This connects directly to the media. Because the media is so accessible, people do not need to work hard to learn new things. It is an example of something we have developed from stick tools I guess. Even 15 years ago people had to go to the libraries to research things. Now we can just go to Questia and have access to 8 million reliable sources. This is even more useful than a library! As a result, students might not work as hard. I don't think we know how to appreciate how much we have. Back in the 90's, if some body wanted to know the average length of a sloth, they would have to ride their bike all the way to the library to learn. Now I can look it up within a matter of seconds. (The answer is 17-31 inches by the way). This has many connections with the Frontline documentary Digital Media. It talked a little about how kids these days think less because they have access to so much information. A critical thinker has to know how to research. On the internet there are many, many sources. Not all of them are reliable. Teenagers today don't think through the consequences of using the first source that pops up. It might not be that they are getting dumber, but they might be getting their information for the wrong sources because they don't have to work for it. Solutions to this vary. One could be that we eliminate all technology on the face of the Earth and live like cave men again. Then, the survival instincts will kick in again and we can evolve or brains some more. This seems super unethical right, however, and I am really comfortable sitting under my roof. A more reasonable one might be to educate people on the dangers of research and media. Or we could just accept that our brains will slowly turn to mush. I mean there no harm if we are happy, right?
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Humans Becoming Dumber
Our generation experiences much more brain stimulation than previous human generations. Ads create colorful distractions, microwaves heat our food without fire, and we can talk to people within seconds that are hundred of miles away. It is easy for us to see earlier generations, for example the 17th century, as stupider. Lots of history classes focus on all the faults of the past. It might give students bad impressions on our past and thinking of them as less intelligent. This is proving not to be the case however. Stanford did a study that concluded we have less of a survival motive so we are evoking to be less dependent and stupider Stanford Study-TIME. With this logic, the human intelligence actually peaked before our ancestors left Africa. Our technology surge has caused our lives to become much easier. We have things at the touch of a button and the media has transformed communication. Because of all these simplifications, we have lost the need to survive which propelled our intelligence. When all of our actions were fueled by the need to eat and breath, we acted faster and more urgency. After we got the whole survival thing down, we started to evolve or tools and such. After centuries and centuries of this improving, most humans can live with ease. With the loss of motivation, we have stopped evolution our brains. This is a theory researchers are still developing, but the facts seem legit to me.
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This is of course people who can afford this technology, although many are introduced to it, other parts of the world may not have an IPhone. Yet many Westerners can be considered the most brilliant people in the world, like Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, two creators of two very high-tech companies. I do understand what you are saying, as instead of reading a novel we have in Ms. Heitz, people might as well read sparknotes the period right before a plot test.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, ancient humans must have been pretty smart. They basically figured how to use natural selection to improve their agriculture without knowing anything about DNA or mutations and developed languages from scratch.
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