I've been reading a study on this and I find it completely fascinating. There are basically two views on where the current generations stand compared to generations past and where the future generations will stand in general intelligence.
View 1: The current and future generations are (are going to be) more intelligent simply due to the complexity and wealth of current information. This basically asserts that we are learning more information faster than previous generations, and that we are learning things that are more complex than or previously unknown to previous generations. While I find that this is, in fact, the case it does not guarantee that our generations are actually retaining information. The flaw in this is that we have to receive the information and then retain it for future use. Without retention, we are not learning anything, and thus intelligence will be mediocre at best. However, if they were to retain information such that references are minimized then intelligence will generally be far higher than past generations. Another con that I find in this view is that while we are learning information faster it puts a large strain on the students to study all the time and abandon social life altogether. Parents are no help when it comes to this, and they push their kids even harder. This can lead even the smartest of students into a life of laziness where they are free from the otherworldly pressure (post-graduation of high school usually).
View 2: Books. What are your thoughts on them? According to several United States studies the reading of books has decreased by approximately 17% among 18-24 year old people over the past 20 years. This does not mean that younger people are not reading, it just means that they are not reading books. Students who were given a survey honestly spoke and said that the internet had replaced books in just about all facets. The internet normally would not be a problem, if younger people were able to retain the same information they would from books and newspapers. However, this has turned out not to be the case. According to a survey of 17,000 students teens are more likely able to tell you who the last American Idol was than who the Speaker of the House is. A large majority of students would fail a general Citizenship Test (should one have been made, this was based on accepted question pools for a proposed Citizenship Test). Even more would score low or average on an intelligence test based on general intelligence but score abnormally high on an intelligence test based on popular culture. I think the reason that this is the case is because the internet can be easily referenced at just about any time. With such a convenient resource, why would you have to retain any information at all? Just go back to the internet. With books, however, you wouldn't want to read them over and over and over just for one piece of information, would you? You'd read it maybe two or three times and be done with it, for the information would stick.
The digital age will bring in idiots the likes of which we have never witnessed. Idiocracy may be a reality if it keeps up.
What do you think?
04-04-2011, 11:10 AM
sunnyside
Re: Idiots in the Future?
There's a saying that goes
"If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid."
And I think that applies here. It is increasingly becoming more useful to know how to quickly locate accurate information, as opposed to remembering a small subset of that information off the top of your head.
And while it is very important in democracies for the people to have a solid understanding of politics, it is of negligable use to an individual. Similarly while many Americans have shockingly low knowledge of international geography, this is also information they would never need in their personal lives.
That said, I think that we may be giving too much credit to past generations. I have my doubts that a significantly higher percentage of the population could have named the speaker of the house in times past or done any better with international geography.
04-04-2011, 11:42 AM
Kusuke
Re: Idiots in the Future?
You're right about quickly locating accurate information. As a physicist it is imperative that we have access to information at the shortest notice (just as an example). I also agree that when you get down to specifics people may do generally less than those who specialize in it.
The problem is that with the quick reference of GENERAL information it is proposed that people do not feel the need to retain it since it is readily available. Of course that would call into question the necessity of the information in daily life, but retaining information in general develops intelligence and learning.
Is quick reference worth the cost of development it may have provided? Even if we didn't need the information (for example, fiction books), it helps us develop, especially at a young age.
04-04-2011, 01:22 PM
Nesh
Re: Idiots in the Future?
If that happens let's pray the world doesn't turn up side down!
04-04-2011, 05:37 PM
Nene-Chan
Re: Idiots in the Future?
There are idiots now, and unfortunatly idiots in the future.
04-04-2011, 05:39 PM
Wio
Re: Idiots in the Future?
For the most part, you learn what you need to know whether you want to or not. Areas of knowledge change in value depending on the individual. More often than not, people who throw around terms like idiot are simply trying to insult an individual or a collective rather than be constructive.
04-04-2011, 05:41 PM
Skilero
Re: Idiots in the Future?
The internet and technology are used to fulfill one's intentions to a degree that would be very unattainable under normal circumstances. As one explores the internet more and more, their true intentions are cast upon that technology and amplified to varying amounts. The problem with this is that the majority of young people have intentions that stray from real-world knowledge. In effect, pop culture's trivialities are thrown unto a person's conscience, among other things like updating a profile on a social network, and their awareness of themselves in the 'real world' is unchanged, no less worse, from before.
As for the retention of information: It cannot be successful so long as the youth of a country have technology at their fingertips like Americans do.
04-04-2011, 05:42 PM
Hanamaru Kunikida
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Idiots will always exist as long as idiots keep reproducing more idiots.
04-04-2011, 05:44 PM
I A
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Internet is part of evolution, I hate how people criticize how much we use technology. Does that mean we should hate how we now use cars and not horses and stoves instead of campfires? No. Same with books, we went from internet to books, and people are mad. But we also went from old scrolls & ink to pencils and books, and I don't see many people wining about that.
