not referring to the rights and issues that minority groups are trying to overcome. Just in general, not politically.

Our generation is no more stupid than the generations before. Each generation will yield intellectually gifted individuals and those who have gifts in other areas. We're making strides in technology never seen before, I don't think as a whole that we are stupid at all.

acatfrommars is correct. Take your grandma, would you generally say she's "smarter" than a 3 year old? Probably. Does your grandma know how to use an iPad and do all the fancy gestures and features? Probably not. Does the 3 year old? Probably.

Stupid is relative term. In fact everybody is stupid in some way. A quantum physicist may seem "smart" but could flunk a history exam. Does that make them stupid? Not at all; it all depends how you look at it.

I find that teacher's comment to be somewhat insulting. At the same time, I notice that a lot of kids these days make themselves look foolish by excessive use of "txt" language and slang. Granted there has always been dumb slang, but the stuff you see on the Internet is like the stuff out of nightmares. Still, that teacher has no right to say that, as there are lots of educated young people who speak proper English.

Using informal English in a formal setting is a bad idea. I once brought up the thing about Rachel Jeantel using Ebonics during her testimony in the George Zimmerman trial. She made herself look uneducated by speaking informally, and the court couldn't even understand some of the stuff she was saying. I speak informally with my friends, but when I'm at the mosque or a nice restaurant, I refrain from using too much slang.

Pneumatically yes, technologically no. What I mean is that we're at an ethical low in humanity, possibly from the dark ages. We've found a new god, this time it has a physical form too!, and its name is technology. We are too self indulged with the internet, tv, media, and god knows what else, and its slowing the world down in terms of proper knowledge. What I mean is, after the 1990s, everyone born with the internet is gonna die with the internet. They're gonna believe everything and anything the government tells them, because they're too absorbed in their digital microcosms, too disinterested in the real world. Corruption will reach an all new high, corporate greed will become more popular, and the masses will stay uneducated. We really could have had a really smart generation, if things didn't get too out of control. At least imo.
But as I said, we're freaking wizzes when it comes to technology. Some truly innovative things will come out of it, and the next generations will probably use them correctly. In the end though, the world is still in an infantile stay with everything, and its gonna take a good 100 years for everything to be used properly. If we haven't lost all of our free will by then.