Is the internet making us smarter or dumber?

bungler · 08-01-2011 03:30PM #1

Was in the pub last night and a discussion started about the internet and one of the lads said its all making us thick as planks cause we sit on it for hours looking at crap. So 3 guys agree'd with him and said it is making us dumber.

But

4 of the otehr lads said that since the net has been around they feel it has made them more intelligent and the likes of wikipedia etc is very good for finding out things and learning about new things.

You have to admit been on facebook or just at other stuff ( ahem) obviously is not much use of the brain but on the otehrhand look at home many people come to boards.ie if tehy wish to find something out?

Gonna run a poll to see what you all think.

PeakOutput · 08-01-2011 03:32PM

both

the smart can get smarter and the dumb get dumber

Sisko · 08-01-2011 03:33PM

Neither.

It has however made us vastly more knowledgeable and socially retarded.

08-01-2011 03:33PM

In AH, it's usually never a good idea to put in a silly option - whether it be "meh" or "atari jaguar", the majority of people will always vote for it.

RockinRolla · 08-01-2011 03:36PM

Politicians are trying to censor what you can see on the internet, when you can see it and what you wish to download.

We must stand up against censorship - television is already a lost cause.
If they succeed, then the internet will factually, be making us "dumber".

Zebra3 · 08-01-2011 03:36PM

Is the internet making us smarter or dumber?

You do know what dumb means, yeah?

Aidric · 08-01-2011 03:36PM

It's sure fúcked up the average attention span.

bungler · 08-01-2011 03:36PM

Deleted User wrote: »

In AH, it's usually never a good idea to put in a silly option - whether it be "meh" or "atari jaguar", the majority of people will always vote for it.

The only reason i did it was the last poll i ran on the rubberbandits, a load of people wanted the meh option so shag it i cant win

Fago! · 08-01-2011 03:37PM

I am so smart, I am so smart..... smrt.... I mean smArt!

xoxyx · 08-01-2011 03:41PM

Well we can all talk for hours and sound knowledgeable about things that we don't have the first clue about. Weather / politics / quantum mechanics? Sure we're all armchair experts.

What I do know is it's wreaking havoc on kids' spelling. Lulz!

bungler · 08-01-2011 03:42PM

Zebra3 wrote: »

You do know what dumb means, yeah?

Yes
lacking intelligence or good judgment; stupid; dull-witted.

Can also mean

2.lacking the power of speech (often offensive when applied to humans): a dumb animal.
3. temporarily unable to speak: dumb with astonishment.

4. refraining from any or much speech; silent.

5. made, done, etc., without speech.

6. lacking some usual property, characteristic, etc.

7. performed in pantomime; mimed.

8. Computers . pertaining to the inability to do processing locally: A dumb terminal can input, output, and display data, but cannot process it. Compare intelligent ( def. 4 )

But we all get the jist of the question so we know im not asking can we all speak

Carl Sagan · 08-01-2011 03:44PM

Depends on what being smart is. I'm much more knowledgeable because of the internet, but I can't really apply a lot of that knowledge to anything.

Micky Dolenz · 08-01-2011 03:45PM

I don't understand the question.

Irish Guitarist · 08-01-2011 03:50PM

It's destroyed peoples spelling. The amount of people that think 'alot' is a word is incredible. I'm sure this wouldn't have happened if kids had learned their spelling from books instead of internet forums.

scientific1982 · 08-01-2011 03:51PM

Neither. But everyone should take a step back every once and a while and appreciate just how ****ing amazing the internet is.

Dionysus · 08-01-2011 03:54PM

More knowledgeable on a wider range of things; yes, if you use it wisely. Smarter, definitely not if you're too lazy to do anything else other than hang around discussion fora talking shíte.

If you're using discussion fora to acquire expertise knowledge, or even to occasionally give it, then you're being smart in your use of the internet. Like everything else, how smart you are in your use of the internet comes down to how self-disciplined you're willing to be.

Hank_Jones · 08-01-2011 03:54PM

bungler wrote: »

Yes
lacking intelligence or good judgment; stupid; dull-witted.

Can also mean

2.lacking the power of speech (often offensive when applied to humans): a dumb animal.
3. temporarily unable to speak: dumb with astonishment.

4. refraining from any or much speech; silent.

5. made, done, etc., without speech.

6. lacking some usual property, characteristic, etc.

7. performed in pantomime; mimed.

