Americans ARE getting Dumber

[shunyata]

TiKTok didn't help...

It sure didn't, but I'm willing to bet that destroying the Department of Education is not going to be a step in the right direction.

 

[usernamee]

Ole Rogan was on to something back in the day perhaps

 

[Other]

Getting closer and closer each day.

 

[Mongoosemk12]

80% of humans are, and always have been, borderline idiots. Absolute imbeciles. 8 out of 10 people you speak to are literal retards.

Once you understand this golden ratio you can start to rest easier.

Also, you’re likely part of that 80 percent unfortunately.

I drive people nuts with this. If you haven't been rigorously tested by multiple clinicians and methods most people have no idea what their actual intelligence levels are in relation to the rest of the world. People are fucking dumb animals.

 

[Otto!]

We should all invest in Brawndo energy drinks.

 

[Other]

I went to place on the way to class one morning and stopped to get a croissant and tea. It was a young girl that took my order and told me the price. I pulled out a $20 (because I went back to carrying cash to avoid rampant tip culture) and this girl had no idea what to do. She'd never rang anyone up with cash.
I'm literally quite certain I heard the old America Online "Goodbye" and the Microsoft shutting down music. She had no idea. I'm not joking when I say another person had to come do it for her.

 

[Contempt]

I couldnt be bothered reading your post so I asked chat GPT to summarise it... it just linked me to a movie called Idiocracy.

 

[Ardaric]

Good. With Ozempic coming on the scene Americans may start getting a lot thinner. So you'll need to be a whole lot stupider to take up the slack and preserve your cultural identity.

 

[Chesten_Hesten]

I've joked around that Americans have gotten dumber and chalked it up as confirmation bias when I encountered stupidity. I was astounded by those videos where people ask college kids basic general knowledge questions and they don't know basic stuff like what countries make up North America, or how many planets there are. I chalked these up to the content creators picking and choosing particularly stupid kids or editing the videos in a skewed manner.

But it seems the data is evident of an alarming trend: people are actually are getting dumber.

American literacy and numeracy rates have fallen in recent years. 54% of Americans read below a 6th grade reading level. 21% are illiterate.


This video mentions changes in the education system and phone usage as well as a lack of tech/media literacy.

One of the most annoying trends for me is the lack of literacy on social media. You could post say, the sale of your used bicycle clearly outlining the model and price, and you'll still have people asking you what model it is and how much it is. I see a trend of people not knowing how to take a second to read the description. I would say this isn't just an American problem, but a global phenomenon since everybody in the entire planet is hooked on social media now.

I've talked about before how it seems like the younger generation doesn't know how to use the technology in their hands either. With each subsequent generation, the new generation loses skills of previous generations but the trade off is that become more tech savvy. But this new generation seems like they don't even know how to be tech savvy either. Other than tik tok and asking chat GTP things, they don't seem know that their phones can access a vast wealth of information. I've had younger people ask me stuff that could be easily found on google. I expected that I would have to teach my grandmother how to use her phone, but not 20 year olds.

People also seem to rely on AI for answers more and more instead of researching stuff on google. When I went to college, reading wikipedia was considered the lazy route, but now kids can't even do that and want chat gtp to give them easy to digest answers. The problem is that AI still gets a lot of stuff wrong and with the lack of critical thinking these days, people may just going to believe whatever AI tells them.

I'll note that another factor is that now google likes to give you answers generated by AI and/or sponsored content, which might take more effort to filter through than in the past. A lot stuff is also blocked by a paywall which doesn't help.

I know it's cliché of older generations to rag on the new generation for becoming stupider, lazier, weaker, etc. but I am starting to think the new generations are fucked. I used to think newer generations would be at least intellectually smarter, have more critical thinking skills, and be more tech savvy, but I am not sure that is the case now. Kids play outside less now, people are less connected to nature, more socially awkward, they read much less, get stuck in intellectual echo chambers online, become addicted to social media and less capable of researching information on their own. The new generation does seem to be getting lazier and weaker but without the tradeoff of tech savviness and critical thinking skills.

