Whitechapel - The internet is making us stupid

The internet is making us stupid

Slick — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:12:35 -0700

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11263559

The internet is making us stupid

Will Ellwood — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:15:30 -0700

An actual link and the lead.

How good software makes us stupid

Imagine for a moment that you have thumbed a ride in one of London's iconic black cabs.

"Where to, guv?" he asks, in typical cockney-twang. You tell him.

"No problem - let me just enter that into my sat-nav…"

It sounds unnatural, almost deceitful, that any self-respecting London cabbie would ever utter those words.

After all, a taxi driver's ability to know every twist and turn of the capital's streets is the stuff of legend.

It's not optional - unless drivers pass a formidable test - called "The Knowledge" - they are not allowed to head out onto the roads in one of the iconic vehicles.

But with satellite-navigation technology now well established as a cheap, reliable way of being shown the way ahead, one expert has warned that we could actually lose the intellectual capacity to remember vast amounts of information - such as tricky routes through the capital city.

The internet is making us stupid

keyofsilence — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:28:35 -0700

Meanwhile someone consults the internet to find book titles necessary to their MA, and another studies advanced guitar theory off a website for their hobby.

Also is it just me or does this guy really hate Google? Doesn't even bother to mention another search engine whose consequences on the brain would surely be identical/similar.

The internet is making us stupid

lazarus corporation — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:54:03 -0700

This guy's been promoting this theory (and marketing the book) for some time now. From what I've read it's not really backed up by any sound logic and carefully cherry-picks pieces of academic research that - out of context - can be used to back up the theory. Bad Science.

Still, the author obviously knows how to write soundbites that journalists rush to cut-and-paste without question. But that's more a comment on contemporary mainstream journalism than the author.

Edit. It's just another "kids these days are thick because of [new technology]" rant, the first example of which that I can find comes from Plato who complained that this new-fangled "writing" technology would make us stupid:

If men learn [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.

The internet is making us stupid

BettyBoolean — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 05:25:48 -0700

reminds me of teachers in the 1970s telling us that pocket calculators would make us all stupid and hasten the demise of civilization . . . .

technology serves to liberate us from donkey work, be that physical or mental allowing us to use the extra capacity to explore more abstract and conceptual aspects of the world surely?

The internet is making us stupid

Finagle — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 05:53:50 -0700

The fundamental thing this article does not address is *opportunity cost*.

I've been a computer consultant in Boston for ten years, usually two appointments per day, all over the area. When I first got here in 2000, I carried a map book and printed off directions. That daily preparation took at least a half hour per day.

Now that I'm *not* obliged to constantly do that mental donkey work (well put), it isn't like I'm just stuffing that extra time with mental junk food. That's time I can now actually use to keep current on the daily flood of information that is IT consulting.

I've seen what happens to the older consultants - they're forced to specialize in one relatively narrow area, because they just can't keep up. I myself am striving to still remain a generalist. I try to do *more* with IT than just memorize FAQ's and search knowledgebases, but actually work from first principles and root causes. Going through the process of acquiring "the Knowledge" would require me to knock out something *else*, not actually develop my skills in any meaningful way.

The internet is making us stupid

Jason A. Quest — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 07:03:49 -0700

Finagle, I think you'll find as you become one of those "older consultants" that you've had to specialize too. Except for the rare supergenius, no one can successfully keep up with everything in a field as broad and complex as computer technology in the long term. When you're 50-60 employers/clients won't indulge you to work out a problem from first principles; they'll expect that you've encountered their problem before, and already know the solution.

The internet is making us stupid

Finagle — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 07:57:41 -0700

*shrug* You misunderstand, but more than one reply to this is going to get way off topic.

I'm not opposing being narrow and deep with being broad and deep. I'm an integrator and support engineer; my job is to be broad and shallow, and know where to go to get more resources. This is going to be increasingly important as stuff moves off into the cloud, and IT becomes much more about managing the overall quality of service delivery, infrastructure and project management.

To return to the point of the article: My observation is that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Narrow and deep specialization is not necessarily a desirable trait in the modern IT environment, or even business in general, when it comes to overall project management and continuty of service. When figuring out a problem with email delivery, the Exchange guy will focus on Exchange. The security guy will focus on possible virus activity. The Active Directory guy will start looking at AD. What is *needed* are people who can, in fact, be broad but shallow and be able to get all the blind men together and figure out yes, it *is* an elephant.

