Has the internet turned our youth into morons?

[Christy]

It's a facetious question, because yes it has. It is maddening. I listen to kids all the time having all of these "enlightened" conversations that have 1 snippet of fact, but always omits the full truth, for instance:

"Did you know that women have been banned from bringing feminine products into courthouses in Texas?" This is a true statement, however, the ban came because a bunch of crazy women planned to protest by coming into the courthouse to throw said feminine products in the courtroom.

"The Pledge of Allegiance was created to sell flags". This is also a true statement, however the flags were sold at cost, and the true intent was to promote Amercian patriotism in a time where it was pretty low.

It seems to me that kids want the shock value, and to only see the nefarious in every bit of knowledge that their little minds take in. They completely ignore facts that do not align with the story they want to tell their friends in order to sound smart.

I wonder if we would have been the same way if we had the internet when we were growing up?

 

[vraiblonde]

I wonder if we would have been the same way if we had the internet when we were growing up?

One word:

Hippies.

They didn't need the internet to see the worst in everything America.

When I'd hear someone, young person or not so much, spew some ignorance I used to try and engage them. Discuss the whole issue with all the facts. Now I don't give a damn because they just get combative and loud - they don't want to hear it.

 

[b23hqb]

It has turned millions of adults into bigger morons as well, along with gaming. More than an entire generation have turned away from reality of life through better electronics.

 

[SamSpade]

I wonder if we would have been the same way if we had the internet when we were growing up?

Dunno. I can say though that lots of urban legends and hoaxes were stated as absolute fact back then. Ideas such as the one "Lucy" is based on (we only use 10% of our brain) was just one of those facts that everyone believed. I can remember the type of arguments we had where someone had to run to an encyclopedia or other fact book to end a dumb discussion because someone said something incredibly stupid and refused to believe otherwise (e.g. half of America is black; carbon dioxide is 25% of the atmosphere; the US has around 100 million people - stupid, easily disproved things nowadays).

But I also remember the stage in middle school and high school where you start to question authority. You realize Mom and Dad are just older kids, and they don't know everything, something they react in anger rather than wisdom, and sometimes they're selfish and immature. You learn the United States isn't the righteous nation you grew up believing it was, some things about your religion don't square with your observations - and so on.

In other words - you start to become an adult. The world isn't neatly divided into good guys and bad guys, and people are just people.

The kind of folks who became hippies - and still do, in other forms - they never grow out of adolescence. They sometimes get a LOT smarter, but they reason with the maturity and wisdom of a 12 year old. As an adult, you recognize that lots of things suck - but what's the point in life then? How do I get what I want in life? Do I have to live as though the world owes me, and remain permanently pissed off and paranoid? Life's too short.

 

[MMDad]

Browse around the forum and you'll see that it isn't limited to youth.

 

[MMM_donuts]

The internet has made a lot more information available to a lot more people. What they choose to do with it is their own responsibility. It's not the internet's fault if people continue to act dumb.

 

[SamSpade]

The internet has made a lot more information available to a lot more people. What they choose to do with it is their own responsibility. It's not the internet's fault if people continue to act dumb.

Exactly. The difference between ignorance and stupidity. People choose to be stupid by being intellectually lazy.

It still points to one of my most cited personal axioms, though. You're always being manipulated. If you're dumb enough to believe every phrasing of every fact, then stupid is how you'll go through life.

I remember a long time ago going to some campus Christian group, and many of the newer kids were all ablaze with all these new-found revelations they'd uncovered. One was particularly excited to dispute the Apocrypha - extra-Biblical writings that some churches still use. "And do you know what 'apocrypha' *means*? It means 'false'!"

I told him, no - it means 'hidden' (or obscure). Common USAGE is to call something false 'apocryphal' but the word itself means hidden. He looked at me disbelievingly and walked away. I met many religious types who would sooner believe their leaders than their own research. It's mental laziness, really, and that is the source of stupidity. If he continued to believe that, he was stupid. Prior to meeting me, he was simply ignorant.

 

[GURPS]

It's mental laziness, really, and that is the source of stupidity.
If he continued to believe that, he was stupid. Prior to meeting me, he was simply ignorant.

Every War Needs Cannon Fodder ......

 

[vraiblonde]

I met many religious types who would sooner believe their leaders than their own research. It's mental laziness, really, and that is the source of stupidity.

I think people just believe what they want to believe, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. It may be mental laziness, but I think it's more that they got an idea in their head and now they don't want to admit they might have been wrong or misinformed. I think about my grandmother and her loyalty to Bill Clinton during the impeachment hearings.

He didn't do those things.
Gran, he admitted it.
The Republicans made him say that. He didn't do those things.

That was an actual conversation I had with her. At some point there's no sense in discussing it with them because they will continue to believe what they want to believe, no matter what you say or what evidence you produce.

 

[Toxick]

The internet has made a lot more information available to a lot more people. What they choose to do with it is their own responsibility. It's not the internet's fault if people continue to act dumb.

'Minds me of an observation I've heard, and perhaps have even paraphrased here. But it bears repeating so...


Q: If you could go back in time - say the 1940's or '50's - what revelations would you make to the denizens of that era?

A: I would tell the people that that almost EVERYONE in our time (at least in the developed countries) has access to an unfathomable network of information which literally contains every scrap of amassed knowledge that humankind has acquired, since the beginning of history, and most everyone owns a device or multiple devices which make this information instantly available to us with very little effort putting ALL KNOWLEDGE quite literally at everyone's finger tips.




When their jaws close from that tidbit, I would then hit them with this:

"And we use this unimaginable tool to look at pictures of cats and argue about politics with complete strangers."

 

[vraiblonde]

"And we use this unimaginable tool to look at pictures of cats and argue about politics with complete strangers."

And take pictures of our food. Don't forget that part.

 

[Larry Gude]

The internet has made a lot more information available to a lot more people. What they choose to do with it is their own responsibility. It's not the internet's fault if people continue to act dumb.

'Zachery.


It can NOT be that ready access to more information makes anyone a moron.

 

[Larry Gude]

Browse around the forum and you'll see that it isn't limited to youth.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

It has really seemed to kill problem solving skills.

 

[GWguy]

Ohhhhhhhh... shiney.....

 

[acommondisaster]

I've noticed with the younger generation (ugh that makes me sound as old as I am) that though they have instant access to anything they need the answer to, they generally don't make a move without checking the internet first. How we ever from Plymouth Rock to California without the internet, I'll never know, but it seems my daughter-in-law can't find a store one block off rt 301 without googlemaps. They can't eat out without checking YELP, can't figure out how to do anything without watching a video, first. No such thing as trial and error; we've raised a generation who can't bear the thought of failing at anything.

 

[mamatutu]

I think it has made this generation smarter because of their access to info, but at the same time has made them lazier because it was too easy. Actually, reading a whole book is probably gone with the wind. And, also, reading the internet is not good because so much BS is put out there. So, how does a naïve generation know how to pick and choose? They don't.

 

[GURPS]

not the internet - but the public school system

 

[SG_Player1974]

And take pictures of our food. Don't forget that part.

And take pictures of all the STUFF that we bought our children on Valentine's Day or Easter just so we can prove to the world that we feel good about ourselves and to tell them "Look what I have!"

Pretentious azzholes!

The best ones are the idiots that do this when one of them works at McDonald's and the other is getting a check from Obama! Tell your kids I said "You're Welcome!"