This view is a bit too sanguine --- in general we really have lost the ability to engage deeply with printed matter. Those students who continually monitor fac

This view is a bit too sanguine --- in general we really have lost the ability to engage deeply with printed matter. Those students who continually monitor facebook while doing their assignments are just phoning it in, and the poor quality of their work shows it. Declining academic standards are real. Students aren't getting an education for their money. But. The internet is the new Forum. What the students do there isn't inherently valueless. So while declining academic standards are bad news for the academy, they're also not relevant to whether the students are able to participate in their culture and in civic debate. The problem is that, online courses notwithstanding, the humanities generally fail to take online fora seriously enough.