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Does the Internet Make Humanity Smarter Or Dumber?

Posted by Soulskill on from the it-sure-does dept.

Nemilar writes "The Wall Street Journal is running a pair of articles asking whether the Internet is making humanity smarter or dumber. The argument for smarter is that the Internet is simply a change in the rules of publishing, and that the bad material is thrown away; the second story critiques the 'information overload' aspect of the Internet, claiming that we have traded depth of knowledge for velocity and span. What do you think? Does the Internet make you stupid?"

1 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Comparisons by Aggrav8d · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let us consider two cases:

    • what life was like before TV/the internet
    • what life is like since TV/the internet

    What have we gained as a direct result of these technologies? What have we lost?

    Is it worth it?

    I remember being told to play outside all day - back when we could do that without sunscreen and without getting burned. It used to be that I had to make a plan and stick with it if I was going to meet a friend - I couldn't call them when I got to the place and THEN figure out where they were waiting. I didn't used to be a slave to the byzantine contract or incessant needs of my portable phone (that probably isn't giving me cancer). I imagine libraries were a lot more popular, living rooms were centered around conversations or musical instruments, and if you couldn't sleep you could listen to live performances on the radio. To name just a few examples.

    What have we gained? Well, the space on my desk that used to be for a rolodex/business cards is now taken up with Arduinos & servos. My girlfriend sits up in bed and watches Glee on her iPad instead of finishing her cross stitch. Pinging the hivemind to solve a technical query is pretty damn awesome. uh... everything else I can think of is probably a negative.

    So while I haven't definitively made up my mind, I feel like the evidence I am aware of leans towards "worse off".