And the point of the article runs counter to that.

The internet is making us stupid

BrianMowrey — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 08:10:05 -0700

My mental donkey got a cold and then died after it ate a mysterious turnip that had smiling Audrey Hepburn's face on it and the caption "Don't yell at dentists".

The internet is making us stupid

Solario — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:25:34 -0700

Isn't the whole point of technology to make menial work easier? Some people will inevidably still prefer the long and hard way, but there's no reason we should force everyone to do it that way.

The internet is making us stupid

David Matthew — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:33:09 -0700

The catch is with Plato, he was likely *right*. Writing does do something to the brain that we don't understand. One of the reasons that epic oral storytelling has died off in much of the world is that someone who is literate loses the ability to memorize vast amounts of information in the same way that an illiterate bard can. Milman Parry's work in Yugoslavia was well-timed; a generation after he made his recordings, the Soviets instituted a program of literacy training across the entire nation, and the epics vanished. Studies have been done on the Indian variety of illiterate bard, known as the Bhopa, where those who previously had been able to recite entire epics lost the ability to do so when taught to read and write.

The internet is making us stupid

lazarus corporation — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:53:08 -0700

The catch is with Plato, he was likely *right*. Writing does do something to the brain that we don't understand.

But the thing, with both Plato and Carr, is that Writing/Software/The Internet don't make us "stupid" (as Carr claims) - they just allow us to be intelligent in a more efficient way within the environment we exist in. They all remove (as BettyBoolean said) the donkey work - the storage, aggregation, and selection of data - and allow us to spend more time on using that data.

So, if we accept the theory that the way our brains work with information shapes our cognitive processes, then our brains are moving away from being focused on data retention and selection, and are moving towards being focused on data analysis - working with the facts and producing results. That's anything but "stupid".

The internet is making us stupid

eDave — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:09:51 -0700

@bettyboolean are you suggesting that civilisation hasnt demised?

its not an all or nothing good or bad choice - technology will change how we think in ways we cant easily define as good or bad.

The internet is making us stupid

John Skylar — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:23:35 -0700

Seems like different stuff is supposed to be scary.

Different stuff doesn't really scare me, though. So instead of remembering how to do a thing using pen and paper, I remember how to it using a computer? It seems like this guy is just noticing that we're changing skill sets.

Robots made my kitchen knives. As a result, I don't know how to make knives from flint. Is this a problem? Did robots make me stupid?

The internet is making us stupid

David Matthew — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:30:03 -0700

@John Skylar: Yes. Now they can carve up your puny fleshy body with their special robot-made knives.

The internet is making us stupid

WaxPoetic — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:45:08 -0700

I am so glad to hear other people having the same issues with Carr that I did. A few days ago, I tried to listen to him give an interview and had to give up. He's read up on something that fascinates me (scriptura continua and its evolution into separated words) and seems to have a completely different take on it and how its effected humans and their, what? betterness, I guess. (The fact that he has read about this, as I have is more motivation for me to speak with respect about other people's legitimate research instead of trying to make it oily and sweaty for my own purposes.)

The thing that I remember getting from his article in Atlantic was that there are fewer and fewer reasons to learn how to ask good questions and how to ask them well. Now that I've heard him actually speak I realize that it may not have even been an intentional point.

I get that there will always be people who are fashionably opposed to fashion. It's a personality type.
I am mostly offended that there are several really interesting conversations lying just beneath the veneer of this guy's rhetoric which is so slick and shiny that they are just being neglected.

We have not yet lost our ability to learn.
Once technology takes that away, then we're screwed. From my point of view.

The internet is making us stupid

Rootfireember — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:10:49 -0700

I haven't read anything stating that learning to read and write removes your ability to memmorize things; merely that people who can read and write are less likely to because the skill is less necessary when they can just write something down; and with less use, becomes less developed.

David Matthew- could you provide a link showing an incident where a person who was previously illiterate and knew a vast sum of memorized work had 'lost' that work after learning how to read/write? I'm curious.

The internet is making us stupid

BettyBoolean — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 14:05:48 -0700

@bettyboolean are you suggesting that civilisation hasnt demised?

