are people getting stupider

[thesilentman]

So, my question to you...

Um, the videos are sensational. They're there to get a reaction out of you. Ignore them, I will say.

Also, OP; you're going to have to be clear here. There's a huge difference between legitimately stupid and common sense stupid. A good number of us are common sense stupid. Not excessively, but common sense stupid.

If you're talking about legitimately stupid, it depends on what you're talking about. Because I can say for a fact that when I try to talk common sense technology things (simple computer security and such) with people, no one has any idea what I'm talking about. Yeah, even people my age; odd considering that we're the generation that's supposed to learn technology the fastest.

... And I just realized that your statement is MASSIVELY subjective. Of course a Grandmaster (rated above 2300) at chess is going to think that a player who's rated at 1000 is an idiot, because they have that knowledge. Someone closer to the 1000 rated player is OBVIOUSLY going to think that they play well, but not a Grandmaster.

So, yeah. You're going to have to specify what stupid constitutes as, and realize that your statement is subjective.

 

[Fijiman]

I've been noticing that for years. It almost doesn't surprise me anymore.

 

[Loonyyy]

Nope. Last I checked, comparatively, IQ has been rising. It's called the Flynn effect or so I gather from a quick look.

And, it's not as if your selection of videos is representative. Pre-internet, it was kind of difficult to find all of the stupidity.

And your spelling and grammar are entirely terrible, which I wouldn't usually care about, except you're criticising the intelligence of others.

While Idiocracy was hilarious, it's not actually likely, since people aren't "Devolving" or getting "stupider", in fact the evidence suggests otherwise (Which makes the film ignorant to an extent, which undercuts the point somewhat).

Although, thinking about that makes me think that you're trying to be ironic by posting a post about stupidity, which is illiterate, poorly reasoned, and ignorant. Well played sir.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

So, my question to you is, is the general population just getting even stupider buy the minute.

Naw, people have always been that stupid.

The internet merely allows them to demonstrate it in the most obvious way possible. The stupidity has always been there, we just couldn't see it as clearly as we do now. ^^

 

[Lonewolfm16]

I direct your attention to the Flynn effect. No, there were always idiots, and unless humanity perfects genetic engineering and applies it universally to the populous, there will always be idiots. Simple as that. As people have said, idiocy has always existed, we just now have unlimited access to it. Sort-of like how the internet has made it possible to find very obscure information easily. I would say cultural shifts are positive overall.

 

[lacktheknack]

This all reminds me of the "Millionaires Gambit".

Basically, three girls screwed around with Garageband because they were bored. The result was a pretty terrible amateur "pop song" that they thought was entertaining enough to call "I Like Money" and put on Youtube (the name is foreshadowing).

The internet saw. And it hated. And it turned its seething and wretched mass towards those girls and began to vomit.

So the girls saw the fury aimed at them. So they pulled together and formed a band, "Millionaires", and they started putting out mediocre-to-good dance songs with abysmal lyrical content. The girls acted dumb, looked dumb and sounded dumb. All the songs where about partying until you puked, as well as boasting about how great they were. The internet pointed its finger and began to scream obscenity after obscenity. The views on the videos grew and grew until they were in the millions. While the vocal technique left much to be desired, the base dance track was good enough to begin drawing actual fans from the incoming wave of people who were brought there by others telling them how bad it was. Soon, the Millionaires used the masterstroke of trolling the haters almost non-stop with nasty-looking people complaining about them ruining music in their videos, as well as addressing them directly.

Soon, they were asked to perform live for MTV, and now had record deals. They continued trolling and performing, raising real money.

One of the girls immediately started channeling the money to pay for her mathematics degree.

The end.

TL;DComprehend: No, people aren't getting stupider. They're capitalizing on you thinking that by drawing you in to watch them.

See how the second and third videos have little ads that appear after five or ten seconds? Every time someone watches the video (such as you, and a couple dozen in this thread), he gets a bit more money. You have directly put money into his pocketbook by watching and linking those videos.

No, he is not stupid. He's capitalistic.

 

[Edguy]

The majority of "dumb" people on YouTube are just trolling you for ad money.

That said, evolution has been broken for centuries. Smart, successful people have less children than dumb, uneducated and ignorant people. I predict a split.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

It's not that people are getting dumber, it's just with the internet etc that those few really dumb people can be heard by everyone now.

So no, it isn't, it just has the appearance of doing so.

 

[kortin]

No people aren't getting stupider, it's just getting easier to make your opinion and thoughts known to a large amount of people.

 

[Rigs83]

Technically yes. Human brain size has shrunk in the last 20,000 or so. Read this http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/25-modern-humans-smart-why-brain-shrinking

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

As people have said, it's more the easy access to content that was otherwise not available. Let's just blame the Internet.

 

[II2]

OT: I'd say yes, both the number of stupid people as well as the level of stupidity of certain individuals. Heck I saw this video of someone who believed they could become super saiyan.

Here it is


Good god what a tard.

Haha, that's the first time I've seen this. He's got way too much quaint, derpy spirit to be offensive, though. It works on some combination of childlike belief and determination that's vaugely endearing. Genuine, in it's dafy sincerity.

