American's Aren't Dumb After All!!

You've heard the news. We're entering a new dark age. We're mired in an intellectual crisis. The average American has devolved into a Wii-playing mouth breather. Polls show that 94 percent of high school students don't know that the blue stuff on maps is the ocean. (Or something.) If you read books, you'd know about The Age of American Unreason, the best seller by Susan Jacoby, which argues that we can barely piss our initials in the snow. You've seen the YouTube video of the teenage beauty queen who speaks English about as well as Jin from Lost.
Conventional wisdom says we must return to the good old days, when everyone allegedly debated Stoic philosophy all day (at least when they weren't preoccupied with pogo sticks).
I agree, there's a whole bunch of dumbness out there right now. But it should be noted that there's always been a bunch of dumbness, including Moose Lodge rituals and Uncle Miltie. And I may sound like an idiot, but I say America is getting smarter.

Jacoby argues that a hallmark of the new idiocracy is a disdain for evidence. So let me cite this piece of evidence: The average IQ has increased steadily for decades, at a rate of about three points every ten years. The phenomenon's even got a name: the Flynn effect.
How can this be? Let me go over a few ingredients of intelligence.
The worrywarts say, "Kids today are worse at math." Actually, they're better. Almost every age group of students has shown increased scores over the last 30 years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Almost twice as many students are taking advanced math as were 20 years ago. In general, we are just better at solving problems. The huge leaps in IQ have come in areas such as pattern recognition. Intelligence expert James Flynn — he of the effect — explains it this way: We increasingly see the world with post-scientific spectacles. We classify. We think more abstractly. We aren't as handy as our forebears — can't milk a goat worth a damn — but we can think. Flynn says that if you asked a 1908 farmer to explain how dogs and rabbits are linked, he'd make specific and utilitarian points, like the fact that dogs hunt rabbits. But now, we'd say they are both mammals.

"Kids today don't know their facts." Evidence conflicts. The government stats say knowledge of history and geography is actually up slightly.
But even if a teenager knows fewer state capitals, does that have any impact on his intelligence? Or is it simply that our society places more emphasis on scientific problem solving than on rote memorization? In 50 years, memorizing facts will likely be about as important as doing longhand division is now. The important skill will be knowing how to search and evaluate facts on the Internet.

"Kids today fill their minds with junk." We probably read less now, sadly, but I'd argue the number of hours we devote to mental pursuits has increased, thanks to more leisure time. And yes, I use the phrase "mental pursuits" loosely. But as science writer Steven Johnson points out, playing video games actually requires some problem solving. A half hour of Facebook Scrabulous is still more stimulating than a half hour of washing dishes by hand.
"Kids today will never amount to anything." May I present the last five years of these allegedly anti-intellectual times, in which we've seen more scientific advancement than in 50 years of Enlightenment Europe.

I guess it boils down to this: You can interpret the Jeff Foxworthy show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? in two ways: As an apocalyptic sign of how moronic Americans are. Or as proof that fifth graders are damn smart.

But in case you are stupid!

Here's what we're trying to say, without all the fancy talk: You are better at adding and subtracting and stuff than old people! You know some facts, and when you don't, you can Google them! You spend lots of time on Facebook, which doesn't rot your brain as much as, say, whittling! Also, kids today invented all the cool stuff for hospitals and planes and computers! But you are still dumber than a fifth grader.

By A.J Jacobs

Thin: the new minority

I was at an event this past week when I happen to look around the room and realize how large people had become. I don't normally focus on the size of people but everytime I meet someone new they are commenting on my weight or the fact I am in shape...it is usally I hate you or your so skinny...I think I am normal. I am 5'3 110 lbs... Thin people have literally become the minority. Everywhere I look people are becoming larger and larger and worse....society is starting to call it average. When did a size 12 become the average size for a women in the US? What happen to the size 6 woman? Why do I have to shop in specialty stores to buy a suit that fits? We have doubled in size and have justified it! "I am big boned"- "it's genetic"- "I don't have time to eat right and exercise"....and what's worse- death to the skinny woman! What? Don't blame me for your poor habits! It is no mystery why people are over weight...poor diet, lack of exercise, and lazyness.