Serious ?. Do you think people are getting dumber?

[beingnobody]

To what would you attribute our backslide?

 

[TheRealCallie]

Technology and people not understanding that others are entitled to have their own feelings and beliefs without people attacking them for it.

 

[TheSkaFish]

I would attribute it to the economic war of aggression against the middle class that's been going on since the '70s. I feel like this is the root of most evil, at least, in the developed world anyway. I still can't believe/get mad that we allowed this to happen. We were more civilized than any point in history, then we turned around and gave it all away because a few billionaires couldn't "take personal responsibility" and control their money and power addictions.

They want to make people dumber, so that people don't demand what used to be considered "normal life". This is where distraction politics, or "weaponized nonsense" - a term I heard in the news recently - comes into play. They get people all worked up about non-issues, so that they don't notice how badly we're being screwed.

Also, now life has become MORE competitive instead of less (why I don't believe technology will help, cause more tech hasn't resulted in freeing us from competition - instead it's made the competition worse, ironically making us less free). This has caused more people, to be more stressed out, more panicked, more desperate for answers in a world that makes less sense every day. It's a known fact that stress makes people dumb, so, more stress, causes more dumbing down. At least that's my opinion.

 

[ringwood]

Technology and people not understanding that others are entitled to have their own feelings and beliefs without people attacking them for it.

I agree with the technology statement for sure. I think technology makes us lazy in many cases - what used to be accomplish using brain power is now solved using the tech around us. Case in point: my son's Grade 8 math class. I was shocked when he said they use calculators in math class to figure out relatively simple equations - like double-number multiplication and division problems, that sort of thing. At the age of 14, he still hasn't mastered the multiplication tables up to 12 - something I had memorized by Grade 3. And this indicative of his whole generation - teachers don't stress the importance of these basic life skills like they used to.

I also think the mass of brainless TV is partly to blame - the whole entertainment industry, really. There's some amazingly educational shows out there, don't get me wrong, but there's also a proliferation of mindless and mind-numbing programming that offers nothing in terms of intelligent content.

 

[beingnobody]

Technology and people not understanding that others are entitled to have their own feelings and beliefs without people attacking them for it.

greater good. People who confuse feelings and beliefs ( opinion) with facts and reality become danger to society

 

[TheRealCallie]

greater good. People who confuse feelings and beliefs ( opinion) with facts and reality become danger to society

That is an opinion.

 

[TheSkaFish]

I agree with the technology statement for sure. I think technology makes us lazy in many cases - what used to be accomplish using brain power is now solved using the tech around us. Case in point: my son's Grade 8 math class. I was shocked when he said they use calculators in math class to figure out relatively simple equations - like double-number multiplication and division problems, that sort of thing. At the age of 14, he still hasn't mastered the multiplication tables up to 12 - something I had memorized by Grade 3. And this indicative of his whole generation - teachers don't stress the importance of these basic life skills like they used to.

I also think the mass of brainless TV is partly to blame - the whole entertainment industry, really. There's some amazingly educational shows out there, don't get me wrong, but there's also a proliferation of mindless and mind-numbing that offers nothing in terms of intelligent content.

I think you make a good point here. I used to know my multiplication well, we still did it the old analog way in the early to mid '90s. But like a muscle, I think it's "use it or lose it". I'd definitely have to review it/go slower attempting it again after not using it for a long time.

And I agree about the brainless entertainment. In fact I think it correlates with the increased stress in our lives. Since people are more stressed out economically, I think that gives rise to more escapist entertainment - people want shows, movies, and music about having all the money, sex, and power, and they want to live vicariously through it. Or as people get more fearful about money, all the music starts getting to be about having all this money because it's a fantasy rooted in fear. Nobody has time to listen to space rock about magic and aliens. It's all about making sure you get out of the despair pits to experience money and sex before your life ends. We're all starting to identify with wanting to get all this MAGAswag and money to get out of the 'hood because quality of life is going backwards (thanks tech bros!). It's sad that it's come down to that.

 

[user 135671]

Yeah, it does seem as if people are getting dumber. Are our terrible diets, bad schools, tech obsession and increasingly trashy media to blame?. I don't know, but it may be worth getting a group of scientists on it while we still have the capacity to analyse the data.

Whatever it turns out to be, however, we should all probably start worrying about what our sedentary, screen addicted, junk food-munching lifestyles might be doing to our brains.

 

[TheRealCallie]

Yeah, it does seem as if people are getting dumber. Are our terrible diets, bad schools, tech obsession and increasingly trashy media to blame?. I don't know, but it may be worth getting a group of scientists on it while we still have the capacity to analyse the data.

Whatever it turns out to be, however, we should all probably start worrying about what our sedentary, screen addicted, junk food-munching lifestyles might be doing to our brains.

Why don't we just ask an AI?

 

[user 135671]

I prefer to get my info from the spaghetti monster thanks

 

[NoxApex(N/A)]

Governments use media outlets as forms of population control.
It's always been that way, actually. At least since the printing press was invented.

It used to be in antiquity that only the aristocracy was taught higher academics. Class and caste and all that jazz.

But in modernity, countries try to keep their citizens dumbed down. Like to a meticulous extent of it. And the reason why is there's just that large of a global population that if you're a politician than the last thing that you want is a general intelligence increase because that makes managing all of the people that much more difficult. Because I think anybody that's ever been pulled over for a traffic citation on a particularly bad day for a policeman realizes that authority doesn't want to be questioned, because that gives the open potential for it to be challenged and that means more work.

I think the thing that people don't seem to realize is that it's done through all forms of modern media, rather than through just one outlet or another. Tiktok is the prime example of reduction in attention span, but also if you look at the evolution of music and radio throughout the centuries: Standard classical sonatas and symphonies are way longer than your average radio music.

I don't think that people are getting dumber though, at least, not in the way that implies lower education. I think that what they're learning about, is instead just usually a bunch of filler nonsense from these types of outlets that really actually won't help them in life.

Part of that comes from the deregulation of media over the years along with the gradual decline in context that came with it.

 

[TropicalStarfish]

lol, loved this movie..

 

[beingnobody]

That is an opinion.

You have been thoroughly groomed. Do you have a Rush Limbaugh tattoo for a tramp stamp?

 

[TheRealCallie]

You sure do like to assume an awful lot.

 

[Minus]

You have been thoroughly groomed. Do you have a Rush Limbaugh tattoo for a tramp stamp?

Lets keep things civil and try to avoid personal attacks.

 

[beingnobody]

Lets keep things civil and try to avoid personal attacks.

Fragile

 

[Unsigned]

greater good. People who confuse feelings and beliefs ( opinion) with facts and reality become danger to society

In a previous post on another thread you explicitly stated you did not want the government intruding on the decisions people make.
Would you also agree that the government has no right whatsoever in telling landlords to whom they should rent apartments???

 

[CenotaphGirl]

Honestly I feel dumber by the day but I wonder if we underestimate the power of our ascendance? Whenever I use technology my parents would marvel at my genius. Maybe we feel dumber because we now compare ourselves to machines?

We should be the smartest we have ever been, almost every fact and answer a google search away. But we feel dumb because we cant retain as much a machine can?

 

[okidoke]

To what would you attribute our backslide?

"Our"? To whom are you referring?

 

[user 139760]

greater good. People who confuse feelings and beliefs ( opinion) with facts and reality become danger to society

To what would you attribute our backslide?

People thinking everyone else is getting dumber without looking first to themselves.
Also, inability to accept or otherwise understand an opposite position on anything and dismissing it outright.
That's rather dumb.