Lets make it the other way around. whether it be hardcopy, paperback, Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iTouch, I don't care which, just start reading. I read the DaVinci code at like 8, so I've always had to deal with people in my age group ranking lower than me when it comes to the intellectual pursuits, not to sound pretentious or anything, just stating facts. While I'm ready to admit that with the influx of technology that leads us away from these aspects, and I'll admit that I'm a bit of a tech addict myself, people need to still try and focus on doing things that are a little more intellectually stimulating than watching some stupid bitch who uses too much self tanner go around sleeping with a bunch of guido bastards. I don't care which book it is, it's still a book. I recently finished "the Metamorphesis" by Franz Kafka myself, and am starting "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. while It's one of the first books I've actually found challenging, the other being "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot" I forget the author, it's turning out to be a pretty good read. But I digress. my point is, the intelligence of our country is declining, sharply. While there are a few exceptions, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. when the popular children's show Sesame Street aired, it vastly improved education for our society. Kidergarten teachers were now teaching their students 1st grade material, the children having learned the basics from said show. while this doesn't seem like much, I must remind you that we absorb the most information in our early youth, this is why we are able to pick up are primary language so easily, and the rest is so difficult. The brain matter become solidified, and we lose the ability to pick up information as quickly.

That being said, my theory is this: If parents would take the time to read to their children, try and teach them as much basics as they could in their early years, and place them in a nurturing environment, we wouldn't have such a nation of useless twits. I hate to sound ostentatious here, but this has to be said. Set a better example for your children, read to them, care for their future, instead of just letting a potentially valuable mind waste away. It's too often that I see someone who has so much potential, and yet they waste it simply because they don't know any better. While I hate to toot my own horn here, I am a prime example of this, from a purely objective point of view.
While I grew up without knowing a father, and having a useless mother, I had the good fortune to be raised by my grandparents, who read to me, had me do educational things, and did their very best. up until I was nine years old, I lived with them, and I was doing amazing academically, for my age that is, I wasn't doing calculus in the fourth grade or anything, but my literacy skills were *apparently* off the charts.. at age ten, I moved in with my deadbeat mother, which turned out to be a TERRIBLE decision, hindsight's 20/20 as they say. my grades plummeted and while some of it was due to my own laziness, I have to accredit a lot of it to a shitty environment. A drunk mother, no father figure, save for the drunken, idiotic stepfather she picked, and a constant uncertainty of where my next meal was coming from, or where I would be sleeping that evening; I quickly became a borderline student. After freshman year, I moved back in with my loving grandparents, and after a brief, transitional sophmore year, I entered my Junior year confidant. I recently got my grades for the first semester, (which with the weird block system my school district has, means I just finished three classes and an internship) and I did great, I got two A's and two B's, I scored the highest out of any of my teacher's classes on the Biology end of course exam, and I got great marks for my internship, as well as my senior project, (a strange replacement for the required community service many schools require.) Now I'm not saying this to say that I'm superior in anyway, which I'm not. I'm saying this to prove a point.
My point is: environment makes the biggest difference in a youth's life. The majority of LGBT youth who find themselves kicked from their homes drop out of school, many inner city children are prone to low grades and dropping out as well. if we as a community would take the time to help our youth, instead of throwing up roadblock after roadblock in their way, maybe we wouldn't rank 25th in math and science for the world.
I know I may seem to contradict myself, or that I'm rambling, (which I probably am) but my points are still valid.
quit pushing shit like "Jersey Shore."
parents - create a better environment for your children so they don't wind up the kind that others write angry journal posts about.
and that we as a society have a lot of growing up to do.