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Posted: Aug 07 2009 07:04 pm

a while ago i had a small rant on how i feel stupider because of the internet:

username wrote:

realizing that technology is making me dumber. take cel phones for example. when i was younger, i would be able to remember numbers upon numbers without any trouble. nowadays, i just save it to my cel phone and thats that. so, if my cel phone dies and im in a strange place, im basically stranded and dead.

not only are cel phones making me dumber, so is google. back in the day, if i didnt know something, i would research it for hours. nowadays, i just google it and usually find the answer in seconds. and if i forget what i was looking up, i can just google it again.

and my grammar is going out the window the more time i spend online. but thats been apparent to everyone who reads my posts

apparently, this guy feels the same way:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

anyone else feel the same way?

Posted: Aug 07 2009 07:08 pm

I believe a replied to your other post, but yes.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

I think being on the internet maybe makes you not care, or go about something differently. It doesn't make you stupid though, being stupid is what makes you stupid.

Posted: Aug 07 2009 09:11 pm

The internet doesn't really make people stupid, the worst it does is make people display terrible grammar and/or ignore the presence of the shift key.

Posted: Aug 07 2009 09:41 pm

Ba'al wrote:

The internet doesn't really make people stupid, the worst it does is make people display terrible grammar and/or ignore the presence of the shift key.

i am guilty of both. Duh.

Posted: Aug 08 2009 01:19 am

The internet doesn't make you stupid, it just makes your stupidity more accesible to others.

Posted: Aug 08 2009 12:42 pm

Thorinair wrote:

The internet doesn't make you stupid, it just makes your stupidity more accesible to others.

I concur with this.

I don't think the internet makes me or anyone else stupid. I've known smart people who use Facebook, and that's saying something.

Posted: Aug 08 2009 01:08 pm

well, if you read that blog entry in the link i posted, it basically indicates we have more ADD nowadays and we are becoming lazier. and usually stupid people are just lazy.

Quote:

I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets’reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. (Unlike footnotes, to which they’re sometimes likened, hyperlinks don’t merely point to related works; they propel you toward them.)

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Yeah I read the article and all it seems to do is blame the internet, a non tangible object, instead of the user. The simple fact that you can recognize that there is an issue means you have the ability to do something about it and writing an article ON THE INTERNET isn't the solution. If you think you spend too much time on the internet and it is messing with your life then spend less time on the internet. If you have some dependency on the internet then go see a psychologists.

As I said the internet doesn't make you stupid, being stupid does. And if you are stupid don't spend too much time on the internet.

Posted: Aug 08 2009 03:42 pm

Just wait until the internet is integrated into everyone's brain hundreds of years from now (maybe less?).

Then we will all be super-intelligent, in a sense telepathic, and have no need for school anymore. What then??

Posted: Aug 08 2009 04:29 pm

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

Yeah I read the article and all it seems to do is blame the internet, a non tangible object, instead of the user. The simple fact that you can recognize that there is an issue means you have the ability to do something about it and writing an article ON THE INTERNET isn't the solution. If you think you spend too much time on the internet and it is messing with your life then spend less time on the internet. If you have some dependency on the internet then go see a psychologists.

As I said the internet doesn't make you stupid, being stupid does. And if you are stupid don't spend too much time on the internet.

fair enough

i guess i wont be on the forums for a while This Is A Joke

Posted: Aug 08 2009 05:31 pm

Posted: Aug 08 2009 09:37 pm

I care about my spelling on forums. I try to use proper grammar as well but that does not always work out.

I remember when I first got online in 1996 I'd search for stuff in a very specific way. I'd try to use complete sentences when searching. Now with Google I will search with more of a shorthand approach.

For example if I know what I'm looking for, say a Star Trek freeware game and I know the name I'll type in "Star Trek freeware and then the title." Often my searches are even more basic than that in wording. If I want Star Trek freeware for Windows I'll most likely type in "Windows Star Trek Freeware." Back in 1996 I'd be more likely to say "Star Trek Freeware For Windows."