What do you guys think?

TLDR version because reading is hard:
1. Literacy and numeracy rates in the US have gone down due to issues in the education system.
2. People are addicted to their phones and social media.
3. People have shorter attention spans to read or pick up details even if they're clearly stated.
4. People have less critical thinking skills - online echo chambers.
5. Reliance on AI - less tech literacy.
6. People have overall less practical/real world skills on top of having less soft skills like critical thinking and social awareness.
7. We're just getting stupider/less capable in every dimension.

Give it up for American Public Education.

 

[LEWIS540]

Back in the 1970s the finest American minds believed the Sun orbited the Earth and high tar cigarettes were a good way to cure asthma.

Let that sink in.

 

[Beechwood]

Well, there is little doubt that school grades and learning have declined a good amount. Lots of articles have been written about that problem. We have schools that have been shown to improve learning for students though. Charter Schools for example have been shown to sometimes do a wonderful job at teaching minority students, where all to often black and hispanic students receive a lousy public school education.

A problem is that these schools that have found a way to teach students better are not popular with the powerful teacher unions. And the teachers unions have strong allies with the Democrat party. Democrats are well known for attacking and try to limit Charter Schools growth.

Thomas Sowell wrote a book on this problem. A review of his book about charter schools and their enemies can be read here ~

Charter Schools and Their Enemies​

Charter Schools and Their Enemies

Dr. Thomas Sowell has just published “Charter Schools and Their Enemies.” He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charter schools on New York State Education Department’s annual English Language Arts test and its Mathematics Test. Sowell gives the results of...

walterewilliams.com

Dr. Thomas Sowell has just published “Charter Schools and Their Enemies.” He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charter schools on New York State Education Department’s annual English Language Arts test and its Mathematics Test. Sowell gives the results of student tests in charter schools such as KIPP, Success Academy, Explore Schools, Uncommon Schools, Achievement First as well as the traditional New York City public schools. On the English Language Arts test, a majority of charter school students, most of whom were black or Hispanic, tested proficient or above. Their achievement ratio was nearly 5 to 1. On the Mathematics test 68% of charter schools’ 161 grade levels had a majority of students testing proficient. In the traditional public schools, 177 grade levels, just 10% had a majority of their student testing proficient.

In April 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that 57% of black and 54% of Hispanic charter school students passed the statewide ELA compared to 52% of white students statewide. On the state math test, 59% of black students and 57% of Hispanics at city charter schools passed as opposed to 54% of white students statewide.

Sowell says: “In a realm where educational failure has long been the norm — schools in low income minority neighborhoods — this is success, a remarkable success. What is equally remarkable is how unwelcome this success has been in many places. What has been especially remarkable is that it has been the most educationally successful charter schools that seem to have drawn the most hostility, both in words and in deeds.” The most common form of that hostility are simple legal limits set on the number of charter schools permitted without regard to whether charter schools are producing good or bad educational outcomes.

The education establishment, having the nation’s most powerful labor union, has the ears of political leaders. They see a huge loss potential if more parents are able to opt out of poorly achieving public schools. For example, in New York City there are more than 50,000 students on waiting lists for admission to charter schools. The per-pupil expenditure tops $20,000 a year. If all the students on the waiting list were able to be admitted to charter schools, that would translate into a billion-dollar loss by the traditional public schools. A substantial decline in traditional public school attendance would mean fewer teachers employed. That would mean declining union dues since most charter school teachers are not union members. Charter schools’ rate of growth since the 1990s has been significant. From 2001 to 2016, enrollment at traditional public schools rose 1% while enrollment in public charter schools rose 571%.