Face it, internet text is just normal evolution from books, same as everything else.
04-04-2011, 05:55 PM
animeyay
Re: Idiots in the Future?
I don't think internet and technology should be blamed for the current situation, although whether the situation mentioned by OP is malignant or not is still a big debate all by itself.
Take the example in OP. I don't think knowing the speaker of the house is considered "smarter" than knowing the winner of a variety show. It's just a different focus/specialization taken by the retainer of the information. Sure, if you know a lot about the government or other more "serious" business, then you may be considered "learned" or "in the loop", but this should not mean that someone without that knowledge is automatically an "idiot".
To me, this is just an inevitable shift of culture and emphasis. I won't call it an advancement or degradation yet, since no one knows exactly how the future generation will turn out, and I'm not sure if anyone will ever find out, because no one can live long enough to witness a cultural shift in its entirety.
04-04-2011, 05:55 PM
Skilero
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by DemonSlayerThe3rd
Internet is part of evolution, I hate how people criticize how much we use technology. Does that mean we should hate how we now use cars and not horses and stoves instead of campfires? No. Same with books, we went from internet to books, and people are mad. But we also went from old scrolls & ink to pencils and books, and I don't see many people wining about that.
Face it, internet text is just normal evolution from books, same as everything else.
To make things easier for those who don't understand the point DemonSlayer is trying to make here, I'll describe the internet as if it were a book.
THE INTERNET
With a search engine table of contents on Page 1
With porn on Pages 2-57
With the government watching you from here
With message boards on Pages 58-64
With information on science, math, language, and other courses (often fueled with misinformation) Pages 65-72
Japan Pages 73-76
With randomized cultural references switched out every seven years Page 77-78
With a "notes" page full of doodling on page 79
With random information at pages 80-81
04-04-2011, 06:01 PM
Light Buster
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sasorikiller
To make things easier for those who don't understand the point DemonSlayer is trying to make here, I'll describe the internet as if it were a book.
THE INTERNET
With a search engine table of contents on Page 1
With porn on Pages 2-57
With the government watching you from here
With message boards on Pages 58-64
With information on science, math, language, and other courses (often fueled with misinformation) Pages 65-72
Japan Pages 73-76
With randomized cultural references switched out every seven years Page 77-78
With a "notes" page full of doodling on page 79
With random information at pages 80-81
So basically, we can't live without internet? (Actually, there are some who can but very little of them exist or maybe I haven't met them.)
04-04-2011, 06:09 PM
Jewunit
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sasorikiller
As for the retention of information: It cannot be successful so long as the youth of a country have technology at their fingertips like Americans do.
That would be a contradiction. Technology is what has helped man turn into what it is now. It has helped us "evolve" in a sense. It's helped our understanding of How & Why.... Technology has NOT met it's carrying capacity for helping us. It one seems this way because we can only compare what we have now to the past and not the future.
I know that when you use the term technology you're only referring to things such as Computers, Cell Phones, etc.... However, it's such broader than that. Plumbing, electricity, heating etc all fit in this category as well...
04-04-2011, 08:00 PM
blueangel06661
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewunit
That would be a contradiction. Technology is what has helped man turn into what it is now. It has helped us "evolve" in a sense. It's helped our understanding of How & Why.... Technology has NOT met it's carrying capacity for helping us. It one seems this way because we can only compare what we have now to the past and not the future.
I know that when you use the term technology you're only referring to things such as Computers, Cell Phones, etc.... However, it's such broader than that. Plumbing, electricity, heating etc all fit in this category as well...
Coming from the newest idiot of our forum x.x
If you want to get all technical okay. How many people know how to cook since the invention of the microwave? How many people can navigate without a GPS? By piecing together the position of the stars.. sun.. and moon in correlation to their position? The amount of younger generations learning cursive is declining as everything is done on computers. They seem to forget important documents are signed signatures not printed. I'm amazed people even remember how to tie their shoe.. x.x
04-04-2011, 08:12 PM
Hanamaru Kunikida
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Light Buster
So basically, we can't live without internet? (Actually, there are some who can but very little of them exist or maybe I haven't met them.)
There's a lot of people that can live without the Internet.....
04-04-2011, 08:26 PM
Anoleis
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
That would be a contradiction.
No, it wouldn't be a contradiction. Learn to define words before using them.
I agree with sunnyside.
Quote:
There's a lot of people that can live without the Internet.....
Even more startling is that there are people who can live with dial-up. Just thinking about it gives me nightmares.
04-04-2011, 08:27 PM
GameGeeks
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaitou+
There's a lot of people that can live without the Internet.....
Just like there are even more that don't HAVE the Internet or even know what it is. GASP!
04-04-2011, 08:32 PM
Hanamaru Kunikida
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Totally bro, Lite Booster is just a silly man =3
I mean, there's a lot that of things that can replace the internet alone.