I don't see a huge difference in my search habits but I do notice myself slightly simplifying the searches.

Posted: Aug 08 2009 09:38 pm

Wait, you are supposed to do things with strawberries BESIDES put them on your nipples??

Posted: Aug 08 2009 11:39 pm

I use bing.

Posted: Aug 09 2009 12:36 am

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

... If you have some dependency on the internet then go see a psychologists.

I respectfully disagree. Going to a psychologist should only be done as a last resort IMO*. If somebody has a serious addiction to the internet, I would highly recommend getting a new hobby that doesn't involve the computer at all. Becoming physically active is a good one (working out at the gym, jogging at the beach or some nature trail, etc.), because if you spend too much time on the internet you most likely aren't getting enough physical activity and that is dangerous.

* That sentence proves I'm not a Scientologist, hah!

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Dii Infer wrote:

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

... If you have some dependency on the internet then go see a psychologists.

I respectfully disagree. Going to a psychologist should only be done as a last resort IMO*. If somebody has a serious addiction to the internet, I would highly recommend getting a new hobby that doesn't involve the computer at all. Becoming physically active is a good one (working out at the gym, jogging at the beach or some nature trail, etc.), because if you spend too much time on the internet you most likely aren't getting enough physical activity and that is dangerous.

* That sentence proves I'm not a Scientologist, hah!

Well I meant if it was a serious dependency with like withdrawal syndromes

Posted: Aug 09 2009 12:12 pm

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

Dii Infer wrote:

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

... If you have some dependency on the internet then go see a psychologists.

I respectfully disagree. Going to a psychologist should only be done as a last resort IMO*. If somebody has a serious addiction to the internet, I would highly recommend getting a new hobby that doesn't involve the computer at all. Becoming physically active is a good one (working out at the gym, jogging at the beach or some nature trail, etc.), because if you spend too much time on the internet you most likely aren't getting enough physical activity and that is dangerous.

* That sentence proves I'm not a Scientologist, hah!

Well I meant if it was a serious dependency with like withdrawal syndromes

withdrawal symptoms from lack of internet? never heard of them, but if you do go thru those, then yes, you definitely need some help

Posted: Aug 11 2009 05:20 pm

....and McDonald's is making us fat, right?

I disagree. Laziness and stupidity make people fat and stupid. Not fast food or the internet.

Joined: Jul 19 2009 Location: England Posts: 91

I think it definitely makes people lazy, but you can't really blame them when the Internet makes certain things a whole lot easier and accessable these days. Stupidity has always existed though.

Also, whilst I always have to type in my best grammer (I wont claim to be perfect in that area though, this post itself probably has more flaws than I know of) and prefer that others do so, it doesn't instantly make them stupid if they don't. I know some pretty smart people in real life who, if your saw the emails they send to me, you'd think were your average teen commenting on a youtube video. Some people just don't find grammer important on the net.

Posted: Aug 11 2009 11:37 pm

The internet doesn't make people stupider, per se, it just gives the muted stupid an explosively loud voice.

Couple that with the Instant Gratification mindset. Who teh fcuk ahs tiem for splelcehck naymroe?

Posted: Aug 14 2009 06:01 am

its actually there... even the internet thinks its making you stupid.... but what is stupidity, i would define it as a lack of motivation to learn universally known things, however someone who is incapable of learning isn't necessarily dumb

i could choose not to learn my national anthem.... that makes me dumb, because I'm too lazy to learn it(just an example I'm not a retard)

however someone who has poor memory, or learning disabilities or even struggles with language skills is not dumb just disadvantaged

a retard isnt dumb there retarded..... i dont know im goin off on a tangent

just my 2 cents

of course there is this

google is watching you, your emails, and your search terms, that's even scarier... i mean i search weird shit all the time, even fucked up things that without the proper context could be misconstrued as completely fucked up to an outside observer, so fuck you google, you dont know WHY i searched what i searched, just that i searched it, which could look damaging to me and other people

oh ya fuck there, their, and they're, ya FUCK THEM Mad