@eDave well I guess that's a subjective call . . . LOL

but nah, its changed, and hey, I'm old enough to remember tables of logarithms tables of logarithms

now tell me you'd rather be using those than a calculator

The internet is making us stupid

mybrainhurts — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:18:26 -0700

There was an excellent review of a book about this in The Guardian:

A comparison of The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember and Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives

The internet is making us stupid

rickiep00h — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:35:12 -0700

The most valuable thing my audio professor ever told me was a paraphrase of the following:

"The only thing I want you to memorize in this class is the speed of sound. [At sea level, it's about 1128 ft/s, give or take given temperature.] Everything else--mic specs, equations, conversions, everything--I would like you to learn, but I'm more interested in you recognizing it and being able to find it when you need it. That way you can focus on your job--making good-sounding performances and recordings--and worry about all that technical shit only when you need to."

Even really smart people have to look shit up once in a while. Instantaneous access to the combined knowledge of the entire developed world seems like a pretty good way to increase one's intelligence.

The internet is making us stupid

David Matthew — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 23:12:43 -0700

@Rootfiremember: I can point to this New Yorker article from 2006 as mentioning it specifically, but it's not available online, and I've misplaced the hard copy I recently read of it. It specifically mentioned that a number of bhopa were made literate, and after that they had to being 'refreshing' their memory of the epics from little books as they recited them, a practice that had not previously been necessary.

The internet is making us stupid

J.Brennan — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:20:17 -0700

It specifically mentioned that a number of bhopa were made literate, and after that they had to being 'refreshing' their memory of the epics from little books as they recited them, a practice that had not previously been necessary.

@David Matthew: That makes me wonder whether, prior to literacy, these bhopa were just reciting and performing with extemporaneous flourish, each recitation differing and possibly evolving. Once literate and their epic codified, the bhopa may have felt obligated to recite the codified version perfectly, and thus needed to refresh their memory.

As to the topic at hand: I'm not sure our ability to memorize has decreased as much as the sheer volume of human knowledge has grown exponentially.

The internet is making us stupid

John Skylar — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 06:10:49 -0700

I do think that to some degree we're setting up a straw man argument, though. This guy isn't just saying that we're getting lazy, he's also got clear evidence that use of the Internet has an effect on how we allot attention and the length of attention spans.

I've certainly got my own focus problems, and I think that

The internet is making us stupid

sneak046 — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 06:20:33 -0700

Perhaps the internet will make us all so stupid we will all need to watch the tutorial videos mentioned in this other thread.

Interesting Charlie Brooker article here that is kinda tangentially related.

The internet is making us stupid

looneynerd — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 06:21:58 -0700

Here's my question. We're now at the point where there are a pretty decent number of people (especially younger people, ala 18 and younger) that have lives completely adapted to using (if not outright dependency on in some cases) the internet. Now what were to happen if we suddenly lost access permanently? Would those same people be able to handle it? I've heard several professors remark that graduate students in research fields seem markedly lazier than in earlier generations, and I've heard many times at academic conferences that the number of terminal Master's Degrees being awarded seem to be rising because students seem unable to any kind of research method other than the internet. Now, to be perfectly a fair a lot of this is probably down to the bickering that you'd have about the "good ol' days" anyway, but it's a situation that I think merits analysis.

The internet is making us stupid

Finagle — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 06:55:59 -0700

> This guy isn't just saying that we're getting lazy, he's also got clear evidence that use of the Internet has an effect on how we allot attention and the length of attention spans.

The Guardian review posted above flatly denies this, and I deny it as well. Carr really isn't using much more than the "plural of anecdote" here. And I would offer as useful rejoinders, works such as /Everything Bad Is Good For You/ which highlight how the complexity of the information environment is causing our brains to stretch and grow.

The internet is making us stupid

Erisah — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:18:44 -0700

I'm going to put myself out there and say that the internet isn't so much something that makes people stupid as a useful outlet to be stupid through. I for example occasionally neglect my uni work because I'm addicted to online fiction. Before I had my laptop, I did the exact same thing with paperbacks. I switched because it's stealthier reading online ("Of course I'm working. What does it look like?"), and because I can make the font bigger so I don't wreck my eyes further than I already have. The internet is just an enabler.

@ David Matthew: I too am feeling more than a little sceptical of the claim that literacy actually physically removes the ability to remember large tracts of information that have been previously learnt by rote.

I'm willing to bet that there are more than a few confounding factors to this claim. For example, did the Bhopas in question recite the epics as often as they had been previously while they were learning to read and write? Did they use the little books because they were more convenient or standardized? I think I want to see the original article before I take your word on this one.

