Cassandra Reads

The title of this book is a little insulting (I am under 3o after all), but it's hard to argue with the data Bauerlein gives in this book,  The younger generation isn't reading books, doesn't care about politics, or really anything beyond their social lives.  I hadn't realized that fewer and fewer of my age group read for fun, partly becasue I do read for fun and so did some of my closest friends in college. 

One of the things that stuck out the most was some of the other things they don't know, like how many stars are on the US flag.  This would be understandable if the examples were from other countries, but the people are all Americans and they had no idea (52? one asks blankly).  Now, I'm sure some do know (I do, after all, and I doubt I'm the only one), since this was taken from a talk show and the people who were on it were the clueless ones (more funny that way, I guess).  So the one's who did know never made it to the show.  It's still I really sad image.  

It all boils down to what they care about and the world outside their social lives isn't it.  No history, politics, art or books.  Many just don't care.