8. Computers . pertaining to the inability to do processing locally: A dumb terminal can input, output, and display data, but cannot process it. Compare intelligent ( def. 4 )

But we all get the jist of the question so we know im not asking can we all speak

Should there be a 1. in there somewhere?

Seems a bit weird to start at 2.

Dionysus · 08-01-2011 03:55PM

Aidric wrote: »

It's sure fúcked up the average attention span.

This, x infinity squared.

bungler · 08-01-2011 03:56PM

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Should there be a 1. in there somewhere?

Seems a bit weird to start at 2.

1.

There ya go

Sorry i left it out of the very first part. Point proven the tinternet has made me dumb

Dionysus · 08-01-2011 03:59PM

xoxyx wrote: »

What I do know is it's wreaking havoc on kids' spelling. Lulz!

And this, and that includes the big kids on Boards.ie who refuse to see the red lines under the words they type, otherwise known as the very useful in-built spellchecker.

You're = you are.
Your = possessive case; your coat etc.

charlemont · 08-01-2011 03:59PM

Makes us **** more.........

kerryman12 · 08-01-2011 04:01PM

dont think it has made any real differance, its just a tool. And like any tool its how people choose to use it.

bobbytables · 08-01-2011 04:01PM

I had a mate that couldn't see any potential in anything unless someone hand held him and spelled out the benefits of engaging right now in front of him. About 10 years ago he considered forwarding stupid chain letters and pre-LOLcat imagery via email the sum of all uses.

In the last 10 years he has advanced on to Facebook.

The Internet is a resource available to all of us here. It can be used for many purposes. Saying the Internet is making people stupid is like saying all Film is a waste of time when all you watch is mindless rubbish.

Some people just don't want to see it beyond that, which is a completely different matter.

Meh, my 2c

Dionysus · 08-01-2011 04:02PM

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

It's destroyed peoples spelling. The amount of people that think 'alot' is a word is incredible. I'm sure this wouldn't have happened if kids had learned their spelling from books instead of internet forums.

And there's absolutely no excuse for it on this website. I've typed in "alot" here and a red line appears under it to tell me it's incorrect.

PS: It's always a 'number' of people; 'amount' of produce etc

Fago! · 08-01-2011 04:04PM

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

I don't understand the question.

There's yer answer OP

KylieWyley · 08-01-2011 04:13PM

The internet has had a detrimental effect on the average person's IQ / attention span / grammar / spelling / social interaction with others . . . ?

Pfft, next they'll be telling us frontal lobotomies make us dumber :rolleyes:

Latchy · 08-01-2011 04:14PM

Aidric wrote: »

It's sure fúcked up the average attention span.

Sisko wrote: »

Neither.

It has however made us vastly more knowledgeable and socially retarded.

^ These .

I would be the first to admit I have not paid as much attention to what somebody might have being saying to me while I've being typing away ... staring at a machine ffs . The internet has in some way devauled face to face human interaction and interesting conversation .

As for making us smarter or dumber ? I would say we are more informed than ever in human history but I find reading a book far more interesting , easy to absorb and relaxing than reading long text off the screen .

Sending / recieving texts ,overdosing on our digi /phone cameras and adding to our already overcrowded friends list on facebook ,twitter ,skype etc , we in the main are far to over- reliant on technology .

cleremy jarkson · 08-01-2011 04:15PM

I think the instant gratification it provides facilitates the growth of depression, which causes people not be as mentally sharp as they once were...but that's for the depression thread..

Common as... · 08-01-2011 04:25PM

Dionysus wrote: »

And there's absolutely no excuse for it on this website. I've typed in "alot" here and a red line appears under it to tell me it's incorrect

Eh? I ain't got that much needed red line

bobbytables · 08-01-2011 04:27PM

I agree that the way we interact with the Internet can and is having negative effects on society.

E.g. When we look at web pages, we don't read, we scan. Our eyes don't jump around like that when we read books. I am a software developer so I spend a lot of time in front of code, and the scan method applies here also.

So when I try to read a book, I often get frustrated at the pace by which I can interpret what I'm reading. I want to hop about the place. I think this is a terrible thing, because I still read books, but have noticed the change in my patience for the process of reading every word in every line in even a few pages of a book has declined significantly.

IMO this is not the Internet's fault but rather the evolution of how we interact with it and related technology.

bobbytables · 08-01-2011 04:31PM

Common as... wrote: »

Eh? I ain't got that much needed red line

its a browser feature. Its not boards.ie that's doing it, it depends what browser and/or features you have enabled.

Is the internet making us smarter or dumber?

Is the internet making us smarter or dumber? 79 votes

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