Dumbing Down Echo Boomers

Dumbing Down Echo Boomers

Jacqueline C. Rodgers

Devry University

PHIL 447- Logic and Critical Thinking

August 18, 2013

INTRODUCTION

There is a population of approximately 71 million individuals born between the years of 1977 and 1994. These individuals have become known as ‘Generation Y’, or ‘Echo Boomers’ because of the fact that their numbers reflect that of their parent generation, the ‘Baby Boomers’. The Echo Boomers “became of age” between the years of 1998 and 2006 when there was a technological revolution in internet and social media outlets. (Schroer, 2004) As with the advent of the telephone and smoke signals, these revolutionary technological advances in communications have led to equally revolutionary, or perhaps devolutionary, changes in individuals’ patterns of social behavior. The days where individuals met each other in-person and firmly shook each other’s hands while making direct eye contact are over; as are the days when a conversation was heartfelt and filled with meaning and context. Today’s “Get-it-Now” attitude has shortened up the communication chain to avoid all face-to-face contact and even verbal communication altogether. Those heartfelt, meaningful conversations are now summed up with “lol” or “#KimKardashian”. The result of these new technological advances in communication is an epidemic-level “dumbing down” of our youth that may not be reversible for decades to come.

DISCUSSION

The History of Social Media Behavior

“Computers have changed many aspects of life, but none more than how we communicate. Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is largely responsible for a change in what is viewed today as normal social behavior” (Pezzolla, 2010).

The Advent of the Internet and Social Media

“Social media are Internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multimedia mix of personal words, pictures, videos and...