Sowell points out that not all charter schools are successful. Failing charter schools can have their charters revoked, cutting off access to public funds. That is in stark contrast to failing and corrupt traditional public schools that continue to dine at the public trough. Successful charter schools are the real threat to traditional unionized public schools. No charter school in Sowell’s study has been more successful than Success Academy charter schools in Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant and the South Bronx — and none has been more viciously attacked in words and in deeds. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio explicitly campaigned against charter schools saying: “I am angry about the privatizers. I am sick and tired of these efforts to privatize a precious thing we need — public education.

In another venue, Sowell said: “We keep hearing that “black lives matter,” but they seem to matter only when that helps politicians to get votes, or when that slogan helps demagogues demonize the police. The other 99% of black lives destroyed by people who are not police do not seem to attract nearly as much attention in the media.”

At a 2016 meeting, the NAACP’s board of directors ratified a resolution that called for a moratorium on charter schools. Among the NAACP’s reasons for this were that it wanted charter schools to refrain from “expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate” and “cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.” That is a vision suggesting that no black children receive decent educations until all black children receive decent educations. Black people cannot afford to entertain such a vision and other attacks on educational success.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

 

[Lycandroid]

Europeans are getting dumber and dumber aswell, interestingly its not because of the education system.

 

[Versez]

Those social medias Reels can actually destroy your dopamine receptors and indeed the attention span...terrible outcome for young generations to come...

 

[pugilistico]

Imo it's not just an issue of reading level, it's also pathological laziness. Everyone expects you to spoon-feed them everything. It's like they've got brain damage and can't sit down and focus on something for 15 mins.

And yeah your observation on tech literacy among young people is correct. 80s and 90s kids needed to have tech skills to survive because computers always bug and crap out. Zoomers are dependent on "smart" technology (phones, tablets) but they have no clue how any of it works. They don't even use computers anymore. Some of them don't know what a file or a folder is. When something goes wrong they have 0 ability to troubleshoot anything. People always assume newer gens have better tech skills but surprisingly they're devolving.

I travel and meet a lot of 20 something year old backpackers. On more than one occasion I had someone ask me how to find something like a gas station or a 7/11. Dude you can just type in "gas station" on google maps and find in 5 seconds. I thought your generation was supposed to be good at that kind of stuff. I'd expect something like that from a 50 something sexpat, not a 20 year old on his gap year. These weren't always Americans either.

I remember the good old days of having to trouble shoot games not running on my computer. Even my 70 year old dad never asks me for tech help because he figures out how to fix shit. He's not some tech guy either.

Those social medias Reels can actually destroy your dopamine receptors and indeed the attention span...terrible outcome for young generations to come...

As much as I ragged on younger generation I think this is affecting older folks too. I get sucked into doomscrolling sometimes and I haven't finished the 2 books I've been reading in a year..
Older people are probably even more susceptible to information echo chambers.

 

[Spounman]

Yes, haven't you seen those videos where the guy asks basic questions to young adults and they're completely clueless.
He'll say what countries border the United States? They'll go uhhhhhhh England.
Or he'll ask who fought in the American Civil War? They'll go uhhhhhh USA and Russia.
Or he'll ask if I drive 60 miles per hour for one hour, how far have I traveled? They'll say uhhhhhh 20 minutes.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I've joked around that Americans have gotten dumber and chalked it up as confirmation bias when I encountered stupidity. I was astounded by those videos where people ask college kids basic general knowledge questions and they don't know basic stuff like what countries make up North America, or how many planets there are. I chalked these up to the content creators picking and choosing particularly stupid kids or editing the videos in a skewed manner.

But it seems the data is evident of an alarming trend: people are actually are getting dumber.

American literacy and numeracy rates have fallen in recent years. 54% of Americans read below a 6th grade reading level. 21% are illiterate.


This video mentions changes in the education system and phone usage as well as a lack of tech/media literacy.

One of the most annoying trends for me is the lack of literacy on social media. You could post say, the sale of your used bicycle clearly outlining the model and price, and you'll still have people asking you what model it is and how much it is. I see a trend of people not knowing how to take a second to read the description. I would say this isn't just an American problem, but a global phenomenon since everybody in the entire planet is hooked on social media now.

