Newsweek has weighed in with a critique of Mark Bauerlein’s specious observation of the Net Generation in his recently published book “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”

Bauerlein argues in his book that digital technologies have led to distractions that make the Net Generation less knowledgeable than previous generations about what he considers important issues and concepts. He uses as some of his evidence various surveys about geographical knowledge, historical reference, and literary awareness. Kids today shun Shakespeare? This boomer, for one, feels no shame in never having read a single work of Shakespeare (I did, however, read just about every issue of ’70s-era Mad Magazine cover to cover — can I get a “What Me Worry”).

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