What is Digg?168 Comments
- ankeshk, on 06/19/2008, -3/+71First the TV made us stupid. Now the internet. But IQ tests show that the overall intelligence of the population is actually increasing! What gives?
Skimming text doesn't make you stupid. Even research done on newspaper reading habits 20 years ago found that 30% of the readers just skimmed the articles instead of reading all the words. The internet is just making people better at disregarding fluffy words and verbose prose.
Thats not us being stupid. Thats actually us being smarter!
(*Yes I know IQ tests are not a good judge of intelligence.) - Analysis489, on 06/19/2008, -2/+34Funny how I 'scanned' the article, instead of reading and thinking about it. The entire point of the article. Sweet irony!
- paross2, on 06/19/2008, -0/+27No, it's just giving people a forum to show how stupid they are.
- ossian909090, on 06/19/2008, -0/+20I think that the internet has made us realize that there is a lot of crap out there. Take this article, for instance, it's a big, steaming pile of crap that's trying to sell the internet as a cause for attention deficit disorder.
Grab my attention and I might read what you have to say, write a very superficial article and I'm going to skip to the end and look for a conclusion. It's a self defense mechanism. It saves my brain cells from having to process idiocy. - fr3ddie, on 06/19/2008, -1/+19A neighbor of mine... never pays attention in school.... is about as dumb as a brick.... but now that he uses Myspace (i know its mega lame but....) hes asking how to spell words... and I believe hes actually learning about computers too...
- mrloserhead, on 06/19/2008, -0/+18the internet has not shortened my attenti
- cor315, on 06/19/2008, -0/+13"In fact, if Carr is correct, you may never even make it to the end of this article."
I stopped reading after that - DivisibleByZero, on 06/19/2008, -0/+10"learning about computers". I hate it when people say stuff like that. I've seen too many people who are "good at computers" because they know how to open and save files in Word. (OK, it's better than a lot of people but still a pretty low bar).
Using myspace doesn't mean you're learning about computers any more than watching a NASCAR race means you're learning about automotive engineering.
Actual quote from a phone conversation when I applied to be a temp for extra money in college:
"Oh, I see you're a computer science major. You must use Excel a lot then." - grungegbunny, on 06/19/2008, -0/+10I think the rise of rationality and common sense over superstition and dogma play a huge role.
- Ymeg, on 06/19/2008, -0/+8Making us stupid? Probably not...
But I will say that it makes the stupidity is all of us transparent. - roostersheep, on 01/16/2009, -0/+8I didn't even read the article. Hell, if I'm honest, I haven't even read the description. I skimmed through the first half of your comment though, is that enough?
- Iluvator, on 06/19/2008, -0/+8Want irony? This was a summerized version of the origial by Nocholas Carr. Want stupid? The full article was front page _9_frickin'_days ago:
http://digg.com/tech_news/Is_Google_Making_Us_Stup ...
This isn't "reposting things that people might not have seen." This is just lazy on ibeckett's part. - inactive, on 06/19/2008, -0/+7No internet is not making me stupid,i've become more openminded.
- sarixe, on 06/19/2008, -0/+7is it wrong that the first thing that came to mind was somethingawful.com?
- inactive, on 06/19/2008, -1/+8The only people who are made stupid by the internet are folks that believe what they say on sites like Digg makes any difference in the real world
- 471776, on 06/19/2008, -0/+7Oh the irony...
Unless that was deliberate. - BrutusCirrus, on 06/19/2008, -2/+9tl;dr
- Efflux, on 06/19/2008, -0/+6SomethingAwful has been saying this for years...
Edit: Beaten. - rameznabel, on 06/19/2008, -0/+6no the internet makes me horny :)
- deanoplex, on 06/19/2008, -0/+6I used to go to the library for research. Library=internet, Internet connection=library card, Card catalog=Google. Books=websites. digg=smoking area. No one ever asked me, "Are card-catalogs making us stupid?"
- inactive, on 06/19/2008, -0/+6BREAKING NEWS - YEAR: 1450
GUTENBERG INVENTS THE PRINTING PRESS
Are books making us stupid???
Right now, you're probably happy that you are able to have vast amounts of books at your fingertips. It's a feeling of power, isn't it? All that information, all that content, right there for you whenever you want it?
You probably shouldn't be feeling so good about it, while books allow us to get lots of information very quickly, it also encourages us ignore other important aspects of our life, such as working, cooking, or playing a lute.
It's not just about people reading books whenever they want to. He says that books are actually beginning to change the way we think. "It makes it harder to concentrate on our work when we have books, as a new model of thinking about information displaces our way of working.
It's not just Gutenberg we're talking about, but rather the structure and nature of ALL books. But he says that Gutenberg is very much the dominant player, and it both governs and symbolizes the way information is structured. "The way we gather information is by reading," he says, "and that's governed not only by Gutenberg, but by the whole economic structure of the printing press."
Ridiculous, this could be applied to anything. - grungegbunny, on 06/19/2008, -0/+5Like everything else you research you have to check the source.
- deanoplex, on 06/19/2008, -0/+5You have made yourself quite clear.
- sarixe, on 06/19/2008, -0/+4the few lead the many, in that case. unfortunately.
- azzythedemon, on 06/19/2008, -0/+4This argument only works if stupidity is a new human trait. Clearly, it is not.
Throughout history there have been people who designed aqueducts and went to see new theater, and then there were people who were happiest smashing rocks and watching gladiators get ripped apart by lions.