I've talked about before how it seems like the younger generation doesn't know how to use the technology in their hands either. With each subsequent generation, the new generation loses skills of previous generations but the trade off is that become more tech savvy. But this new generation seems like they don't even know how to be tech savvy either. Other than tik tok and asking chat GTP things, they don't seem know that their phones can access a vast wealth of information. I've had younger people ask me stuff that could be easily found on google. I expected that I would have to teach my grandmother how to use her phone, but not 20 year olds.

People also seem to rely on AI for answers more and more instead of researching stuff on google. When I went to college, reading wikipedia was considered the lazy route, but now kids can't even do that and want chat gtp to give them easy to digest answers. The problem is that AI still gets a lot of stuff wrong and with the lack of critical thinking these days, people may just going to believe whatever AI tells them.

I'll note that another factor is that now google likes to give you answers generated by AI and/or sponsored content, which might take more effort to filter through than in the past. A lot stuff is also blocked by a paywall which doesn't help.

I know it's cliché of older generations to rag on the new generation for becoming stupider, lazier, weaker, etc. but I am starting to think the new generations are fucked. I used to think newer generations would be at least intellectually smarter, have more critical thinking skills, and be more tech savvy, but I am not sure that is the case now. Kids play outside less now, people are less connected to nature, more socially awkward, they read much less, get stuck in intellectual echo chambers online, become addicted to social media and less capable of researching information on their own. The new generation does seem to be getting lazier and weaker but without the tradeoff of tech savviness and critical thinking skills.

What do you guys think?

TLDR version because reading is hard:
1. Literacy and numeracy rates in the US have gone down due to issues in the education system.
2. People are addicted to their phones and social media.
3. People have shorter attention spans to read or pick up details even if they're clearly stated.
4. People have less critical thinking skills - online echo chambers.
5. Reliance on AI - less tech literacy.
6. People have overall less practical/real world skills on top of having less soft skills like critical thinking and social awareness.
7. We're just getting stupider/less capable in every dimension.

I have no trouble believing that. My attention span has decreased generally and I misread stuff more and more. It s due to always reading shit on my phone. I got my first smartphone at 30, I can t imagine how younger people are wired now.

 

[UberHere]

80% of humans are, and always have been, borderline idiots. Absolute imbeciles. 8 out of 10 people you speak to are literal retards.

Once you understand this golden ratio you can start to rest easier.

Also, you’re likely part of that 80 percent unfortunately.

I think it’s actually less than that though. More people are cowards than they are stupid, but yeah the average American is not an impressive specimen. The cowards just go along with stupidity because they’re afraid to go against the grain.

 

[UberHere]

What we are really seeing is learned helplessness. We have it so good here( not just USA but in all first world countries), we really don’t know how to do anything for ourselves and feel entitled to shelter and food just for existing. You see more and more people after GenX that just want the government to control everything if they think it’ll make their lives easier.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

In my day we had a "track system". You tested and were put in tracks 1-4. 1 Being the smart kids, 4 being the ones who had issues. On top of that, there were programs for the extremely gifted, and special ed for the ones on the other end of the spectrum. You could move up or down in tracks depending on your grades. I moved from a 1 in Math to a 2, and it changed my life. Better pace for me. I moved from a 2 in English to a 1, more suitable and challenging. That is all gone now. There is a Special Ed, but the rest are all "paths". Kids choose a path and take those classes.

Isn't the difference between your day and today just one less track?

Seems like now there's 3 "tracks": Special Ed, regular, and advanced. In your day, there were 4.

Also, are you suggesting advanced courses don't exist anymore? Because that'd be the only way that schools could "hold back smart kids," like you bizarrely stated. If so, please provide evidence of several large school districts doing away with them. Thanks.

 

[moreorless87]

Give it up for American Public Education.

My guess is its a reflection of society becoming increasingly stratified, a lot of the modern working class end up in very low skill service jobs were education is almost irrelevant so there's little incentive for the establishment to invest in much of the populations education.