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Is Google Making Us Stupid?
mjasay writes "Is Google making us stupid? Following a growing body of research within neuroscience, Carr argues that as we use the Web 'we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies.' This sounds great: Who wouldn't want to have the 'recall' capacity of Google? But, as Carr writes: 'The Internet promises to have particularly far-reaching effects on cognition. ... The Internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies. It's becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV. When the Net absorbs a medium, that medium is recreated in the Net's image.' In other words, as we 'go online' in increasing numbers and to an increasing degree, are we losing our ability to think coherently and deeply, preferring instead to process byte-sized information quickly, regurgitate 140-character 'tweets,' and skim thought? Is the concern overblown, or are we becoming the Web that we created?"
I have found that the people that harbor these ideas are often bright in their own right and during their "Hay Day" were looked up to at every job they had. The problem comes in when you take a piece of information that only they knew and give it to everyone with a web browser, than their superior intellect means jack squat! This is the most peaty type of fear mongering a person can spread. "I don't care that you memorized the periodic table in the third grade and can recite any of the elements by heart. I memorized the character string 'www.wikipedia.org' and when I ask that site for information it doesn't give me the same grief that you do!"
Who gives a fuck?
These stories are nothing but trolls to catch the reader's eye. They amount to the "Think you are safe in your home? tune in tonight at 10 to find out" stories.
Are we safe? Are you safe? Is your mother smarter than you? Are you dumb because of the clothes you wear? Are your clothes killing you? Is anyone out there? is this thing on? How much for the Ape?
I mean hell, serious discussion and thought drives humanity. But when it's all boiled down to short snippets between ads it sort of loses something.
Moral of the story? Read more books and get off my lawn.
It's only when you blindly trust google, or your calculator, or your spoon that you end up stupid (and fat).
Most fat people ARE stupid. Either stupid in the classic sense of being dumb as a rock, or stupid in the helpless sense of everything (especially their obesity) being someone else's fault. Then they wonder why nothing ever changes, further enhancing their stupidity.
Cue the people who prove my point by rushing to their defense to reassure me that they really are as helpless as they believe themselves to be. I got news for you folks, the number of porkers out there is far, far greater than the number of them (a VERY TINY minority) who truly cannot help it due to genetics or thyroid disorders etc. Check the obesity rates of 100 years ago to get an idea of the size of the group who probably really cannot help it, and compare that to the obesity rate today which is primarily cultural and comes from being a follower. Stupid is as stupid does.
Before anyone dings this as a troll, I want them to think - really think. How many smart fat people do you know?
I've tried to think of someone. Really tried to come up with even one example.
I know a ton of fat idiots, but I know no smart fat people.
Having elected George Bush TWICE proves America has already reached the pinnacle of stupidity.