Reading, Pa.- Author and Professor of English Mark Bauerlein, Ph.D., will present a lecture titled “The Facebook Pitfall: A lecture on the detrimental effects of digitalization on education and on learning” on Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 4 p.m. in Wachovia Theatre. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session. The event is free and open to the public.
When investigators at Pew Research studied mobile phone habits, they said they were startled at the number of youths who sleep with the cell phone turned on and placed under their pillow. That way, if a message comes in at 2 a.m., it will wake them up so they can read it and reply. This is just one aspect of the non-stop immersion in digital tools and media among young people today. Add Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, etc. and you have a life of ceaseless social contact reaching to every hour of the day and space of privacy.
Bauerlein earned a doctorate in English at UCLA in 1988 and became a professor of English at Emory University in 1989. He is the author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.
For more information on Bauerlein’s book visit www.dumbestgeneration.com
For more information about the event or disabled assistance, please contact the College Relations Office at 610-921-7526. The Wachovia Theatre is located in the Center for the Arts on the Albright College campus at 13th and Bern Streets in Reading, Pa.
Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College’s hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. Two-thirds of students graduate with dual/individualized majors in more than 200 different combinations. Albright enrolls about 1,670 undergraduates in traditional programs, another 500 adult students in accelerated degree programs, and 100 students in the master’s program in education. Albright College is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.
