"Dumbing Down" of America

yeah you right mostly all the news today is garbage such as britney spears sister getting pregnant and making headlines...who cares and the rap music today is retarded its the same s*** over and over... no ones original today

Yeah whats up with music today?
Rap music in the past used to be more original, up beat, fun type music, now it's all about crime and guns, wannabe guys who talk all about themselves all the time, with no reason or meaning behind it all. The old rap used to have more meaning in their songs.



[edit on 18-1-2008 by _Phoenix_]

I've been to State University. I've seen it wasn't the state but the students that as a group dragged their heals in to slow down the learning process. Teachers and Schools can only judge a grade by the amount of work compleated.

It isn't the government that is dumming down the people of america. It is the people.

Maybe someone has already posted this, but I think the reason this is happening may partly be due to marketing research (MR). MR uses the scientific method to analyze the data it collects. Take a pop song for example. When it is put before a bunch of consumers (target audience group, and in this case because it is "pop" they want it to appeal to the masses as much as possible, and who are the masses? they are everyone on the IQ scale with an average being at 100...most people allowed into University must have a 100...graduate school usually 114+ Post Doctorate 125+ borderline intellectual functioning cutoff is 70 - 80 range... 50% of our population is above 100, 50% below it) for appeal ratings for example (scale of 1 to 5)....the data is then scored and the song is compared to other songs and other ratings. over time each song begins to sound just like the other as labels begin to put pressure on artists and studio workers to produce a product that will have mass appeal. In statistics there is a phenomina called regression towards the mean...this is also what we are seeing. Thus there is more stuff on the market that appeals to the 100 IQ groups and less that would appeal to the 120 IQ groups, thus the "dumbing" down of America. This is not a perfect or a complete explanation by any means, but it give you some idea of how it happens, and has happened.

Same with a popular novel. The publisher and artist in general wants to sell as many books as possible, thus most pop novels you see on the shelf in stores are written at a 10th grade level for mass appeal. If you are a few months from graduating in college, you probably seek out literary works that are a bit more richer as it were, and so those 10th grade level books don't appeal to you as much as the masses. Yet only a small percentage of people go to University, so you won't see as much of this material out on the market...again thus, the "dumbing" down of America.

Blame the western marketing culture, something I think America will go down in history as it's central feature...for the record, I don't think it will be something to be proud of, and that's an understatement...nevertheless it's what it is...a nation of consumers and a nation of marketers...

I just wanted to see if anyone else had seen this george carlin video. Fair warning, like normal george carlin it has some profanity. But if you are not bothered by swearing you should most certainly watch it as he makes some points that are hardly arguable. Even if profanity bothers you you should watch it. Anyways here is the link. I think he hits the nail on the head. Any thoughts?

I have to say I'm very thankful my dad decided to educate me properly and make me question everything I learned (no, I was not homeschooled, but my education didn't stop once I got home from school, there were always questions to be asked.). I'm also very thankful that my grandmother was the same. To her, a simple yes/no or a simple factoid was never enough, she always kept egging me on "why? why? why?" she kept asking because she wanted me to keep going further down to the depths of a question. "What is it? why is it that way? what are its motives?" and so on and so forth.

In fact, it was my father that taught me the awful truth about the civil war and how slavery had nothing to do with it. Now I just hope I can do the same for my children, should I ever decide to have any. I'm honestly wondering whether it would be a good idea to bring my offspring into a dieing world.

shizzle5150 I just watched the George Carlin video, he's good! They aren't even subtle, if you look at the following:

Secondary
Secondary Online Science
KS3. Scottish levels E / F
This site is aimed at you, if you are aged 11–14, like playing games, and want a fun way to help you with your science. In association with the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Physics.

It's on the link below.

www.channel4learning.net...

You can play such mind-numbing games as 'Fashion Victim' while you meander in and out of shops and buy clothes; yes it is related to the National Curriculum in the UK, the study of textiles in science. And if you look under 'credits' you might get a bit of an idea as to what sort of strange characters supposedly come up with this stuff.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by caz111]

I've noticed all my life the anti-intellectualism of America (Haven't travelled widely yet), and it appears to be tied somehow to the rise of mass media, specifically television. My reasoning is this: books take more work and a faster mind to interpret than television. This results in television being more popular with the average/sub-average demographic. In an effort to raise viewership and make money, the telvision companies pander to the lowest denominator "just to be on the safe side".

Television becomes the new radio. With it come shorter attention spans of the children raised with it. To reflect this, television fiction becomes shallow and simple, and news forgoes in-depth reporting for shorter, more popular and sensationalistic stories.

To return to the previous statement about shallow plots, TV writers realize they can attract viewers with the comfortable, preconcieved stereotypes those who don't care to see the world for themselves (TVs main demographic) commonly build.Anybody of intelligence on TV is now a socially awkward, physically lacking and occasionally coniving egghead.

