Slashdot Mirror
Does the Internet Make Humanity Smarter Or Dumber?
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?"
> What do you think?
I think false dichotomies make good headlines.
Does the Internet Make Humanity Smarter Or Dumber?
I tire of constantly pushing the idea that the internet is a double edged sword. It liberates you to pursue your desires whether they be learning, information, socializing, games or porn. In this liberating spirit, I claim it is possibly the greatest revolution yet in regards to information.
... time management for people has been an issue going all the way back through human history. Why must we stop now and act like 100% of our time must be spent on the internet playing Farmville?
Now it's just your choice to use it as you desire. And anyone who says they will only ever use it for something like learning is flat out liar and, frankly, missing the point of the internet. I waste time on the internet and I am productive on the internet. Use the full spectrum of the internet and you'll get the most out of it as what it is: a tool. The choice is yours
My work here is dung.
It changes the way a person thinks.
Instead of worrying about retention of specific knowledge, I find myself caring more about how to find information again if I should need it. I've been treating the Internet like an extended memory bank. It certainly adds to my humility and (by extension) my critical thinking skills that it takes only a few seconds with Google to demonstrate the inferiority of my personal knowledge and experience on any issue. Questioning your convictions on any topic often leads to a new way of looking at things.
Dedicating a moment's thought to it, I don't believe the Internet can make a person dumber, but it can contribute to intellectual laziness - being convinced that the answer is out there if you care enough to look for it could conceivably make you less likely to try to figure something out for yourself.
The land shall stone them with the bread of his son.
Mark Twain once said of newspapers: "If you don't read a newspaper you are uninformed. If you DO read a newspaper, you are misinformed." The internet works the same way.
Arguing on slashdot makes you ________.
Um, taller?
Those people announcing breaking news due to chain email would have been the same ones telling you aliens landed in the next county because their cousin knows a guy who knows a guy.....
They have always been here, and the internet has no effect on them. It didn't create them. But it quickly helps you prove them wrong.
More importantly, the net helps us access knowledge quickly, meaning we don't have to know tons of unrelated facts, all we have to know is where to find those facts.
That used to require trips to the libraries. Now its the Net.
The net teaches us to be very good at discerning bullshit from true facts, which is a valuable thing.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I would disagree and say that *on average* it has made people smarter. Instead of having to go to the public library, it is faster to find information, do research and get answers. More importantly, it allows people to get multiple answers quickly to compare.
As to those that it is making dumber: If not for the internet, they would have been watching TV anyway. Some people can't wait to graduate high school, because then they can "quit learning", and they succeed in every way. Before TV, there were plenty of other opportunities to "do nothing", or at least, nothing worthwhile. Those people wouldn't learn new things even if they lived inside the Library of Congress.
As for regular people, or those with a thirst for knowledge, it has accelerated their ability to find answers and make it more entertaining and less of a drudgery (ie: faster to search in a browser than a card catalog, AND find the books, AND the right page...) I can't tell you how many times that I have looked something up, then found an interesting link, and ended up learning about some tangent idea as well. Yes, I did the same pre-internet, but net has allowed me to do this regularly, as in depth as I care for, and from many sources. At 45, I watch much less TV than 20 years ago, and spend a great deal of time learning, simply because it is fun and easy to do. I can't be alone in this.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
It certainly draws your attention as to just how many dumb people there are!
Let us consider two cases:
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".