04-04-2011, 08:33 PM
blueangel06661
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Something.. replace the internet??..... o.o you mean go out into that vast world outside...? all.. alone.... forever alone... :[
04-04-2011, 08:39 PM
Hanamaru Kunikida
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Am I suppose to crack a laugh to that?
04-04-2011, 08:40 PM
blueangel06661
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaitou+
am i suppose to crack a laugh to that?
yes you were.. So effing laugh already.
04-04-2011, 08:41 PM
GameGeeks
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueangel06661
Something.. replace the internet??..... o.o you mean go out into that vast world outside...? all.. alone.... forever alone... :[
No, not alone, you'll have a toothbrush and Mr. Bun Bun your teddy bear.
04-04-2011, 09:19 PM
Skilero
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewunit
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sasorikiller
As for the retention of information: It cannot be successful so long as the youth of a country have technology at their fingertips like Americans do.
That would be a contradiction. Technology is what has helped man turn into what it is now. It has helped us "evolve" in a sense. It's helped our understanding of How & Why.... Technology has NOT met it's carrying capacity for helping us. It one seems this way because we can only compare what we have now to the past and not the future.
I know that when you use the term technology you're only referring to things such as Computers, Cell Phones, etc.... However, it's such broader than that. Plumbing, electricity, heating etc all fit in this category as well...
We've evolved so much that the retention of information is much harder than ever before because of the fact that the way American youth uses technology is a practice that, as I'd said in the below spoiler, causes for a negative result on the enduser's awareness of themselves in the real world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sasorikiller
The problem with this is that the majority of young people have intentions that stray from real-world knowledge. In effect, pop culture's trivialities are thrown unto a person's conscience, among other things like updating a profile on a social network, and their awareness of themselves in the 'real world' is unchanged, no less worse, from before.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewunit
Technology has NOT met it's carrying capacity for helping us.
Where do I say this? I said "It cannot be successful so long as the youth of a country have technology at their fingertips like Americans do", not "It cannot be successful because the youth of America has technology at its fingertips."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewunit
I know that when you use the term technology you're only referring to things such as Computers, Cell Phones, etc.... However, it's such broader than that.
I'm not trying to quotebash you here, but I think you should acknowledge:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bing Dictionary
techˇnolˇoˇgy (n): sum of practical knowledge: the sum of a society's or culture's practical knowledge, especially with reference to its material culture
04-04-2011, 10:31 PM
Kusuke
Re: Idiots in the Future?
I'll try to clarify a few things I saw in the posts here. It seems like the title wasn't clear enough.
In this study, I am merely talking about general intelligence. Just because someone is completely culturally literate does not mean they are considered intelligent based on the standards we have set (If you wish to debate the intelligence tests, go somewhere else...). Also, I would argue that being really smart in pop culture will get you nowhere.
As for the idiot thing, I only gave it that title to make the thread interesting to people. I know that it is a derogatory term and that it is used as an insult, I intended it as such.
Even if technology isn't to blame, I see the generations that will come after mine. While the intelligent ones are VERY intelligent, it seems like there are way more that are hitting intelligence LOWS than are hitting HIGHS. Studies confirm that when students are asked to participate in surveys with topics that pertain to information that you have been force taught your entire pre-college years there is a majority in those who score low, this shows a problem with information retention as the numbers have dropped over the last 10 years. Of course this could be a problem with too much stress from family and school so the student burns out and no longer cares about school. I address more than just the internet. View 1 is about the student being pushed over an "edge" psychologically where they no longer wish to learn.
Also, I agree with @DemonSlayerThe3rd with the evolution of books, however, the internet is hardly used for books when you only consider the demographic of 14-24 year old people. Though those who are accustomed to reading books jump on the opportunity to have a large collection on a portable "bookshelf". I believe that the internet will be the most viable replacement for books, but that it has not yet replaced books.
04-04-2011, 10:44 PM
Skylar1
Re: Idiots in the Future?
Intelligence isn't just any one thing. I often feel that people stereotype and misrepresent what intelligence actually is.
there's different information, and usefulness vary depending on the context and situation.
I'm pretty sure the guy making the blueprints for new home constructions isn't going to really utilize the differentiations of various genetically diverse deep-sea creatures. Sure, always nice to be aware, but it's not really going to do much for him with regards to the task at hand.
So, is intelligence just simply what you know and how to apply it? I don't think that's the whole picture either. There's a difference between knowing something and -understanding- what you know. what's the MEANING behind the information you've learned? the brain works by means of analogy, connecting dis-similar things "this" and "that" and finding some idea or construction between the two. What emerges from this marriage of thought, is comprehension; a NEW idea.
I, personally, would gauge intelligence based on the factors of it's amount, implementation, and effectiveness* of implementation.
*by this we'll define effectiveness by how easy for the individual to connect unparalleled information in a novel way, and how long it takes to do such.
With regard to the OP, this is just my guess, but with the advent of the internet, you're going to find higher peaks, and deeper troughs of intelligence, with a small minority floating somewhere in the middle whom utilize what they need to know to do what they need to get done.