You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Are we really smarter or dumber than we were a 100 years ago?
I'm torn. While true the average person probably would miss many of those questions. And it's true people don't know their senators or their state capitols. It's sad. In the US they know this president.
But what about the progress we have made since then? Space Travel , quantum physics, nuclear power and bombs for good or bad that stuff takes smarts. Robotics etc. etc.
The tech these days makes it so easy to look something up people rarely bother to know something. It is a quandary. And social media is... the real source of dumbing down of people. I am not sure we are less intelligent but perhaps were not schooled as well as in the past, unless your going to Harvard or Yale.
Good post got me thinking!
True. There have been quite lot of great achievements since then. Those, however, came from a select few who chose to use these new and advanced sources of knowledge for the benefit and improvement of society. Those who stood out from the crows and refuse follow the norms. They had passion for something, they learnt as much as they could about it, and then made their stamp on the world.
Plus, something being easy can in itself cause a problem. If you think you don't need to work too hard to achieve a goal, laziness creeps in the door. Why study math when I have a calculator? Why study history when I can look it up on google? Why pay attention when it is so easy to find the information later? Well, tech is just a tool and without the proper understanding of how the tool is to be used, tech can be more of a danger to oneself than an aid.
Think of how many people self medicate nowadays because they saw something on the internet, instead of getting proper medical advice. Of course, there is a possibility what the person read was genuine, but a lot of times not. On the other hand, the same information in hands of someone knowledgable in the field can only improve the person's skill and there ability to give healthcare.