Just because there is a correlation between literacy rates rising and the loss of ancient oral traditions does not mean that these oral traditions are lost within a single individual of a generation who previously could recite these things. I don't think I've ever heard of people spontaneously developing mental blocks about things they've practiced for years simply upon the acquisition of new information. It'd be like if you taught a musician who played by ear to read music, and they spontaneously lost their ability to jam. I don't see it.

The internet is making us stupid

rickiep00h — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:13:48 -0700

@looneynerd - Have those same people (those ensconced in internet research) not heard of libraries, those great repositories of information that date back millenia? The internet is a tool (among other things), and the people that use are no different than people who used libraries even a decade ago. Lazy researchers will be lazy no matter what tools they have at their disposal, and what will separate good work from bad should, hopefully, be self-evident.

Internet is to knowledge as Photoshop is to art.

The internet is making us stupid

mister hex — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:45:50 -0700

but what about speling and grammer i don know about u but i think in tweny yeers well al be stupid ok bye

Imagine historians of the future looking at people's emails, remarking on spelling mistakes and/or grammar errors as if they held an insight into that person's life.

@looneynerd - yeah, I've often thought about what will happen when the Internet goes down. ZOMG, HOW WILL PEOPLE LIVE?

The internet is making us stupid

Finagle — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:53:59 -0700

Yes, and typing has made everyone have terrible handwriting. Oh, I weep for the demise of calligraphy! Every student must immediately be issued a quill pen and an ink bottle, so they may concentrate on the mechanics of penmanship to the exclusion of content.

The internet is making us stupid

mister hex — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:10:21 -0700

@Finagle - I don't know about you but my penmanship is terrible.

The internet is making us stupid

trini_naenae — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:23:21 -0700

I memorize stuff when looking it up takes too much time. I used to know all the extensions (had to be 50+) when I worked as a weekend concierge, but as I no longer need to remember them, it's a bit fuzzy. I currently can memorize the order of the crusts we are making at work and keep track of the progress. Of course, there are lots of things I remember because they are interesting to me. Literacy, and the ability to look up things, gives people a chance to know and learn more, not less. It also improves accuracy. What people choose to do with it is their own decision.

The internet is making us stupid

rickiep00h — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:24:06 -0700

@mister hex - My penmanship was terrible before the internet. In cursive and in block.

Still is, for that matter.

EDIT: @trini - That's exactly the point. People memorize what they have to, or what they do repeatedly. I still know the PLU number of bananas (4011) from the five years I spent working in a grocery store. If memorization and regurgitation were all it took to be "smart", No Child Left Behind would have been a smashing success.

The internet is making us stupid

HEY APATHY! — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:32:35 -0700

I have had this terrible flu and fevers all week so coming in here to discuss my concerns on the subject is sort of like a sweaty, delusional, patient in hysteria running into a coffee shop and joining the conversation. In ‘real life” I’d never do that. This is just one of the many ways the internet has rewired my brain. I have only been working on the computer for two years and, in comparison, am coming from an extremely different environment. I used to be a street performer where all communications were initially determined through the interpretation of subtle body language. For example I could actually accurately predict who was going to purchase a drawing by examining the audiences feet (I can’t explain it but it worked).

When I stopped performing in the streets full time and switched to working online, I had a very difficult time with the new thought patterns. I used to complain about all the strange habits I was forming and the new ways I had to start thinking about things. Oddly enough I can’t specifically remember any of those complaints today. So coming back to the main topic of this thread, and to my fevers, all week I have been stuck in a schizophrenic internet nightmare. In my feverish state I keep thinking about things online, in fragments. For a moment I want to blog, then I get tired and look for movies, which leads to researching films and then out of nowhere I decide to upload some drawings or something else until I finally give up. I have been sick many times in my life but have never experienced such a horribly inattentive fever. I used to just put on a film and lie there.

As a result of seeing this thread I also noticed a huge shift in the way I have been developing my artworks. Before going online I used to work exclusively on the creation of one artwork ( usually a series of drawings) for a set period of time and then find a way to promote it. Now I do fifty thousand online things everyday and am producing a number simultaneous projects but none as extensive as my previous studies. I admit I am little frightened by all of this. Even this morning I was trying to read in the park but kept thinking of the various online tasks I have to complete. Granted the whole experience has been amplified by the hallucinatory state of my current illness.