The raging ginger kid, on the other hand, I just find caustic and hateful. While it wouldn't really *improve* matters, I hope it's just a pathetic act put on in a cynical attempt to draw attention to a monetized account; my greater contempt would be if he was genuine - and isn't that a depressing thought.

This all reminds me of the "Millionaires Gambit".

Basically, three girls screwed around with Garageband because they were bored. The result was a pretty terrible amateur "pop song" that they thought was entertaining enough to call "I Like Money" and put on Youtube (the name is foreshadowing).

The internet saw. And it hated. And it turned its seething and wretched mass towards those girls and began to vomit.

So the girls saw the fury aimed at them. So they pulled together and formed a band, "Millionaires", and they started putting out mediocre-to-good dance songs with abysmal lyrical content. The girls acted dumb, looked dumb and sounded dumb. All the songs where about partying until you puked, as well as boasting about how great they were. The internet pointed its finger and began to scream obscenity after obscenity. The views on the videos grew and grew until they were in the millions. While the vocal technique left much to be desired, the base dance track was good enough to begin drawing actual fans from the incoming wave of people who were brought there by others telling them how bad it was. Soon, the Millionaires used the masterstroke of trolling the haters almost non-stop with nasty-looking people complaining about them ruining music in their videos, as well as addressing them directly.

Soon, they were asked to perform live for MTV, and now had record deals. They continued trolling and performing, raising real money.

One of the girls immediately started channeling the money to pay for her mathematics degree.

The end.

While I never took to their music, for fairly common reasons, I always liked the Millionaires, as a the vehicle for the girls involved and as a kind of weird post modern, sell-out-from-nothing look at manufactured starlettes and the logical 'pornographic' version of the 'erotica' themes sold as pop music.

I liked what they had to say, even if the tone of how they said it was grating. Besides, I find it hard to dislike attractive, brainy girls who know how to play a clever hand. I felt they actually offered a commentary of the nature of their work, with their work. They're probably the most McLuhan-ist girl band I've ever seen and that makes me smile.

 

[Altorin]

it's easier to see stupid people being stupid now, and the bar for intelligence has raised now that most people have finished high school and have some college education, so the bright people of the past who were the ones who finished high school are now the dumb losers (myself included)

I'd say on the whole people are getting smarter, not dumber.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

No I think people have always been stupid, it's just because, thanks to the Internet, we're so much more aware of that stupidity than ever before.

 

[Filiecs]

Stupid people tend to be louder, demand attention, and often get attention BECAUSE they are so stupid. As such, we hear about stupid people much more often than we hear about people being smart. Think about it this way, when one person does something stupid and becomes internet famous their name is written down in the internet history books.
However, when hundreds of smart scientists discover a breakthrough with the LHC or create a new technology the only thing we remember is the invention and not the scientists behind said invention. If you were to compare the amount of people that have made intelligent decisions or helped humanity is some way (even if that way is by simply not hindering the intelligent actions of people) you'd probably find that the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

 

[lacktheknack]

Technically yes. Human brain size has shrunk in the last 20,000 or so. Read this http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/25-modern-humans-smart-why-brain-shrinking

That very article points out that 1. our brains have actually gotten BIGGER in the last two centuries, probably because of nutrition, 2. the referenced expert thinks that our rapidly shrinking brains is a sign of us getting more intelligent, and 3. the most notable change in behavior from a physically smaller brain is reduced aggression, not a notable change in intelligence.

Try again?

 

[FavouriteDream]

Not at all. The average person today knows a huge amount of knowledge compared with any other time in human history.

 

[Olas]

2 of those videos have over half a million views. The people who filmed them are probably earning money from them right now. Oh, and they only took minutes to film.

And you call that stupidity?

 

[Yopaz]

So, my question to you is, is the general population just getting even stupider buy the minute.

Buy the minute? You are making a bad case for yourself here... Also when you write the plural of a word you don't need an apostrophe. One Asian several Asians. That Asian's shopping = That Asian is shopping. I'm not usually a grammar Nazi, but given the subject I find this relevant. Also Jews have been defined as a race in the past because they were against converting. The only way to be a Jew was to have a mother who was Jewish. Because of that there is some confusion around Jews being a race or not.

OT: Youtube is not a place to use as a valid source for a social study. I have learned a lot from videos about biochemistry, biologic processes, chemical processes and physics through watching videos on the side. However anyone can make a video these days and anyone can upload it. There will be some stupid people who has figured out how it works and the comments show us that there are enough idiots watching the videos.

Now we also need to define stupidity in order to have a proper discussion. Is it enough to have stupid opinions to be conceived as stupid? Do stupid things that has entertainment value? Not be able to get grades at average or above in school or IQ test scores?

The internet has made it easier to see stupidity, not only because it's more visible. I can say things that are down right wrong or stupid at times on the internet that I wouldn't say offline. When I am on the internet I'm not as smart as when I am at work or school. It's also harder to miss jokes on the internet. Me and my friends have really stupid discussions where we're both acting stupid. Anyone who knows me will understand that it's a joke, but on the internet I might just look stupid.

I have already written a great wall of text here and having just woken up I am guessing it's all stupid and pointless, but in short I think we're getting smarter. Yes, I see some stupidity on the internet, but how many stupid people do I know? 2 or 3 possibly.