Mark Bauerlein response to James Paul Gee

Jim says that "many kids turn to digital media because school offers them so little deep, engaging, and critical thinking." I don't know of any broad research that draws that conclusion. Studies of student interest and boredom such as Indiana University's High school Survey of Student Engagement do register high levels of ennui among the kids, but they find course material boring mainly because they don't find it relevant to their lives.

As for turning to digital media for deep critical thinking, the surveys that I've seen of youth digital activity such as a few by Pew show students citing one reason for it well above any others: connection with friends.