I don't think we are getting dumber. I just think covid kind of made us mentally stunned for a while and then the USA election happen. People don't know if they're going to have money . Since I don't think it a generational problem it's younger voice being drowned out by elders who say we know best and better for you.
We're not getting dumber. We're getting less alive. In Adam Gidwitz's Max in the House of Spies, there is a 3 page speech about living life and how failure is better than lying around doing nothing. I think all people need to read it; they need the reminder that life is meant to be lived.
You raise some pretty interesting issues in today's entry which I believe we should be aware of especially since AI has started taking over a significant part of our lives in all areas. In my opinion, it is quite difficult to decide whether we should focus on AI's benefits or its potentially harmful side effects. I mean on the one hand, yes, our brain's capabilities can be extended with the help of Chat GPT for example, but on the other hand, we become overly dependent on it and, as a result, we don't even try to think, create or solve problems ourselves. It's because of this attitude of conformity that we don't think critically, develop emotional intelligence and other soft (or even academic) skills and desperately try to fit in with the masses by letting those perfect faces and bodies persuade us to aim for perfection too, like you said!
Parent POV here. I liken what a child "needs" to the butterfly-leaving-the-chrysalis experience. If a butterfly doesn't have the pressure of going through a tiny opening, fluid will not get pumped to its wings, and not only will the wings not expand, the butterfly will die shortly thereafter, having never flown. When I compliment our son - now 25 - I try to use observable reality. Like saying "my hard-working young man" or "I love how much you help me, thank you". Keeping it "real" not only grounds him in what he is succeeding at, observably, measurably, tangibly, but it points him to things that matter like character over fleeting aspects like beauty. Of course I'm his mom so I can get away with calling him handsome once in a while (I always say he gets the handsome from his father and the red hair from me), after which we both laugh and acknowledge my bias :-)
I think people are getting dumber and smarter. I think smarter in developing new technology, medical research, and even more progressive than like sixty years ago. (Also, more people would criticize ultra traditional attitudes today and speak out against it than before.)
People are "dumber" not necessarily just in academics (there's nuance there tbh. Like where I live, the public schools suck and there's no genuine emphasis on learning, just dumps of homework with nothing making sense. Others may have learning disabilities which don't make them "dumb" at all. Unfortunately, teachers and parents don't accommodate to their needs and force them to be the level of everyone else. It's why I feel defensive when people automatically assume CHILDREN are dumb when they have no control over the adults that are supposed to raise and teach them and how many indirectly lump those who learn differently in the dumb category.) But also people avoid certain issues or want to erase history because it makes them feel bad. They drown themselves in anything to avoid a painful reality and I think that's when people are becoming tone deaf and ignorant. And IF they try to speak on issues, then they just parrot social media shorts rather than do their own research or have a desire to care.
It's like, "oh, I don't want to talk about violence or starvation because those things make me upset" and "this shouldn't be taught because it involved historical genocide or racism" but these things are REAL and other human beings suffer this way. Ignoring it makes People dumber and softer in the wrong way.
Perhaps it's a generational thing, but your musings reminded me of a Star Trek TOS theme that appears in several episodes (and has reappeared in a lot of stuff since)... a society that became so advanced, where technology took over so much of the everyday aspects of life, that the population forgot how to do things on their own... even how to repair and maintain the technology their forebears had invented. That leaves them vulnerable to autocracy by those who DO know how to program their technological lifelines. The results are, predictably, frightening.
I don't see how you cannot reach the conclusion we're getting dumber and more vulnerable to these 1960s nightmares. We have 'educated' generations that need machines to do basic math, like counting change and calculators to multiply and divide. We don't learn the basics of our own governmental functioning, and our attention spans have been trained to be so short we cannot concentrate for more than a few seconds before becoming bored. We're easily led astray by leaders who have learned that if they lie and repeat the same lie over and over, no one will believe the facts anymore. Our educational institutions are bullied into teaching only approved subjects, eliminating the truths of our own history, and independent thought, research, and evaluation is increasingly considered 'elitist' and 'radical.'
It's that gap between the time where propaganda can spread a faulty message and the time where the facts push back -- in that period is where all the damage is done. There's a lag on truth.
I think it's really complicated. My mom is a grade 6 teacher and every years she has a few students who are not at a grade 6 level. Young students are being sent into the next grade even if they haven't gained an understanding of the content, so they end up in classes where they have no idea what is going on and they just have to struggle along. They are being kept in the same grade because it is important for kids to be around other kids their age, however, when you don't understand anything going on in class there is probably a higher chance that you'll get picked on for being dumb. So basically kids are being put into classrooms where they don't understand what they're being taught and they don't have many friends. There is also the struggle that when teachers have those students that are at a lower grade level, the only way they can help that student is to give them their own work to do, which means double the planning for the teacher. I don't think people are getting dumber, I think people are struggling to find the balance of how to deal with kids who have a more difficult time with the content... You're also right about parents getting involved, they don't want their kids to be struggling when those kids have been placed in an environment where they are going to struggle, so they try to find was to work around it. Did technology (specifically social media) make things worse? Of course. But kids aren't being given a chance. My Mom isn't allowed to fail any of her students even if they are really struggling and wouldn't be ready for the next grade. So are people getting dumber or are they not being given the chance to become smarter?
