February 28, 2012
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Are We Getting Dumber?
I was reading a discussion on The New York Times and it was about the issue of whether we are getting dumber.
Some feel we are getting dumber because of TV and computers and are ability to look stuff up instead of knowing basic information. Here is the link: Link
Are we getting dumber?
Comments (72)
Me is smrtr.
I think so. When I read what was considered standard for the children of the founding fathers to know I am sure. But I think it was more of a calculated dumbing down of America begun in the public school atmosphere. Stupid people are easier to control. That’s why they hate the internet.
I think the outliers in our population are getting smarter, but the population as a whole is more reliant on technology, and less adequately prepared to solve problems on their own.
More lazy than dumb.
We’re becoming less driven.
Perhaps our intelligence can be now defined differently today from as it was before. We utilize that brain capacity to understand all the mechanisms of today’s technology. If it’s accessible, we need not to learn it thoroughly. But things like manuals on how to utilize computers/computerized machinery, their endless different operating systems and programs…those are things we need to know right off hand. Utilization of the tools used to access basic information is what makes today’s world go round. If we weren’t raised with such technology, like people of older ages, we’d be having a completely difficult time learning about them.
errr….see where I’m going with this?
I keep getting smarter!
Yes.
Absolutely. You don’t need to know as much when you can just look it up on your phone.
Besides, things like grammar and spelling aren’t important, am I right?
For those that crave knowledge, it’s a blessing. Endless information to learn more. Those who want to learn will learn more- those who want to avoid it will. It’s always been this way- the way we gain the information is different.
We?
That picture reminds me of a Xangan who sucked his own dick.
Xanga is dropping our IQs at an alarming rate.
We are smarter at pushing buttons that think for us I guess!
See,we have to know which buttons to push,thats hard science there man
Society needs another Jean Paul Sartre……………….any volunteers?
Yes. ‘Nough said.
Ancient civilisations built massive structures without the aid of modern technology, did math without electronic calculators, navigated without GPS, and and kept time without modern clocks. You tell me who’s smarter.
Yes.
I don’t think we’re getting dumber. I think the school system is failing because of this “no child left behind” thing. They don’t have time to teach kids how to think, they only teach them how to take tests. If a kid’s a self-starter, he’ll probably be okay and not be “dumb.” The fact that TV shows like those stupid “housewives” shows and “Jersey Shore” are so popular certainly makes us look dumb, but “Downton Abbey” got good ratings, too. It’s also my belief that the electronic media controls how many of us see the world, but they are only interested in ratings. For that reason, I think newspapers are better, or some of the other more thoughtful print sources.
I think we THINK we’re getting dumber because of all the input we get that TELLS us we’re getting dumber. Maybe it’s because I hang around with engineers, but I see a lot of smart people around.
Dumber yes, because we don’t have to retain information as much. Which is fine…until the ability to look up such information disappears.
Being able to think is an acquired skill that is becoming increasingly rare. Nowadays, people discuss things by throwing dogma back and forth, not by reasoning through ideas to discover their truth value.
That’s why people tend to get so frustrated in political and philosophical discussions.
I IZ SMERT; DAMN YOU ALL FOR DOUBTING!!!
No. I feel we are on the cusp of the next knowledge revolution. We have more access to information than ever before, but there are certain entities which seek to keep their power by gate-keeping knowledge. I feel that the Internet in particular is becoming increasingly important (and for good reason) in terms of information sharing–all we need to focus on now is making sure that the general public is receiving knowledge that is as reliable as possible.
Being dumb and lacking knowledge are not the same. I could argue that with our greater access to information that we know MORE than we did in the past. I know when ever a topic interests me, I look it up online and learn stuff I might not have known without the internet. With that being said, I do think people have gotten lazier… I was thinking about that the other day – how when I was younger and we did not have internet I would spend hours reading whatever I could get my hands on, as well as writing, playing my flute for hours a day, etc.. Now I still spend hours reading, but most of it is stuff on the internet, and that can get distracting.
I wouldn’t say dumber.. maybe just more lazy than before.
But then again I think we have easier access to knowledge now that we have computers.
Lazy + Not trying = Dumber
@mtngirlsouth - Amen! I am a teacher and I see this every day.
Going by this blog…most definitely.
I just googled it. Google said yes. Yes, we are getting dumber. Oddly, my Magic 8 Ball is uncertain. Now I’m confused.
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It is obvious, look at our leaders.
I can only speak for myself and I won’t blame it on anyone but my advance age.
I remember in nursing school that everytime I asked a question I was told to look it up and I wish we had computers back in the early 70′s
yes. our air, water, and food are all poisoned yet we continue polluting, more worried bout trivial matters like the grammys. consumers are blind to their ignorance. 3rd world kids know wsup and every hood, project or ghetto deals with these conditions. the schools suck and no one here gets proper education while the middle class thinks everyone gets a fair chance. thats dumb.
