Short 1 Steven Short Dr. Carol Bernard English 1301.

106 5 March 2012 Goldwasser and her excellent opinion on teenagers Amy Goldwasser in the essay Whats the Matter with Kids Today talks about computers, cell phones/text messaging, iPods, and instant messaging and how they affect young teenagers. This article begins with the results of a study in which teenagers proved themselves to be ignorant in the knowledge of history and literature and do not read or write. Goldwasser then turns the tables and states her opinion that teenagers today do read and write, just not in the same ways that the older generations did. She ultimately points out that Americans need to stop looking at the internet as a villain so that the teenage population has a chance to succeed. Goldwassers central argument is, Once we stop regarding the Internet as a villain, stop presenting it as the enemy of history and literature and worldly knowledge, then our teenagers have the potential to become the next great voices of America,(669). Goldwasser is unsuccessful in proving her claim by providing a plethora of opinion and assumptions. Goldwasser begins with the results of a study in which teenagers proved themselves to be ignorant in the knowledge of history and literature and do not read or write, then turns the tables and states that teenagers today do read and write, just not in the same ways that the older generations did. When the world worked in hard copy, no parent or teacher ever begrudged teenagers who disappeared into their rooms to write letters to friends or a movie review, or an editorial for the school paper on the first president theyll vote for. Goldwasser believes that teachers and parents should not be demonizing something that is helping kids to express themselves, and that the older generations, parents and teachers are only throwing the

Short 2 internet under the bus because they are still too attached on old forms of media, and that this is new and foreign to them. Which brings Goldwasser to her next assumption, this is the first generation to have grown up with this technology and as a result it has made a whole generation into better writers. She says, Were talking about 33 million Americans who are fluent in texting, e-mailing, blogging, IMing, and constantly amending their profile on social network sites which, on average, 30 of their friends will visit every day, hanging out and writing for 20 minutes or so each. (667) Goldwassers point is that teens today have put down the pen and paper to turn on the laptop. Instead of hand writing letters, teenagers text or E-mail each other. They are constantly amending their profiles on social networking sites, and for those teens that just dont know how to tell people how they feel; they have a way to express it through blogging and social networking sites. She also makes the point that on average, 30 of their friends will visit and hang out reading what their friends wrote, offering feedback and a shoulder if it is needed. Her point is nothing has changed, teenagers today are doing the same thing the parents and teachers did when they grew up, now they just have better ways of doing it. Goldwassers next point is teens now a days are smarter then we give them credit for. Regularly, often late at night, theyre generating a body intimate written work. They appreciate the value of a good story and the power of a speech that moves: Ninety seven percent of the teenagers in the Common Core survey connected I have a dream with its speaker they can watch Dr. King deliver it on demand and eight in 10 knew what To Kill a Mockingbird is about. Goldwasser is talking about how teenagers are producing more personal or intimate written work. Teenagers are appreciating the value of a good story such as To Kill a Mockingbird, which according to the Common Core survey eight in ten teenagers knew what it was. Also teenagers are appreciating the power of a speech that moves, such as Dr. Kings I have a dream. This according to the Common Core survey ninety-seven percent of teens

Short 3 connected it with its speaker. Her point is that with access to the internet and all the technology teenagers have access to it is making teens smarter than we are giving them credit for. Goldwasser also feels that because of the many forms of technology these days teens are able to focus more deeply on the concepts of what they are being taught instead of all the useless trivia. Twenty-plus years ago, high school students didnt have the internet to store their trivia. Now they know that the specific dates and what-was-that-princes-name will always be there; they can free their brains to go a little deeper into the concepts instead of the copyrights, step back and consider what Scout and Atticus* were really fighting for.(668) Shes talking about twenty-plus year ago, teens didnt have the internet to store all the trivia they needed to know then. Now a days teen have that luxury of focusing on what exactly Scout and Atticus (characters in Harper Lees Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird) were really fighting for instead of the name of that one prince that did that thing years ago. Goldwassers final point is its crushing to hear that a quarter of teens cannot identify what Adolf Hitlers role was in history, but its not because teens were online. Had a parent introduced 20 minutes of researching the Holocaust to one month of their teens internet life, or a teacher assigned The Diary of Anne Frank (arguably a 13-year-old girls blog) if we worked with, rather than against, the way this generation voluntarily takes in information-we might not be able to pick up the phone and expose tragic pockets of ignorance (668). Shes saying that it is not because the teen was on the internet they dont know who Hitler is. If the parents would introduce the teen to the Holocaust for 20 minutes to one month of their internet life or if their teacher had just assigned The Diary of Anne Frank, maybe they would know more things about the subject. They are learning many things from the internet. Maybe if we worked with instead of against the ways teens are learning they might just surprise us about how much they really know.

Short 4 By providing many great facts Goldwasser successfully proves her claim that once we stop regarding the internet as a villain, then our teenagers have the potential to become the next great voices of America. Goldwasser begins with the results of a study in which teenagers proved themselves to be ignorant in the knowledge of history and literature and do not read or write, then turns the tables and states her assumption that teenagers today do read and write, just not in the same ways that the older generations did. Then she goes into talking about how this is the first generation to have grown up with this technology and as a result it has made a whole generation into better writers. Then Goldwasser talks about that it is because of the many forms of technology these days teens are able to focus more on the concepts instead of useless trivia. If the older generation would just stop judging our teens because they dont do things like they did when they were kids and open their eyes to the unlimited forms of expression our teen have now. Once we stop demonizing the internet and the vast technology that is present today, and stop chastising our teens for using it, the sooner we will realize they are smarter than we were at their age.

Short 5 Work Cited Goldwasser, Amy. Whats the Matter with Kids Today? The Norton Field Guide to Writing, with Readings and Handbook. Eds. Richard Bullock, Maureen Daly Goggin, Francine Weinberg. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. 666-670. Print.