The very beginning of what is happening to much of this generation. He’s got good points. If they sit around and play games (I’ve been guilty of that, full disclosure :) too much, I don’t think they would make good jurors in many cases. I don’t have a solution and really don’t feel like being flamed. I’m just putting my observations out there.
What I’ve observed is that they’re not reading at all, at least not in the manner suggested by the article. Rather, they’re communicating with their friends. Constantly. Whether it’s IMing or updating their Facebook status or emailing or texting, they’re constantly communicating with their friends and doing very little of the kind of reading suggested by the article.
Here in the states the vast majority are bad jurors simply because they don’t understand their power or know their rights as jurors. Unfortunately the supreme court ruled in 1895 that jurors “need not be informed of their rights”. The legal system can’t afford informed jurors gaining their rightful control of the legal system.
The real problem is that we no longer have face-to-face communications. You cannot really understand/read someone on a computer or texting, let alone on a telephone.
We need to get off our computers and Blackberries more often and visit someone in the same room.
Or maybe they're just dumb as rocks.
Mark Twain:
We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read.
- 4th of July speech 1873
The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty, and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury. It is a shame that we must continue to use a worthless system because it was good a thousand years ago...I desire to tamper with the jury law. I wish to so alter it as to put a premium on intelligence and character, and close the jury box against idiots, blacklegs, and people who do not read newspapers. But no doubt I shall be defeated—every effort I make to save the country “misses fire.”
- Roughing It
http://www.twainquotes.com/Jury.html
I don’t think it’s generational — lots of people from before the web age have a better visual memory than auditory memory. Not to mention focus...
This line of thinking makes no sense... should there not be a method of ascertaining critical thinking and, intelligence regardless of the medium? I can write a sentence on paper but I prolly can’t today write code in UNIX.