Dumber? Who knows. Less creative? Definitely.
I absolutely think so. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we really don’t have to try anymore. No one has to put any effort into acquiring knowledge because any knowledge you could ever want to acquire can be summoned in 5-10 seconds from the internet, which so many of us have 24/7 access to. You don’t have to retain information because it can always be re-summoned. I remember as a kid learning about people like Beethoven, and Mozart, and Picasso, and Monet, and looking at the world around me wondering what the history books would say about us, and who our Beethoven is, but the thought really just depresses me, to be honest.
@sometimestheycomebackanyway - I agree, Mr. Trollmonger.
If it weren’t for the internet I would probably have developed my fluid intelligence into something a lot more concise and useful. Before the internet I was an avid reader, and I would pick up on things quickly. Middle school the internet was available and my grades crazily dropped along with my attention span, and the influence of crazies online drew my obsessions. SO I’m going to go with yes.
I do not think so when I compare my self with the elders of my family. I am a first generation college student and out of high school I knew how to do things my family did not know, but I have been provided more opportunities than the older generation. It is up to the individual to take the opportunities for them self’s.
As for what appears to be people acting dumb. I think that is from there being so much in the world that we can do compared to previous generations who could not do as much as a whole. The previous generation knew a whole lot about one thing where this one knows a little about everything.
As for creativity I think it is up to the individual. I think most people lose their creative side around middle school and high school. That is the point where fitting in is a huge deal. Its a personal choice of being normal or being creative.
we’re not getting dumber, we’re just getting lazier.
we’re realizing the limit of the human mind and becoming more specialized as individuals.
I think so…I have 6 bookshelfs full of books…I’d rather hold a book in my hand and look it up than let a computer do it…and as for reading I’s still rather hold the book than use a Kindle…it may be easier to look stuff up on eletronic devices but it’s not smarter…if you put a dictionary in front of a student they look at you like you’ve lost it…sorry but basic skills are being lost to the internet in my book…
Yes! Watch Idiocracy…That’s EXACTLY where we’re heading
did you write “are” instead of “our” on purpose? +10 troll points!
I agree with a lot of people above me… I think we’ve become more lazy, not dumb. I also think we have more useless information which I think helps move toward overall knowledge. “When in doubt, google it” -I google my ass off. We are open to so much more opportunity to expand our minds, now, with the internet.
@Xbeautifully_broken_downX - LOL………..me too, me too!
Dumber is not equal to lazier.
Overall? Yes, yes we are. I’ve got a whole stack of client files here to prove it.
Lol, no of course not. Let me put it this way:
When Homer was around, everyone would recite elongated poems from memory. When writing and instruments to record things were invented, Socrates and Aristotle were very against it because they said we would lose our ability to use our brains to memorize things.
Obviously not right?So now that we have the internet, we have the ability to rely less on our brains and more on Google, so that we may use our brains to store more convenient items…and such.
-Carl Zimmer is a fantastic scientific writer
Lazy and dumber
I’m sure a lot of people are because they’re just downright too lazy to do anything or learn anything. Our generation is the most laziest generation I have ever seen.
My friend jokingly talks about his “Theory of decreasing intelligence,” where he suggests that there is a finite amount of intelligence in the universe, and as our population increases, the amount of intelligence allotted per person decreases. Obviously this is just a joke, but sometimes it feels true.
People (including myself) are lazy as fuck and underestimate themselves. You can learn a language (close to yours, like french and spanish or something) in a few weeks but everyone’s like “ooooh you are so smart” when you speak more than two. Or when you play an instrument, which is also something one can learn in a few weeks or months (well unless life is really busy anyway). Also people believe way too much in talent and too little in hard work.
I say disciplinned and passionate is the new ‘intelligent’.
Like the article says, we have (a) greater access to human foibles at the same time, we’ve (b) attained our greatest intellectual accomplishments which adds to the divide between human stupidity and intellgience, Find point A and point B at another point in time and the medians of either and we can compare whether or not we have increased in intelligence or stupidity.
I suppose you could say we are dumber because we don’t know how to use a butter churn. What makes a person smart or dumb? As times and technology change, needs change, and what we need to know changes. Do you know how to hook a horse up to a plow? Why would you? But I bet you know how to plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse into a computer, plug it in and turn it on. Doesn’t necessarily make you any smarter or dumber, you just possess different knowledge.
@Parsimony - And in the 1950s they said everything had already been invented. Don’t believe that remark about having reached our greatest intellectual accomplishments.
yea. we are. because we are so concentract on internet, so we mostly can not hear what other people saying.