I think it's the absence of chances to really dig in and find a way of learning that works for them. We shortcut routes to guaranteed success instead of letting failure actually be a way to find new, more fulfilling routes to success.
So much this! One of the best things anyone did for me was make me take piano lessons. I have a learning disorder that makes fine motor skills and other things hard, and even though I took lessons for 8 years I can't play a thing. BUT it trained my brain in ways I can't even begin to understand. Now of course my brain is much less used to doing hard things than it was then, but I'm glad I had that while I did, while my brain was developing.
That's how we filled time back then... learning skills we'd abandon later. BUT they taught us how to think about things in different ways. I certainly had my piano-playing days!
it also reminds me (and alas, i take in too many podcasts to recall the source) of an author when asked about social media use.
her answer really resonated [here comes my paraphrase]:
if you enjoy it, fine.
but don't spend the time on it at the cost of your art. your creative work.
sure, it's a marketing tool, and "connects" you to readers, but if you want your art, your books, your work to outlive you--make sure that's where the quality is. where you put in the time.
your social media feed will not outlive you for four generations... your book might.
!!
right?
also, i think of the netflix documentary on jon batiste and his ragtag band at julliard-- BEING HUMAN.
how dare we forget that bodies-- face to face and soul to soul-- are what connects us to real community. :)
Unfortunately, social media is part of the selling game BUT the work is all that matters. It's the only place I find fulfillment and happiness... and it will be the only thing that lives on!
I love this. I sometimes say that nobody likes social media, but everybody uses it. I know it's a generalization, but it's also kind of true. The idea of social media is great -- a way of keeping in touch with friends and family from far away -- but the reality of social media sucks and it isn't good for anyone -- show off how great your life is, even if that means editing the look of your life. I can think of one time when I was thankful for social media, just one. Nobody likes going on social media and seeing thing that make them feel like they aren't good enough because they don't look as good or they don't have that thing or they aren't as talented, but there is a social pressure to have social media simply because everyone else has it. I think people would generally agree that without social media life would be better, maybe even feel more real, but no one wants to be the first, and if someone does take that step, people rarely follow suit.
I don't think we are getting dumber. I just think covid kind of made us mentally stunned for a while and then the USA election happen. People don't know if they're going to have money . Since I don't think it a generational problem it's younger voice being drowned out by elders who say we know best and better for you.
We're not getting dumber. We're getting less alive. In Adam Gidwitz's Max in the House of Spies, there is a 3 page speech about living life and how failure is better than lying around doing nothing. I think all people need to read it; they need the reminder that life is meant to be lived.
we alwwas weredumb
You raise some pretty interesting issues in today's entry which I believe we should be aware of especially since AI has started taking over a significant part of our lives in all areas. In my opinion, it is quite difficult to decide whether we should focus on AI's benefits or its potentially harmful side effects. I mean on the one hand, yes, our brain's capabilities can be extended with the help of Chat GPT for example, but on the other hand, we become overly dependent on it and, as a result, we don't even try to think, create or solve problems ourselves. It's because of this attitude of conformity that we don't think critically, develop emotional intelligence and other soft (or even academic) skills and desperately try to fit in with the masses by letting those perfect faces and bodies persuade us to aim for perfection too, like you said!
Parent POV here. I liken what a child "needs" to the butterfly-leaving-the-chrysalis experience. If a butterfly doesn't have the pressure of going through a tiny opening, fluid will not get pumped to its wings, and not only will the wings not expand, the butterfly will die shortly thereafter, having never flown. When I compliment our son - now 25 - I try to use observable reality. Like saying "my hard-working young man" or "I love how much you help me, thank you". Keeping it "real" not only grounds him in what he is succeeding at, observably, measurably, tangibly, but it points him to things that matter like character over fleeting aspects like beauty. Of course I'm his mom so I can get away with calling him handsome once in a while (I always say he gets the handsome from his father and the red hair from me), after which we both laugh and acknowledge my bias :-)
I think people are getting dumber and smarter. I think smarter in developing new technology, medical research, and even more progressive than like sixty years ago. (Also, more people would criticize ultra traditional attitudes today and speak out against it than before.)
People are "dumber" not necessarily just in academics (there's nuance there tbh. Like where I live, the public schools suck and there's no genuine emphasis on learning, just dumps of homework with nothing making sense. Others may have learning disabilities which don't make them "dumb" at all. Unfortunately, teachers and parents don't accommodate to their needs and force them to be the level of everyone else. It's why I feel defensive when people automatically assume CHILDREN are dumb when they have no control over the adults that are supposed to raise and teach them and how many indirectly lump those who learn differently in the dumb category.) But also people avoid certain issues or want to erase history because it makes them feel bad. They drown themselves in anything to avoid a painful reality and I think that's when people are becoming tone deaf and ignorant. And IF they try to speak on issues, then they just parrot social media shorts rather than do their own research or have a desire to care.
