Who Needs Critical Thinking Skills When We’ve Got Facebook?

Morley Winograd

Michael D. Hais

Guest post from Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, fellows of NDN and the New Policy Institute and co-authors of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics (Rutgers University Press: 2008), named one of the 10 favorite books by the New York Times in 2008.

One of the most often expressed criticisms of the Millennial Generation (born 1982 –2003), is that it seems to have lost all ability to analyze data, examine the logic and wisdom of a proposition, or read a blog and sort out the good and the bad in the argument being advanced.

Usually described as “critical thinking,” this type of skill seems to be absent from a generation focused on sharing, communicating and finding group consensus.

Often, the lack of critical thinking skills is attributed to the generation’s constant use of social media. Indeed, one of the traits older generations find most annoying about Millennials is their constant “pinging” of their friends to find out what the group thinks rather than making a prompt and decisive choice on their own.

As Millennials begin to assume positions of authority within society, many people, particularly those in the Baby Boomer generation, are increasingly concerned about this missing skill and determined to find ways to teach it to a generation raised on the Net.

Blog Action Day 2009: How Semantics Might Save the Planet

When I signed up to take part in Blog Action Day 2009, I thought, surely by the time I wrote the post, I would have something insightful to share about climate change. A personal story. A moment of enlightenment. A freakin’ antidote!

But in time I could research climate change and draw from my own experiences, I found that the most compelling challenge might simply be that others in this world don’t recognize what ‘climate change’ is.

It’s all semantics.

Didn’t Get To Go To The Inauguration, But My Plea Lives On…

I wasn’t sure I wanted to reveal this, but, what the heck.

 

Swearing in of President Barack Hussein Obama

After going back-and-forth on my own head, I decided to post this. I think, now more than ever, we should be sharing our stories of enduring humanity. Here’s my attempt…

Put simply, this inauguration means Possibility.

 

I almost went to President Bill Clinton’s inauguration (the first) as a student volunteer and organizer. I could not afford airfare, so I had to decline. This time around, it means even more. I cannot tell you how much this election has meant to me personally, but I’ll try.

 

Who’s Really Poor?: Confessions of a Journalist, Turned Peace Corps Volunteer, Turned Journalist Again, Turned Social Media Evangelist

 

Poverty…
 

To write about it is to see it. To experience it. To try to save people from it.

Hopefully.
 

Once upon a time, I was a TV reporter in my hometown. I was known – and to be known -  by anyone and everyone who knew my stories about last-dash Christmas shopping or Sarah McLachlan coming to town.

 
I often covered a different caliber of stories, though.

I covered the cases of hundreds of missing children, who were almost never found alive and were a constant reminder of, perhaps,  how the media lies in wait for tragedy to befall families. Often of little means, these families would wait, hold vigils and allow us access to their lives that would later make them recognized, for the most unsettling of reasons, at the local grocery store or pharmacy for the rest of their lives.

 

Jennifer reporting on the streets of New York City.

That was my early take on the media before I spent more than a decade reporting for the ‘big three’ and going to Columbia for my master’s. Somehow I knew if I didn’t take a break – a break to give back and help the plight of children – I would, by not making a decision to do otherwise, become bitter.

 

At 22, that’s a terrifying prospect.
 

So I searched my soul, looked back at the list I’d made a couple years earlier and embarked on the most testing experience of my life. I gave up being a local celeb to become a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkmenistan. It was one of the richest, most defining experiences of my life. I still remember a local journalist telling me at my going away party that he could never join the Peace Corps because one can’t be promised a working hair dryer.

Clips & Articles By Jennifer

Magazine, Newspaper & Web

Lodi Men Suspected Of al-Qaida Links [Originally For wb58tv.com]
A Planet Out Of Gas? [Originally For wb58tv.com]
Yahoo Pulls Plug On Child-Sex Chat Rooms Following Report [Originally For wb58tv.com]
Learning Matters: Decoding Online Lingo [Originally For wb58tv.com]
Paris Hilton Makes A Splash In Controversial New Ad [Originally For wb58tv.com]
Year’s Top Stories: The War At Home [Originally For wb58tv.com]
Justice For All (Fresno Magazine, Dec.-Jan. 2004-2005)
Campus Elections (Student Leader Magazine, Fall 1994)
Stark Reality Op-Ed (Fresno Bee, Jan. 2, 1994)

Ms. Neeley Goes To Washington (Fresno Bee, Sept. 23, 1993)
The Plain Dealer Op-Ed (Metronews, Sept. 9, 1993)

There are many more, but I’d love any feedback on these… !

Clips & Articles About Jennifer

Magazine, Newspaper & Web
Dinner with Sopranos is offer that’s hard to refuse (Contra Costa Times, Sept. 14, 2001) [theater review]
Jennifer as Peace Corps volunteer in Turkmenistan [written in Turkmen cyrillic, 1998-1999 *Translation to come]
In Action (Page 5, The New California Democrat, Vol. 4 – Winter 1994-95) [DLC of California]
Journey of Love (Clovis Independent-Fresno Bee, Sept. 4-10, 1994) [Peace Corps]
Washington Bound (Fresno Bee, June 10, 1993)
Day of Champions (Fresno County Board of Supervisors Resolution, April 21, 1992) [Declared in part due to Jennifer's national collegiate debate ranking]