Are people dumbing down?

I mean from my personal experience many people are impatient, have short attention spans and follow the latest circlejerk. Does anyone think for them self anymore? This pertains to America since I live there. I dunno about other places

Lack of patience and not thinking for oneself isn't actually anything new, as humanity has always been that way. We're just more aware of these things and their scale because of how fast information can move in the age of the television and internet and social media. Can apply to a lot things that seem like they're getting worse really.

Though that doesn't necessarily mean that humanity is not getting dumber, although I imagine that there are arguments that that's not the case, or that it's even getting smarter.

May depend on how one defines "smart" and "dumb" too.

Human nature hasn't changed. we're not getting stupider or smarter in either direction as a species or as a society. The trouble is that technology has moved at an extremely fast pace, faster than our biology or society is able to cope with.

The problem with misinformation on the internet for example, is that it always spreads before we find ways to control it that don't infringe on anyone's freedoms.

The problem isn't our attention spans, our brains are still built the same way. It's that we have grown used to instant gratification so we now expect the same.

That being said, I think despite these glitches along the way, we're ultimately way better off because of the advantages these advancements have given us. The positives outweight the negatives by far and the issues people see aren't society getting stupider, it's technology moving faster than we're prepared for and I personally feel we're improving on that.

From what I've learned, as much as technology has enriched us, it can occasionally dumb us down. Not that it creates new problems, but it does leave our humanity hanging in the balance at times - what with fake news, dementia risks related to blue light coming from our screens at night, et al. Technology is always evolving, and we might as well usher it along, although that may also raise more questions than it answers (I doubt we'll ever see a worldwide takeover by robots in the future, though).

The best to do is to be informed (And vote informed!), but you also shouldn't let blue lights come from your screen after sunset. If it helps, most PCs and laptops have an accessibility function that gradually takes away blue colors in time with the sunset, allowing more natural melatonin production even while you're on the computer.

If anything has changed in people recently, it is the ratio of people who are fundamentally convicted. Even then, that is debatable, as one could argue that the advent of the internet has only enhanced the reach of fundamentalists and that they seem louder and more omnipresent than they really are.

As has always been the case with fundamentalists, they aren?t at all dumb, ?lost?, or any other dismissive adjective you could lodge. Their problem has more to do with their system of trust being completely uprooted and mangled all to hell. They can reason just as well as everyone else but fat lot of good it does if they don?t trust you because you share different opinions on the subject.

If you?re concerned about misinformation, it is being accelerated the same as all other information online. There is no sensible way for other people to stop this ? everyone will have to reckon with thinking for themselves and verifying sources on matters they care about. A good example of doing that would be to find and verify that Celebrity A actually said something by finding a recording of them saying it, or a blog post they wrote, instead of believing what a secondary source said they said.

Anvils Alive said:

From what I've learned, as much as technology has enriched us, it can occasionally dumb us down. Not that it creates new problems, but it does leave our humanity hanging in the balance at times - what with fake news, dementia risks related to blue light coming from our screens at night, et al. Technology is always evolving, and we might as well usher it along, although that may also raise more questions than it answers (I doubt we'll ever see a worldwide takeover by robots in the future, though).

The best to do is to be informed (And vote informed!), but you also shouldn't let blue lights come from your screen after sunset. If it helps, most PCs and laptops have an accessibility function that gradually takes away blue colors in time with the sunset, allowing more natural melatonin production even while you're on the computer.

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Speaking of misinformation. That blue light thing sounded a little iffy so I did a quick bit of research. It looks to me that it's not blue light that can increase chances of dementia but a lack of sleep. If having light from a screen is keeping you awake it might increase your chances of developing dementia but otherwise it shouldn't have negative effects.

In fact, blue light used in forms of light therapy is actually used to help alleviate symptoms in Alzheimer's patients with dementia. https://www.alzheimers.net/2014-02-24/blue-light-helps-alzheimers/

Humans have always been like that. I studied Classics and this guy called Suetonius wrote biographies of political figures and it?s looked back on as being great classic literature but it was basically the equivalent of a tabloid newspaper with slander and juicy gossip and stories about people that are just made up.

Also everyone thinks of Shakespeare as being an amazing poet and playwright but the amount of dick jokes and other puerile humour in there is unreal. He was writing for popular entertainment.

I don?t think we?re anymore dumb than we ever were it?s just more visible now.

Hoenlad said:

Humans have always been like that. I studied Classics and this guy called Suetonius wrote biographies of political figures and it?s looked back on as being great classic literature but it was basically the equivalent of a tabloid newspaper with slander and juicy gossip and stories about people that are just made up.

Also everyone thinks of Shakespeare as being an amazing poet and playwright but the amount of dick jokes and other puerile humour in there is unreal. He was writing for popular entertainment.

I don?t think we?re anymore dumb than we ever were it?s just more visible now.

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Hey, dick jokes rock...yah pleb.

But in all seriousness, yeah human behaviour "while I can say has changes" hasn't what I'd call ascended to a level I can deem as "less dumb" or "more dumb". I do think social media and the fast pace of modern times gives more opportunities and ample situations for this dumbness to shine in all its "You tried star" glory, but overall all I don't think the tools themselves have quote on quote "dumbed us down"

As it's already been mentioned, it's just more visible. However, I will add that not everyone is cut from the same cloth and the knowledge that "Hey this human doesn't think like me" is much easier to access as well as view compared to the past eras. This has pros and cons, but can add to the perspective that "Hey this person is just dumb" when we don't know their life per say, or experiences. I mean, I won't throw out the possibility they would be dumb, but at the same time humans as a species have made stupid decisions and the flaws I don't see changing, which is okay so long as it's kept in checks and balances.

I dont think people following trends, necessarily makes them stupid

Not much has changed beyond continued adjustments to different environments. We have more time than ever with numerous inventions taking care time consuming tasks but we also have a lot more to do and more information to keep up with.

strangerhypno said:

I mean from my personal experience many people are impatient, have short attention spans and follow the latest circlejerk. Does anyone think for them self anymore? This pertains to America since I live there. I dunno about other places

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You pretty much described how I feel about using sites like Smogon for Pokemon battling.

I feel like perhaps in terms of attention span the general populace of (at least the OECD (and the like) countries) has significantly gone down but as a whole no I don't think people are dumbing down. The world is more interconnected than it has ever been and people exchange ideas at fascinating rates. People are going to school for longer and tertiary education is on an upward trend as well.

All that being said I think language has gotten simpler, but I think that's for the better for the exchange of ideas.