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  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

the internet... is it making us smarter or dumberererer?

I think it can be beneficial to people, yet hinder them as well.

For example, due to debilitating depression during my later years of high school, I flunked and never had the oppurtunity to go to University. I wanted to study Literature and history. The internet made it very easy to access the world of literature through sites such as amazon.com, wikipedia, etc. Sure, I could have gone to the library and enquired about these things. In the end though the internet is far easier to use to find this sort of information. So I can still satisfy my curiousity of these subjects until I am able to study them at a later date.

On the other hand, my old boss was an overweight, grumpy piece of shit. He would play World of Warcraft 50+ hrs a week. To me, that is the shitty side of the internet: The addiction to games which adds little, if nothing to a persons life.
 
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eggman88888 said:
I see it like most things; you get out what you put in
On the other hand, if you approach it with the attitude of "I am going to educate myself" then you can make yourself smarter. Finishing a university degree or short course by distance education is a good example of how the Internet can be extremely valuable when it comes to making someone smarter. Researching topics with some consequence is another. Try reading diverse journal or newspaper articles and take its a step further by carrying out additional research into those topics or words that you perhaps did not understand
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I did a semester of External Uni in 05'. Two subjects... Distinctions in both. I think I used the local library and the Uni (3.5 hours drive away) library two or three times, the rest was internet based.

I spent most of my time on the databases searching for and downloading research papers. Fantastic tool and quoting and referencing papers from reputable journals looks great in an essay and is highly sought after by the markers.

I have every research paper done on The Wollemi Pine, its great. So much contradictory stuff online but the research papers are the real deal baby. :)

:D
 
I love the internerd!

People at work think I'm the biggest geek simply for the fact that if I want information I go straight to the internet. This says more about them than it does me. I'm a product of my generation and while I'm old enough to have been around during the times of MS DOS, the internet was only a simple step up in knowledge....or part of the same knowledge, when it first came to my classroom.

As everyone else has said, its merely a tool - but one that exposes you to everyone in the world...so really, you take from it what you will....its all down to the individual. For me I think its made me smarter - or more resourceful and thorough actually. Like lostpunk said, its great to know I have so much knowledge just a mouse click away. And I don't buy the bad spelling online bullshit....if anything it's made my spelling better cos if I don't know how to spell something it only takes two seconds to find the answer. My grammar, on the other hand is terrible. ;)

The internerd in 10 years has opened the door to almost the entire collection of human knowledge.....stupidity and ignorance is simply inexcusable now more than ever before!
 
People who want to seek out information will always do it, by whatever means there is. For those who love to expand their knowledge, the internet has been an amazing tool, but equally there's been a proliferation of misinformation and utter crap.

The smartness is there for the taking... but not everyone wants to take it.
 
I have been "on" the net since about 1994 (not as long as a few other people I know) and -- despite the prolific misinformation & such, I would take it anyday, anytime and anywhere over CNN and other corporate news outlets. Most "news" is opinion anyway, and I prefer a true democratic selection over some pre-selected, prefiltered garbage.

Also, IMO the net has the capability of truly beefing up intelligence, via the necessity to filter/process massive volumes of information to get to the 'good stuff'. To put it another way, the Net hones one's bullshit detector to a sharp edge.
 
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To reword muzbys concern: The internet as a medium has more easily accessible information but it has also given more idiots a voice

Its a two-edged sword and as with most thing its a choice made by the individual. Narrow minded, intolerant, people now have access to more like-minded opinions to reinforce their fragile ideologies. Hungry, open minds have access to a wealth of opinions and raw data that they can then build very sophisticated world views on.

There is a very interesting theory called the technological singularity which is the idea that the evolution of mankind will accelerate to be near infinite through technological advancement. Global knowledge systems (such as the the internet) are an essential part of that evolution. I think thats a good thing :\

DoctorShop said:
On the other hand, my old boss was an overweight, grumpy piece of shit. He would play World of Warcraft 50+ hrs a week. To me, that is the shitty side of the internet: The addiction to games which adds little, if nothing to a persons life.
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Some people will do the same with tv which is a completely passive, non-interactive medium (only slightly better than taking a bunch of chems and happily staring at the ceiling). Games challenge you in a variety of ways: spatial reasoning, reflexes, problem solving, concentration, imagination, creatively and in WoWs case also socially. Obviously moderation is required though
 
Does the internet make us smarter? No. However on a whole I think the internet makes us less nieve. People formulate opinions based on information and in the past people could only rely on a small number of news organisations to get information about certain issues. The internet has opened people up to a multitude of different viewpoints. Intelligence is something we are born with so maybe the question should be more, "does the internet make us more open, or closed minded?"
 
so maybe the question should be more, "does the internet make us more open, or closed minded?"
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i agree

and thinks it all depends on the way a persons brain is built. i know i've learned a lot reading articles and reviews and overviews of things online and it has taught me more than any other form of education would. for me, it's because i can choose what i want to learn and obsess over it if need be, just as long as it is my choice, which leads back to the close-minded part
once you become obsessed with only certain ideals you hold dear, and don't accept any other's youre definitely a candidate for close-mindedness
 
I think it all depends on what you're looking up, and how credible it is.I'm definitely making myself dumbererer with the crap I look up.Now I'm going to watch Powerthirst on YouTube again,it kicks so much arse :D
 
The potential to learn more about the world is there in more a more easily accessible format than it ever has been at any other point in our past...but it's up to the individual as to how they choose to use that resource.

People at my work seem to think I'm the go-to guy when it comes to finding out whether their latest email cry for help is a hoax or not, and while it flatters my ego to think that it's because of my vast intellectual superiority, it's really just because I'm the only person in the room who can be bothered going to google and typing in 12 year old Botswanian girl brain tumor hoax to see whether it's been debunked yet...

The internet is just a resource and a tool. It's up to individual people how they choose to use that tool. :)
 
Raz said:
I'm the only person in the room who can be bothered going to google and typing in 12 year old Botswanian girl brain tumor hoax to see whether it's been debunked yet...
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I did just that Raz and I got nothing!

Your search - 12 year old Botswanian girl brain tumor hoax - did not match any documents.

Google was nice enough to offer me the following helpful suggestions though

Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
Try different keywords.
Try more general keywords.
Try fewer keywords.

=D
 
^ It must be for reals then! Send it on, otherwise you'll get the arse cancer or seven years of no sex or something something.
 
katmeow said:
^ It must be for reals then! Send it on, otherwise you'll get the arse cancer or seven years of no sex or something something.
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so thats how both of those happend to me :( ;)
 
m4dd0g said:
To reword muzbys concern: The internet as a medium has more easily accessible information but it has also given more idiots a voice
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thats why i keep you around!! :) :) :D :D <3
 
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