Has the internet made us dumber or smarter?

Texan6533 said:
Just like any other resource, it’s a double edged sword that can be used for good or evil.
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..or in this case for smart or dumb, it arguebly has created more of a contrast as people have greater choice over the culture/content they consume.
 
It's made us smarter but less informed.

When i was growing up in the 80's and 90's, you couldn't just look up shit about the Roman empire, how to do a supply and demand graph, or how to fix/build things. You had to go to a library or have someone teach you. When your garage door quit working, you couldn't just watch a YouTube video on how to fix it. If someone started talking about surety bonds, you couldn't just read Wikipedia after the conversation to understand what they were talking about. We have instant access to so much information.

Problem is that the Internet is becoming more and more censored in regards to news or controversial information.
Search engines will almost correct your thinking and guide you to sources that may not be accurate. If you Google something like "black men more violent," the first thing that will pop up will be something about how that's not true, and also how it's racist to think that or that it's because of white people. Also, if you try to look up stats on a taboo subject like that, they're far more difficult to gain access to than they were 15 years ago. If you type in something like "gay people are hard to work with," you will be directed to sources that will correct your thinking that will attempt to educate you as to why it's more difficult for gay men and women in the work force and thinking otherwise is wrong. This type of stuff is new in that just 10 years ago you would have been directed to conversations on forums or articles about why gay people are often a headache to work with. Current events and news are even worse with this shit. Try looking up some shit about a controversial shooting and you'll get force fed some ultra left wing propaganda and have to sift through it to actually gather any real information. In many cases even video footage is already edited to conceal the truth. I say this as someone that's left leaning.
 
i think both

we are smarter in crystallized knowledge that is we can access anything and find accumulated data/facts since everything is at our disposal

i think we are a little lazier in our expectation, therefore our fluid knowledge (ability to think, reason) is declining
 
It’s made everyone smarter, but it’s also made the loudest people louder. So, what you get is a lot of assholes with megaphones, drowning everything else out at times of you dip into the new mainstream media (twitter, Spotify, high volume polemic sites).

Probably around 2006-2008 you were getting the most unadulterated benefit from the availability of information. Social media overtaking everything else interferes with that, as has the rise in paywalls, so now there’s more information out there but to get to it you either need to pay or sift through a mountain of commentary to find it.
 
Gracious Warrior said:
We had this debate in class today. It was very lively and thought provoking.

My sense is that the internet has made us dumber but more informed, if that's possible.

We know a lot more about culture and current events, but most of the thinking we used to do now gets done by our smart phones. In other words, we know a lot more stuff but have a reduced capacity to think critically about it.
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Its made us more intelligent in a technical aspect for now, but is ruining us creatively and making us less original. Also we are relying too much on the internet for answers and not flexing our brain muscles enough, therefore I believe itll be our downfall in the long run. Humans need to think. The net makes it so we dont have to think. Just type, search, find the answers you were looking for.
 
Much, much stupider. All kids of information just a couple clicks away, with little idea of how to evaluate or assess it.
 
blitzk said:
just based on what I see here on Sherdog, I'd say dumber.
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Coming from a guy who seems to understand literally nothing based on his name and av i will add one point to the "internet-is-ok" list.

Thank you for your input, @blitzk .
 
It hasn't made us any dumber or smarter. We are the same. After the development of information bubbles we've become a lot more tribal and subject to confirmation bias. That's part of why I read war room posts, to hear opinions and ideas I won't get in my info bubble.
 
Smarter for sure. It raises the baseline, even if the baseline is low for some people
 
Depends on the person. When I was growing up I always had questions, but none of the dumbass adults in my life knew shit about anything. So it was off to the library every time I wanted to learn something. So I've found it extremely informative.
 
plenty of idiots spreading misinformation because they saw a meme isn’t making anyone smarter. pretty cool that I can replace the headers of a 350 small block or cook a perfect filet mignon if I want to so it’s a bit of both
 
Both. It has made us smarter and more informed. It has also made us lazy and more inclined to find echo chambers with people who agree with whatever crap you think.
 
Gracious Warrior said:
We had this debate in class today. It was very lively and thought provoking.

My sense is that the internet has made us dumber but more informed, if that's possible.

We know a lot more about culture and current events, but most of the thinking we used to do now gets done by our smart phones. In other words, we know a lot more stuff but have a reduced capacity to think critically about it.
Click to expand...

People that grew up with the internet are dumber. People who struggled with life before the internet, but now have access to it are likely smarter because of it.
 
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