It's like, "oh, I don't want to talk about violence or starvation because those things make me upset" and "this shouldn't be taught because it involved historical genocide or racism" but these things are REAL and other human beings suffer this way. Ignoring it makes People dumber and softer in the wrong way.
Perhaps it's a generational thing, but your musings reminded me of a Star Trek TOS theme that appears in several episodes (and has reappeared in a lot of stuff since)... a society that became so advanced, where technology took over so much of the everyday aspects of life, that the population forgot how to do things on their own... even how to repair and maintain the technology their forebears had invented. That leaves them vulnerable to autocracy by those who DO know how to program their technological lifelines. The results are, predictably, frightening.
I don't see how you cannot reach the conclusion we're getting dumber and more vulnerable to these 1960s nightmares. We have 'educated' generations that need machines to do basic math, like counting change and calculators to multiply and divide. We don't learn the basics of our own governmental functioning, and our attention spans have been trained to be so short we cannot concentrate for more than a few seconds before becoming bored. We're easily led astray by leaders who have learned that if they lie and repeat the same lie over and over, no one will believe the facts anymore. Our educational institutions are bullied into teaching only approved subjects, eliminating the truths of our own history, and independent thought, research, and evaluation is increasingly considered 'elitist' and 'radical.'
It's that gap between the time where propaganda can spread a faulty message and the time where the facts push back -- in that period is where all the damage is done. There's a lag on truth.
I think it's really complicated. My mom is a grade 6 teacher and every years she has a few students who are not at a grade 6 level. Young students are being sent into the next grade even if they haven't gained an understanding of the content, so they end up in classes where they have no idea what is going on and they just have to struggle along. They are being kept in the same grade because it is important for kids to be around other kids their age, however, when you don't understand anything going on in class there is probably a higher chance that you'll get picked on for being dumb. So basically kids are being put into classrooms where they don't understand what they're being taught and they don't have many friends. There is also the struggle that when teachers have those students that are at a lower grade level, the only way they can help that student is to give them their own work to do, which means double the planning for the teacher. I don't think people are getting dumber, I think people are struggling to find the balance of how to deal with kids who have a more difficult time with the content... You're also right about parents getting involved, they don't want their kids to be struggling when those kids have been placed in an environment where they are going to struggle, so they try to find was to work around it. Did technology (specifically social media) make things worse? Of course. But kids aren't being given a chance. My Mom isn't allowed to fail any of her students even if they are really struggling and wouldn't be ready for the next grade. So are people getting dumber or are they not being given the chance to become smarter?
I think it's the absence of chances to really dig in and find a way of learning that works for them. We shortcut routes to guaranteed success instead of letting failure actually be a way to find new, more fulfilling routes to success.
Super insightful, a bit scary, and probably true…can’t argue with you here
I wish I was wrong!
Personally, I think we're getting dumber in some ways, but smarter in others. We certainly are losing emotional and academic intelligence, at least!
The emotional part is what worries me.
That's what worries me, too!
So much this! One of the best things anyone did for me was make me take piano lessons. I have a learning disorder that makes fine motor skills and other things hard, and even though I took lessons for 8 years I can't play a thing. BUT it trained my brain in ways I can't even begin to understand. Now of course my brain is much less used to doing hard things than it was then, but I'm glad I had that while I did, while my brain was developing.
That's how we filled time back then... learning skills we'd abandon later. BUT they taught us how to think about things in different ways. I certainly had my piano-playing days!
Exactly!
yes to all of this.
it also reminds me (and alas, i take in too many podcasts to recall the source) of an author when asked about social media use.
her answer really resonated [here comes my paraphrase]:
if you enjoy it, fine.
but don't spend the time on it at the cost of your art. your creative work.
sure, it's a marketing tool, and "connects" you to readers, but if you want your art, your books, your work to outlive you--make sure that's where the quality is. where you put in the time.
your social media feed will not outlive you for four generations... your book might.
!!
right?
also, i think of the netflix documentary on jon batiste and his ragtag band at julliard-- BEING HUMAN.
how dare we forget that bodies-- face to face and soul to soul-- are what connects us to real community. :)
Unfortunately, social media is part of the selling game BUT the work is all that matters. It's the only place I find fulfillment and happiness... and it will be the only thing that lives on!
I love this. I sometimes say that nobody likes social media, but everybody uses it. I know it's a generalization, but it's also kind of true. The idea of social media is great -- a way of keeping in touch with friends and family from far away -- but the reality of social media sucks and it isn't good for anyone -- show off how great your life is, even if that means editing the look of your life. I can think of one time when I was thankful for social media, just one. Nobody likes going on social media and seeing thing that make them feel like they aren't good enough because they don't look as good or they don't have that thing or they aren't as talented, but there is a social pressure to have social media simply because everyone else has it. I think people would generally agree that without social media life would be better, maybe even feel more real, but no one wants to be the first, and if someone does take that step, people rarely follow suit.