Dear Internet World,
We’ve all heard the arguments against the arguments that the Web is making us stupid. (Nobody actually makes a crude form argument remotely that simplistic, but moving on.) Certainly, I’m not going to attempt to argue that sort of thing, because I don’t entirely believe it, and more because that’s one of those opinions that will cause the Webby world to come down on you with absurd amounts of vitriol. (One of the worst things about the Web, incidentally, the enforcement on all the positions of some.) I do want to say, though, that the fact that people who spend many hours a day on the Internet and/or are professionally employed to do so think that the Internet doesn’t make us stupid isn’t what I’d call a particularly compelling bit of evidence.
I don’t know. That’s sort of like saying women shouldn’t have a say in abortion politics or that teachers shouldn’t have a say in how to improve education or that doctors shouldn’t be allowed to tell you what drugs to take. While I believe all of these things (to some extent), you probably don’t. Right?Report
Good point! All I mean to say is, people who use the Internet all the time, and particularly those who do so professionally, are only talking to each other on this issue. So there’s a lack of people without a vested interest in the issue.Report
I think it depends on how you use the internet, Freddie. And what you use it for.Report
Free porn, amirite?Report
If you spend your day looking for the latest emoticons, watching movies at “cutekittenmovies.com”, and forwarding 4megs of blond jokes to your relatives, the web is probably making you dumber.
If, however, you spend your day arguing policy, researching policy, criticizing art, and listening to a Pandora station seeded with Catherine Wheel, the web probably is helping you slow your inevitable descent into senility.
This would be like someone in the 70’s yelling at someone watching Firing Line and Uncle Milton on PBS that TV will rot their brain.
There were probably people in 1100 BC yelling at their sons that they spend too much time with that damn clay and stylus and if you wants to do something that isn’t fooling around you should pick up a plow.Report
Exactly right.Report