Nah, we’re not getting dumber. Our toys are just getting smarter.
I have noticed that since the advent of Google and Wikipedia my colleagues have stopped asking me so many damn fool questions. Thank God for the internet!!
Some people are getting dumber. Others maxed out years ago.
Sad but true. People now depend on machines to get the job done. We rather use a calculator than our brains. We believe what we read online as unbiased and truthful. We lost the ability to think for ourselves. I hope we get our wits back.
For what it’s worth, my sister’s psychology book says that they have to keep adjusting the I.Q. scores because humans are getting smarter. (If I understand correctly, it works like this: 100 is defined as the average score, so if the new round of testing [so to speak] produces an average score of 102, they make 102 the new 100 and adjust accordingly.)
Random knowledge does not equate to intelligence. Intelligence is the capacity for learning, understanding, and using information.
@the2kill76 - From what I’ve seen at work, the 50+ are lazy and seem to think they’re entitled to have everything handed to them. I’m sure neither of our experiences illustrate the whole picture.
I was getting dumber until I found Xanga.
All you have to do is look at our president and the answer is obvious. Yes, we are getting dumber. Let’s just hope we don’t repeat the mistake this year.
Yes we are and we are being brain washed by stupid hateful people like all the talking heads that we see on television and cablevision. Do you that television show are you smarter than a five year old? Well, I have never watched because I already know what the answer is and it is “no way, jose!” We definetly get dumber and we are getting dumber by the minute.
Dan you deleted another comment that didn’t violate your rules- the one Curtis said to mtngrlsouth. Curious why. Maybe I should call you “Mr. FCC”
dis kuestion wuz to hard for me to nderstand wut?
I posted the same long comment on @coolmonkey ‘s page, but here:
I feel that right now I’d consider us as straddling a line. I do find it shameful that most of the youth can’t utilize grammar properly. Hell, I know I can’t but at least I’m understandable. It also kind of blows if you’re completely calculator dependent, especially over basic math. But let’s also reconsider: Just by reading many “classics”, it’s evident that the English was quite different and their vocabulary a bit more colorful. Don’t you think that those same, eloquent and educated people may be looking down at what we deem as “great grammar/English”? A lot of what we read and write seems so basic and god forbid, when someone writes something too complex in vocabulary, it seems that they’re trying too hard to seem smart.
And to even play devil’s advocate, who’s to say that the revision of words (wurds?) and their shortening (to/too/two/2?) isn’t a matter of comprehension innovation. I’ll be honest, I have an easier time understanding things when they’re proper, with punctuation marks in place and having the correct word-meanings and contractions. But what if that just makes me dumb for not being able to distinguish what connotation is intended? Who’s to say that what we deem as “superior intelligence” now will be considered as a narrow mindset 100yrs from today.
Here’s another thought, the Federalists actually hesitated to give the public access for a direct vote. They actually believed that there should be a distinguished group of intellectuals to decipher the choices of the government. Try to tell me that people don’t also feel like this today. We have the right to vote, but many people of age have no real political knowledge or opinion and the majority could possibly be influenced to steer the government in the wrong direction.
Times and technology change and advance. People don’t. It will always be the outliers on the positive end of the bell curve, the small percentage of elitist intellects, that move the world forward. So sure, it’s a line straddle and a long debate…but I think I’ll go with “no.”
—sorry for the rant lol
yup
I speculated that about 40% of the population is unreasonable and illogical.
Based on the regularity that customers ask me if annual means monthly, I’d say yes.
Yes! I really think we are.. =( People dont read books or pick up newspapers or do the simple things in life anymore..
i’m too lazy to filter through all the comments to see if anyone has said it already, so, sorry if i’m just repeating what someone else said. it really depends on how you define “dumber.”
knowing random bits and pieces of information or having a high IQ doesn’t necessarily mean that you are smart. there really is no best way to measure intelligence. what really matters is your ability to gather pieces of information, whether you know it off the top of your head or you have to look it up on wikipedia, and know what to do with said information. memorizing information isn’t as difficult as being able to pick out the important information you read in a large body of text, analyze it, form a coherent argument, etc. just knowing a list of facts won’t do you any good except make you look like a total douche at a cocktail party.
so no, people aren’t getting “dumber”. you would have to define intelligence to begin with before making this type of comparison. with enough repetition, i bet any dumb bimbo could train themselves to rattle off thousands of facts from wikipedia. but it takes some thinking to develop analytical skills, which is why certain professions that deal more with analysis and on the spot thinking pay more than others. if you’re into repetition, i suggest you pursue a career in, oh i don’t know, manufacturing or something.