Dumbing Down Children?

It's interesting to me-- Stephen Johnson in _Everything Bad is Good for You_ talks about how so many people think that because kids play video games instead of reading books that we are dumbing kids down. He argues that that is not in fact the case-- but rather that video games bring about a higher level of thinking that kids participate in. Anne MacLeod in _American Childhood_ discusses how the books of the 50s and 60s encouraged girls to be content with their lives. She looks at American culture of the 50s and how for the first time teenagers had some of their own freedoms and were becoming their own culture and how that during that time they were marrying younger than ever before.

So, this is what I find interesting... If anything, it is the books of the 50s and 60s that are dumbing children down-- the books that no one censors because there is no violence and no controversy-- unless marrying young is considered "dangerous." These books show people going to school and going to college and living the American dream of mediocrity. Contemporary texts show students competing--striving to overcome the system--not being content with their lives the way they are. Or if the character is passive, that is considered a weakness.

Now I wonder, what is true dumbing down? Is it writing things in a particular way? Is it thinking about something in a particular way? Or, is it a perception of what this world should be like?