On the bright side of going online I do appreciate the access to information, the ability to communicate with people who would be otherwise inaccessible, and how it forces us to read and write, however the extensive restructuring and fragmentation of thought processes is undoubtedly a concern and I am going to take a moment to re-think the way I’ve been using the computer. Yes the internet is an extraordinary and necessary tool to be mastered, but as with all things used in ignorance or in excess…

@MISTERHEX there is still lot’s of good writing online, we have 40 years until complete stupidity according to Orwell, I mean it’s not like we are living in an age of propaganda, state terrorism, and mass mind control or that some diabolical ideology bent on commercial consumption has forced us all to constantly stare at little flickering boxes or anything.

The internet is making us stupid

David Matthew — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:03:15 -0700

re: doubters about literacy killing oral epic memory:

*shrug*. All I can do is report what I've read. I'm not qualified to make pronouncements one way or another about the research.

The internet is making us stupid

D.J. — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:02:50 -0700

I absolutely adore when inane articles like this are brought to attention, and you guys always seem to destroy it thoroughly within a few clever posts. Seems to happen a lot.

Anyway, even if everything the guy says is true, it's only really a problem if technology stops working (which we should obviously, definitely be worried about all day). But even then, we'd simply adapt from it just as we adapted to it.

The internet is making us stupid

Brendan McGinley — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:47:36 -0700

@John Skylar -- Heh heh!

The internet is making us stupid

Verissimus — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:49:21 -0700

@mr hex

Spelling has historically always been pretty bad, that's not a recent thing.

In the Netherlands writing rules were only introduced the 19th century...before that, people simply had to make an informed guess when they were writing. Sometimes one frequently occurring word would be written in several different ways in the same text.

The internet certainly gives some people an excuse for being stupid, but without the web they'd probably be just as dumb. I think that overall the web has a positive effect on people's education, and on our culture.

The internet is making us stupid

mister hex — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:05:11 -0700

@ Verus - Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. English was very similar, not that long ago. But a cursory glance at any comments thread anywhere gives one the impression that the people commenting are : A) typing with one hand tied behind their backs (or worse yet, down their pants) B) functionally retarded or C) both. And don't even get me started on misused homonyms or commonly misspelled words. (Hint - "Rouge" is not and never was a member of the X-Men.)

I always get cross with myself when I spell someone's name wrong.

The real problem with the Internet, to my eyes, is the Cloak of Anonymity. People can act like right horrible cunts to each other because they don't see the person on the other end as being "real" ; they're just a screen name. Then again, people have been treating other people like right horrible cunts for a good few thousand years, it's just that the Internet (which theoretically SHOULD bring us all together as one big happy family - but doesn't) facilitates assholishness. (Note - "asholishness" is not a word.)

The internet is making us stupid

Verissimus — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:32:23 -0700

True but I have more traumatic memories of schoolyard bullies than of any internet troll...and as long as I can understand what teh people of teh intarwub mean, I don't give a shit about their spelling.

That Cloak of Anonimity thing can be annoying yes, but compared to the enormous benefit the web has to offer it's not very disturbing.

The internet is making us stupid

arklight — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:16:58 -0700

The Internet is mangling culture in general.

Have you ever found that you can't find a certain something
on the internet and then tried the American English spelling
instead of the British English spelling and then found it?

Or Google "suggests" the American English version?

This Search engine weight ranking is influencing a lot
of non English speakers who pick up English instead of
studying English at a college for 4 years.As you should.[!!]

It's influencing people that Googles search engine
weighted version of the word is the correct spelling
of the word.

Whats more interesting American English is so different but diverted
from people who spoke English in the first place.
(Yes I know there were Germans and French American settlers too)

But the Majority of the new English speakers in the new century
do not have it as their first languageand they
will out number everyone.Their versions will mash it up even more.

So expect to be corrected in your own language.

Heri Mkocha

http://www.youtube.com/thearklight

The internet is making us stupid

D.J. — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:24:49 -0700

@arklight
There really aren't that many instances of that, and dropping a u from color isn't exactly the biggest deal. Not to mention it'll be taught a certain way regardless, and that is where people will pick it up. Being Canadian, I actually tend to use a mixture depending on how I feel like writing it, and only very prudish brits seem to care at all.

Also, just out of curiosity, why are you posting like that?

The internet is making us stupid

celan — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:52:07 -0700

The point that "memory is a muscle" is well-taken...but I would just echo comments upthread that not having to remember one thing means you can remember other things instead. Illogical extension of this line of argumentation might lead someone to assert "Books makes us dumber." Or some such.