People haven't gotten inherently dumber (environmental contamination argument notwithstanding), they've just been raised to believe that intelligence is nothing to be wanted, since they don't understand it.

as a high school student in texas, yes i truely believe we are being dumbed down gradually. my friends also believe they are being dumbed down too, i did a poll of 50 students in the school and 43 agree we haven't learned (sad that i dont even know if thats a word) a single thing this year and 7 have learned (of those 6 we're "advance placement" students) it may have only come to me as of this year but id have to agree in my 3 years of high school i havent learned a thing. i even provoke my business teacher asking "why isn't our money backed by gold" and "who controls the federal reserve" and was answered by i don't knows. if you want to know what work ive done this week its plug 5 into x and multiply (used for years mere repetition), read Edgar Allen Poe biographies (reason?) and get this, color jellyfish as a class assignment (swear to god)...fortunately i have resisted the dumbing of our nation by reading alternative news.

deny ignorance

I do agree with you to a certain extent. A lot of people today are pretty ignorant to what is happening around the world. Personally, I believe people are too concerned with celebrities like you said. Why this is, I still do not know. My theory is that people idolize these individuals so much that they can't help but keep on the news about them. I personally know someone who is so "stuck" on a certain actor that she knows just about everything about him because she loves him. This obviously now delves down into the psychology of the person, and I personally do not have any professional credentials in the field, so, I don't think I'm qualified to make judgments here...LOL! But if I had to make an opinion, I would say that this person idolizes this actor because she needs fulfillment in her life...she feels inadequate due to the life she had with her parents and such and needs to compensate for the "emotional loss" that she experienced with them.

For your comment on education, I agree with you to a certain extent here. Schools are teaching students the background necessary for critical thinking. For example, in history courses, students learn what past societies have done and how they responded to events and pressures back then. By learning what they have done (specifically learning about their mistakes), we can make better judgments in today's society. I do agree with your part about independent thought processes. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his "The American Scholar," schools and books suppress the minds of the individual and teaches him how to think like the authors did. There really isn't much room for independent thought in high schools, but in college and beyond, I think it becomes a little more "free." That is, after all, the purpose of college - to teach you what people have felt and discovered and to challenge these beliefs with your own opinions.

We are like that island in Brave New World, the only people not brainwashed by society, but also the rejects.

HA HA! Yeah, I agree with that one completely. It's good being rejects....

There is no conspiracy. With a little research, library or journal access anyone can become a near-expert on any field known to man in a short time (6m/2yr). Students have more access to information than ever before.

Unfortunately, we have more competition for attention than before, and advertisers spend more than educators. This is a consequence of a capitalist dominant model. We also have uneducated, scientifically illiterate policy makers making insane decisions about schooling protocols, but this doesn't stop anyone who truly loves knowledge.

Look at the trend of IQ over time. Its increasing on average, see the flynn effect, a direct counter point to your claim.

Far from being a conspiracy, just like modern medicine, we are living longer, fuller lives, and can choose how we do it like never before. People who are sedentary, lazy and uneducated can live a long time, BUT it's their choice, not the governments. Anyone can get off their backside right now and start learning faster than any other time in history. Just like losing weight, theres no "conspiracy" its all about personal choice.

// sufu sci

Really you think? Its not so much trying to control our thinking its more along the lines of what the american populace wants. No one really wants a show that makes them think. They want something to distract them from say their mortgages, or kids. There is also trend that celebrity lives are more important than the elections going on or the death of somebody. Now its "Britany Spears is in rehab we can all breathe easy that the attention the media was fueling her has finally gotten to her. Also find out why Paris Hilton has a non Gucci bag."

Sufusci had it right, what conspiracy? No one is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to watch the crap that is on TV nowadays. No one says you can't go and research any subject that you want. Its your fault for believing that you should learn everything in school and that is not the case. I don't necessarily believe there is a dumbing down, but I do believe standards are being lowered and expectations of todays youth is dwindling. With that lowering of standards, its becoming easier to graduate from high school. No more "outside the box" thinking is being encouraged. The majority of teachers are just following curriculum and teaching what needs to be taught to pass a certain test. Now while it may appear that this is happening everywhere, I believe we're just suffering from something I like to call "perception of situation". While we may be seeing this so called "dumbing down", another person outside of this site may be seeing a "lifting up" if you will. The fact is, we don't see what goes on at every school, we can't. However, I do agree with you that there is a severe lowering of IQs, intellects, whichever way you'd like to put it, going on.

Ummm... IQ is RISING.
en.wikipedia.org...
google flynn effect.

Oh please;



www.geniusintelligence.com...

Irrelevant.

It’s like comparing national health statistics by measuring muscle mass per given individual. Ludicrous.

“Flynn Effect”, here it is;



www.sciam.com...

Exposure to information (or any type of stimuli) leads to higher awareness, but it’s the nature of the information/stimuli that dictates the interpretation of the awareness state.

Don’t get me started, just read the Brave New World, Revisited, year 1962, (maybe 1964). It’s no longer a novel, it’s a plane explanation of the “plan” and how it was going to be implemented. We now live in that “plan”.

Cheers.

p.s.

PlagueMusic, hang in there, you’re doing great!

reply to post by sufusci

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sufusci, care to discuss social engineering applications/methods of forced information overflow?



blogs.law.harvard.edu...

If you care to venture into such waters, it’ll be only fair to say that they are my good old fishing spots, so grab a cold one, its going to be a long trip, and yes, Americans are being systematically “de-educated” through out the levels of the entire educational system.

Here’s a question, who are the people that write and publish educational books in America?

Name corporations, how they operate, what their market share is, and how text books are chosen from middle school to universities.