The people who give idiotic answers on Jaywalking are the smart ones.

The other day Digg linked to a list by Mark Bauerlein titled 8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation. After reading the list I think Bauerlin is in much worse shape than this supposedly stupid generation. Here are the things from the list and why (most of them) are wrong. Note: The things on the list are based on a book by the author. My review is based only on the explanations present in the list.

1. "They make excellent 'Jaywalking' targets" - This is the first item on the list, and it's the most clearly wrong. Leno probably interviews hundreds of people for each Jaywalking segment, but only a few go on the air. If Jay Leno puts a microphone in front of your face and asks you a dumb question, the smartest thing you can do if you want to be on TV is give the most idiotic and ridiculous answer you can think of. I'm sure some of the stupid answers he gets are genuine, but I'd bet that most of the stupid answers he gets are from smart people who want to be on TV, even if it means they have to pretend they're stupid. This is so obvious, I have to question why everyone doesn't know this. Maybe they'd rather laugh at how stupid others are than honestly assess their own intelligence.

2. "They don't read books -- and don't want to, either" - This is probably the most accurate item on the list. However, it doesn't seem to take into account how much of our reading we do online nowadays. After all, newspaper and magazine reading is way down from what it was 10 or even 5 years ago, yet we are better informed than ever by getting most of our news on the Internet. Nor does it take into account that some of the things that are being done in place of reading books require more (or at least different) active intelligence than reading.

3. "They can't spell" - There's a difference between not being able to spell and choosing not to spell correctly. With instant messenger and texting, time is the biggest factor, and it's simply not practical to correctly spell your words when you're carrying on several conversations at once or are typing on a terrible little keypad. The lack of meaningful content in these forms of communication is probably a more accurate indicator of the stupidness of the generation.

4. "They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing" - Really? Haven't young brainy people always been treated poorly by their less brainy, more muscular and attractive peers? The Internet provides a means for brainy people to connect with each other in a way that prior generations did not have available to them.

5. "Grand Theft Auto IV, etc." - Video games by themselves can increase puzzle solving skills, goal-oriented behavior, reflexes, coordination, and other skills. Like anything else, when they're played too much, leaving less time schoolwork, other worthwhile activities, or sleep, then they can be bad, but that's not the fault of the games themselves.

6. "They don't store the information" - This is one of the stranger items on the list. Of course most of us don't go on the Internet rubbing our hands together looking for some information that we don't currently need but figure we can store it away in long term memory and then retrieve it later should we ever need it. But when did we ever do that before the Internet? The simple fact is that more information (including lots of rubbish) is immediately available to this generation than any before it. Just because we don't always intend to store it away for a long time doesn't mean that we don't do that. In fact, because we have so many sources available, and we have to do active thinking to figure out what information is probably most accurate and relevant to our immediate needs, we probably retain information better than previous generations which simply flopped open an encyclopedia and started transcribing information.

7. "Because their teachers don't tell them so" - This one is probably true.

8. "Because they're young" - This is obviously true, but it seems a little like the author is covering his butt for when this generation grows up and turns out to not be so dumb after all.