Prior to mass compulsory education, only the scholarly made it in to school so we only saw the development of academic minds. It was a group not representative of the average American population, so we can't compare people then and now.
Thanks to the Internet, I have access to free books, free documentaries, free science articles, free music (legit) and just about anything else I could want.
The Internet is just a tool. How it's used depends on the intelligence and education of the user. Nothing more, nothing less.
'he quotes one friend of his who told him: "I can't read War and Peace anymore. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it."' I'm not a genius, but I manage to spend a couple hours a day online or playing games, and I'm doing pretty well in AP English Literature. That guy needs to stop blaming the intertubes and take responsibility for his mental agility. - auto98, on 06/19/2008, -0/+3More importantly than IQ tests not being good at measuring intelligence, in different years the same score indicates a different level. A level of 100 is supposed to indicate the average, so if the average changes....
- wynja, on 06/19/2008, -0/+3Well, apparently the internet is making reporters retarded.
- inactive, on 06/19/2008, -2/+5TL;DR
- barstegry, on 06/19/2008, -0/+3Does my fat ass make my ass look fat?
- Dewhead, on 06/19/2008, -0/+3I agree. I think the more information that a person can have--the better. The problem with the internet is that anything can be published and passed off as "fact". I think its critical that people learn how to recognize propaganda and how to logically analyze what they are reading. Although I am conservative on most issues, I always research the opposing view and think about both positions for a while before I make up my mind. I think one of the downfalls to so much information is that there is a tendency to skim the surface and to jump to conclusions without fully understanding all of the points.
http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/as/404.htm. This is an awesome article on critical thinking and the use of propaganda. - EserVerx, on 06/19/2008, -0/+3(from the article)
"In fact, Carr argues, when we give in to the natural impulses to click and skim, rather than to read and think, the Internet may actually doing us a disservice: It shortens our attention spans and even inhibits our ability to read longer books and articles.
In fact, if Carr is correct, you may never even make it to the end of this article."
What an outlandish and insulting claim. Hes right though, I didn't make it to the end of the article. Not because I just skimmed however. The first few paragraphs were enough to realize that the article is based more on fabrications than truth.
Skimming isn't a bad thing at all, it most certainly will not make us stupid. I skim the first few paragraphs of an article to decide if its worth reading or not. If it peaks my interest, I pay closer attention. Would I do the same with with a novel? No. When I pick up a new book to read I've already decided that the book will keep me interested, there for I am able to sit down with it and destroy a good 8 - 10 chapters at a time.
Coming from someone who has had the all this information at his fingertips since he was 8, I don't think we have anything to worry about.
The internet will not make you "stupid." Use your mind and you'll be fine. - dilbert, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2Knowledge brings fear.
- kathcom, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2I think we can all be proud of ourselves for a minute here. This is one of the most interesting, intelligent and well-written comments sections I have seen anywhere. Looking at comments on even the most prestigious sites can make me feel people are getting stupid or lazy and that the Web is ruled by lowest common denominator grammar-free bullies. I gladly read every comment here and learned a couple of things, too. I consider that time well spent.
- InfamousAtheist, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2Speak for yourself. This is ***** sensationalist pseudo-journalism.
The internet doesn't make people stupid. Skimming around the piles of garbage on the internet to find the good stuff is a GOOD thing. The nature of the medium influences how we use it.
People are stupid regardless of technology... not because of it. - kathcom, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2Very well-said. The intelligent person can read or skim and is free to use the Internet as a tool. Everyone is free to use it, even if they're using it as a blunt instrument.
I feel the writer of the article knows this and knew that by being reductive and simplistic, his work would get more attention. And he was correct. - Ov3rdos3, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2It's making me lazy, but definitely not stupid.
- NomortaL1, on 06/19/2008, -5/+7Does the internet make you stupid?
No. - DivisibleByZero, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2having "all that information" available isn't the bad thing. The problem is that there's a nearly infinite amount of bad information, and a wealth of people stupid enough to push that bad information to the front page of Digg, then an even greater number of people stupid enough to think that because 384 people dugg it, it must be true.
- decyx, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2Maybe the internet isn't making people stupid, but I believe that it has played a major role in turning people into grammatically challenged buffoons.
- Nore, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2Anyone care to give us some cliffs on the article? I couldn't sit and read the whole thing...
- fish0507, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2I think of anything this article is stupid, and the internet has taught me not to read it and jump right to the comments section. Honestly I just wanted to know if people thought this was actually true.
- andrewtheart, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2I think it's hard to defend the proposition that the Internet is making us "stupid" in light of the incredible benefits it has conferred upon humanity. Overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives.
- downneck, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2no, you started out stupid. the internet is just making the rest of us aware of you.
- antdude, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2It makes me smarter since I can reference. Without it, I am limited. My brain sucks. :(
- ZedoMann, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2Yeah. How do we know books aren't making us stupid? When I was in school, they taught skimming, so school is making us stupid now too?
- lazerflesh, on 06/20/2008, -0/+2This really depends on the person. I've definitely increased my vocabulary and computer skills at the least thanks to the net.
- Jack9, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2No. Next question.
- inactive, on 06/19/2008, -1/+3Knowledge is Power.
- Kinnkster, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2Don't disregard this article just because you don't want to believe it or your perceive anything against the internet as some old world thinking that doesn't know what it's talking about.
All he's saying is that it lowers your attention span for deep reading to skim. Which is obviously true, your brain get's used to one type of reading, does less well at another. And believe me, it is real at least for some people. It has certainly affected me. -
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