Is Too Much Technology Dumbing Down The Population?

[Vel]

I think it probably is. I work with a lot of younger people and if the technology were to fail, I don't believe they'd be able to feed themselves.

Gadget Overload Warning - Fox News Video - FoxNews.com

 

[Intense]

I think it probably is. I work with a lot of younger people and if the technology were to fail, I don't believe they'd be able to feed themselves.

Gadget Overload Warning - Fox News Video - FoxNews.com

Nor read a map.

 

[Middleman]

Too much Idiocracy is dumbing down the population. Our system encourages the intellectually weak members to reproduce.

 

[editec]

There's evidence to support your point.

In fact there's plenty of evidence to support the theory that the human genome has changed with the changes in civilization at least two times that I can think of.

When we went from hunter gathering to farming the genome changes to give people with superior immune systems an advantage.

And more recently when societies began to industrialize the advantage went to people who, in a farming society weren't really equipped to be farmers.

And now, as digital technology begins to replace people who can think well, I suspect that te genome will begin to change again.

People with superior intelligence who formerly were doing well, will cease doing so well as machines replace them.

My family has a 500 year history of producing computers (people good at basic math)

That meant that until computers we had an advantage in an industrialized society.

Now?

Now any clod with a $10 hand held computer can put us to shame.

Sooner or later we're ALL replaced by technology.

Soylent green is GEORGE JETSON!!!!!!

 

[Ernie S.]

Too much Idiocracy is dumbing down the population. Our system encourages the intellectually weak members to reproduce.

Unfortunate but true.

We all are in some way addicted to technology. Hell if I lost my cell phone and was broke down on the road, I don't know my home telephone number or the wife's cell #.
I rely on a GPS to navigate a good deal of the time, so I have no idea of how to get to 90% of my customers. Hell I don't even carry maps with me any more.
The difference between me and most younger folks is that I grew up before most of this technology and could, if forced to, use a map, navigate through the wilderness and grow or kill my own food.

 

[Granny]

Too much Idiocracy is dumbing down the population. Our system encourages the intellectually weak members to reproduce.

Unfortunate but true.

We all are in some way addicted to technology. Hell if I lost my cell phone and was broke down on the road, I don't know my home telephone number or the wife's cell #.
I rely on a GPS to navigate a good deal of the time, so I have no idea of how to get to 90% of my customers. Hell I don't even carry maps with me any more.
The difference between me and most younger folks is that I grew up before most of this technology and could, if forced to, use a map, navigate through the wilderness and grow or kill my own food.

I have a cell phone but know only a few basic functions - by the time I could text somebody I could be at their house having coffee - I cannot drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time. Actually, I just feel like my attention needs to be on the road. I upgraded and now need a new bluetooth device. I can see why having a cell phone with picture taking capability might be useful. I have GPS capability on my phone but haven't a clue how to set the thing up - and unless the thing could tell me what mile marker I'm at (at least in TN) it wouldn't be of that much use to me.

 

[zzzz]

Yes. I think one of the problems is that they do not teach the basics anymore. If you learn the basics you can remember some of them in a crisis. Could I live in a world without electricity? Yes, but I grew up out in the country in the 60's and 70's, was a cub and boy scout, camped out a lot and went through boot camp when we wore boots on marches and during PT. Technology is nice but it sometimes quits. How many of you have lost important things on the computer because it crashes?

A cellphone is something that you need today on the road. Payphones have been virtually eliminated and the little address book, for thos of us who still have one it is back home in the drawer. I try to make sure I have a hard copy of phone and addresses so they will not get lost in the intersphere.

 

[Ringel05]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s7afoYI-M"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s7afoYI-M[/ame]

 

[MaggieMae]

Too much technology is already resulting in brain burn, according to every study on multi-tasking. I was looking for the latest study I saw on the Science Channel not too long ago, but can't find it. This comment will do, though. I fear we're breeding what will become a zombie generation.

The Madness of Multi-tasking | Gaiam Life

“You aren’t going to perform as well when you’re doing multiple things as you would if you are focused on one thing,” says Russell Poldrack, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and neurobiology at the University of Texas at Austin. “Our brains are built to work hard — you’re not going to burn out your brain — but you might feel tired and you are going to damage your productivity.”

Why multi-tasking doesn’t work
Our ability to multi-task effectively is limited by our inability to make two choices at once. With any task comes a “response selection process” where the brain decides what to do next. When your brain is busy trying to select its next response while you’re also at work on something else, multi-tasking limitations kick in.

On Willie Geist's program this morning ("Way Too Early"), he had a video of a woman who fell in a fountain at a mall because she was talking on her cell phone instead of watching where she was going. I guess it's not up on YouTube yet; couldn't find it. Funny, but not funny.

 

[Cuyo]

Yes.

 

[Sallow]

I think it probably is. I work with a lot of younger people and if the technology were to fail, I don't believe they'd be able to feed themselves.

Gadget Overload Warning - Fox News Video - FoxNews.com

Ridiculous.

Technology is aiding people become more literate and highly functional.

Heck..when I was a kid..very few people could type. I was laughed at in my high school for doing well in my "typewriting" classes (yes..they was such a thing way back when). Now kids are wizzes on computers.

If anything the physical aspect is suffering. People need to get out more and exercise.