Stupid problem

I appreciated reviewer Lee Drutman’s incisive reassurances regarding Mark Bauerlein’s bleak view of the social and intellectual devolution our youth [“Speeding to Stupidity -- or Not,” July 5], and as a human development specialist I’m compelled to offer another.

What Bauerlein evidently misses as he indicts the social networking aspects of digital technology in his book, “The Dumbest Generation,” is that the cyber-cellular “ceaseless pipeline of peer-to-peer activity” is not the root problem but rather a symptom and amplifier of a deeper, age-old problem: When peers replace parents and teachers as the pole stars in children’s lives, their development is seriously curtailed.

Knowing the territory of this dangerous slippage (read “Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers”) can empower parents to keep their kids out of Bauerlein’s brave, dumb world.

Marcy Axness

Granada Hills