The internet is making us stupid

city creed — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:31:24 -0700

The internets just makes stupidity more visible. Cloistered academics react as if this is some kind of sudden surprise invasion of lollygagging imbeciles when in fact, they were there all along but most people were too embarrassed to let their stupid hang out in public. That particular bar has dropped.

I do chuckle at the inherent assumption that people are either "intelligent" or "stupid" and never the twain shall meet. I mean, it's not like smart people ever do the most godawful dumb things now is it? "Intelligent" as an adjective to describe an individual person is basically meaningless. As an adjective to describe individual behaviours, it works much better.

our brains are moving away from being focused on data retention and selection, and are moving towards being focused on data analysis

^This.
Do computers have "intellectual capacity"? They sure can store and retrieve a lot of information... Not very good at argument though.

The internet is making us stupid

Erisah — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:08:27 -0700

What I'm curious about is why it is that a focus on "data analysis" rather than "data retention and selection" is inherently a bad thing.

I mean, isn't it good that we're moving away from being mindless parrots?

The internet is making us stupid

Alan Tyson — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:18:21 -0700

It's a bit of a tangent, but I kept thinking about this thread while reading this Kotaku article, and figured I'd throw it into the blender for your consideration.

The internet is making us stupid

Zeppelin — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:18:27 -0700

The ability of the internet and modern communication to bombard us with information, information, information, can be a good thing. A new study from cognitive scientists at the University of Rochester suggests that video gamers make faster and more accurate decisions. They conclude that video-game players "develop an enhanced sensitivity to what is going on around them, and this may help with activities such as multitasking, driving, reading small print, navigation and keeping track of friends or children in a crowd."

Also, and not to be overlooked. There is a marked relationship between intelligence (within the nature v.s. nurture argument) and happiness that suggests that one's ability to process information, not only to understand it but to retain it is linked to social factors like happiness. A happier child is generally better able (or at least faster) to understand a problem/argument/etc than an unhappy one. I refer you to the TED Talk on the Global Happiness Index which ends by making a short reference to social intelligence. The approach to intelligence, or to what makes people geniuses is based primarily on analytical tools within the brain, which in turn therefore ignore emotional intelligence, social intelligence, physical intelligence, etc. The approach to intelligence by many implies that a man or woman who is the greatest dancer ever (for example) would not be considered highly 'intelligent' despite their ability to do with their body that which no one else can do. First we need to get beyond this tendency to consider human beings as mere machines (though on some level we are) and accept that intelligence comes in many forms, only then will we be able to see that that a tool like the internet (if used responsibly... I doubt 4chan is going to breed intelligence, though you never know) brings us more than analytical support can can help us to connect with others and enlarge our social and intellectual spheres. That can only be a good thing right?

Lastly, on language, yes the internet is leading to a shift in language, where soon speakers of second of third language English will massively outnumber fluent English speakers (if they don't already). A good case in point is a country like Singapore which has developed Singlish, a form of English mixed with Hokkien Chinese, or India where Hindu speakers pepper their dialogue with English words. Soon I imagine fluent speakers of Shakespeare's tongue will need to pick up English language guides so as to understand the majority of English speakers around the world (I am reminded of languages referred to as 'common' within roleplaying games, or perhaps what is spoken on the streets of Blade Runner). Thus, English as we know it will one day become the minority dialect within the future international English. That, just like many other fields of social interaction/engineering is but an acceleration of what has already been taking place for thousands if not millions of years. We, like our tools and morals and beliefs, mix and merge and evolve. All the internet has done has been to accelerate this process a hundred fold. Information that once took years to travel the world now takes seconds, mutating and changing as it goes, splitting like the tree of life into branches of social knowledge that merge and dance around one another, creating at the end of the day new ideas, new thoughts, new embryos of possible new societies.

Bring it on I say.

The internet is making us stupid

Zeppelin — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:51:51 -0700

Just came across the following link, and I'd thought I'd add it for your consideration. It's reminiscent of the idea by Thomas Hobbes of the “war of every man against every man.”... which the internet enables in the most fascinating way.

:)

And for the record, even though the article uses religious doctrine within the Angelican church as an example... I'm an atheist. I just found the argument well laid out and thus, illustrative of one way in which the internet makes us all douchebags.

The internet is making us stupid

warrenellis — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:29:43 -0700

THIS THREAD IS MAKING ME STUPID AND ALSO HATE SMASH