are people getting stupider

[Kl4pp5tuhl]

I disagree . The population is growing thus the potential for stupid people grows . And since it's harder to be "not stupid" than to be stupid , thus unbalancing the ratio of stupid to "not stupid" , in favor of stupid.

Not to mention, you also have to add that due to some countries trashing their own school systems lately with either budget cuts or inefficient teaching methods, they increase the amount of "mentally challenged" people for years to come.

 

[Jenvas1306]

the internet, the electronic super highway of information... so people thought, but soon it was used for porn and kitten pictures.
Nowadays thats what makes up most of it and it is a representation of the human need to fill the void with nonsense, so we wont think of our all inevitable fate - Death

 

[Ashadowpie]

sadly yes, yes we are. a middle aged woman once asked me " if a male dog had sex with a human woman, would she get pregnant?" it was a serious question and it made my brain bleed. of course i said " No, we're completely different species" she then stated " sperm is sperm, its all the same thing "
this again made my brain bleed and she is deemed stupid in my books now. this amazingly enough was in Canada where there are EDUCATED PEOPLE! and she was in her 30's! my god.

if we could interbreed with animals we'd have dog people, cat people, elephant people, fish people, this place would be...well probably the worst place ever. unless all these half humans had the same brain as normal humans. it would just be a huge Furry happy land.

i dont think i'd want my cat to be my accountant.

 

[PotatoLord]

People aren't getting stupider. As a whole, we are getting smarter. The internet, however, has made it significantly easier for people to do stupid things in front of a global audience.

 

[Murais]

Yes.

Panic.


...

No. We live in an age of information where knowledge and learning are far more accessible than they have ever been in the past (Y'know, because the only people going to higher education are not rich white men). And it really wouldn't matter if we were, anyway. Contrast is a beautiful thing, and there is no notion of intelligent without a notion of unintelligent. There may be interesting notions of "better," but homogeneity is just as detrimental as negative qualities.

Embrace difference. It's your friend.

 

[AngloDoom]

No.

Most people in the Western World now have access to the internet and, therefore, near-limitless information. Everyone now asks Dr. Google if they don't know something instead of shrugging it off if it really bugs them.

If anything we're getting more intelligent and people are just seemingly getting more snobbish.

 

[Zen Bard]

Yes. Most definitely. I'd attribute it to three things:

1) Reliance on Technology - With the information age there's really not much reason to "know" anything anymore. If you want to find a certain piece of information you can just "Google" it or consult your Smartphone.

I've been out of school for a long time, so you young whippersnappers confirm or deny this: But I've heard that when students do a report on something, they just do a search, cut and paste it from the website and (sometimes) edit it for flow. That might fulfill the report requirement, but you don't LEARN something just by regurgitating information.

2) Failure of the Education System - I can't speak for our friends in Europe, if this is a localized view I'm happy to be corrected). But here in America, our education system is a known problem. It's steeped to heavily in politics, out-dated scoring and metrics (which in turn determine funding for public schools) and an incredibly biased tenure system. With all these factors in play, actually educating students becomes a low priority.

3) The Heard Mentality - Stupid people have always flocked in droves. But now with so much information so readily available, dangerously stupid ideas can be delivered literally at the speed of light. Any one can find a group or community that supports any crazy idea. And people think "Well if all these people believe it, it must be true." There used to at least be some kind of filter of control for the dissemination of information that came from some kind of credible source.

Now days, any idiot can lead the heard. The example of "actress" Jenny McCarthy comes to mind. After doing "research" on the internet this idiot "determined" the childhood inoculations cause autism. She went on to write two books about it with millions of people subscribing to her idea. Ms. McCarthy, I should point out, has no formal background, training or education in the medical field.

 

[darkfox85]

No. People are getting smarter each year. Only utter snobs think the ?plebs? are getting stupider.

 

[Zen Toombs]

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

Au contraire, dearest Will. Humanity has actually been steadily GAINING intelligence [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect]. However, they've been less successful in gaining in strength and speed, so your dominance over them should still be assured.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Nope, things are the same as they've ever been. For every Stephen Fry and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, for every Stephen Hawking or Michio Haku, we've got dozens of wasted college kids videotaping themselves doing stupid dares, or bored teens who figure a decent incline is all you need to make a good snowboard ramp.

The Internet just makes it incredibly easy for stupid shit to reach a wider audience. People notice it, they crave their fifteen minutes of fame, so they figure that doing something recklessly "awesome" will give them the couple extra hundred views we seem to be measuring individual worth by, nowadays.

Look at the difference in numbers between, say, TED talks and the average amount of Fail videos you'll find on YouTube. That speaks pretty clearly. People enjoy watching stupid shit.

 

[funkyjiveturkey]

no offense, but if you're going to talk about stupid people it usually helps to spell and punctuate properly. not calling you stupid or anything, but it's rather detrimental to your point.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

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

I actually side with Hawkes on this issue: He says that the shrinking of the brain is actually because it's becoming more advanced. It's like an Ipad Mini next to an Ipad: Both do the exact same thing, one's just tighter packed.

OT: No, actually, I think people are getting smarter, it's just that they're loosing common sense.

 

[MidnightSt]

I've got two hypothesis:
a) no, they're not, it's just you know (of) more of them thanks to mass-media
b) kind of - it's getting more extreme, the standard "average" is disappearing and there's more above-average intelligent people as well as more very stupid people.

the first one is true, I'm just not sure to what degree, and whether it leaves any room (and how much) for the effects of the second (which I'm unsure is even happening, but it's hard not to think it is).

 

[Frotality]

no, its just that the information age has not only allowed easy access to stupidity around the world that previous generations had no way of seeing, but also provided instant, easy access to information people used to actually have to get out of bed to learn. that kind of ease of access makes a very lazy and apathetic brain.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

No, this is more like the end result of people having cameras and being able to share it with the world. Do you honestly think you'd feel the world's getting stupider if only a few people had cameras and there was no such thing as the internet?

 

[bug_of_war]

I don't think we're getting stupid, but we're evolving to deal with the way our lives work now. Use to be we needed to know how to hunt and live off the land, now we have relatively safe and easy lives, so we're not so focused on self preservation but more on entertainment (mainly entertaining ourselves).

 

[Not Matt]

no. the morons have always been there. the idea of putting them on screen and giving them attention is what's new. personally, i blame MTV for about 30% of the shitheadification of the population. 50% on the internet and 10% on fox news and another 10% on a wide variety of other places. in the good old days the idiots where kept in the dark where they couldn't bother the rest of u. now we are parading them around like they are gods. makes you think, how are the real idiots, us or them ? (answer: them, we're just incredibly easy to impress) class dismissed.

 

[aceman67]

I work retail. I see new forms of stupidity day in and day out, yes. People are getting more stupid as time goes on.

 

[teebeeohh]

people are getting smarter, smart people just don't upload the stupid shit they do to youtube(at least not as much) thus dumb people are more visible.

 

[JochemHippie]

*Are people getting more stupid?

...
I guess that should've tipped me off, but regardless. No, people are apparently getting more intelligent each generation, doesn't mean they become wiser though