Comment by andsoitis
1 day ago
> The problem we should be focused on is how dumb people are getting (or have been for all of eternity)
Over the arc of time, I’m not sure that an accurate characterization is that humans have been getting dumber and dumber. If that were true, we must have been super geniuses 3000 years ago!
I think what is true is that the human condition and age old questions are still with us and we’re still on the path to trying to figure out ourselves and the cosmos.
Totally anecdotal but I think phones have made us less present, or said another way, less capable of using our brains effectively. It isn't exactly dumb but it feels very close.
I definitely think we are smarter if you are using IQ, but are we less reactive and less tribal? I'm not so sure.
There's quite a lot of research into what our increasing reliance on technology is doing to our briains.
Here is one paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0
"Although the longitudinal sample was small, we observed an important effect of GPS use over time, whereby greater GPS use since initial testing was associated with a steeper decline in hippocampal-dependent spatial memory. Importantly, we found that those who used GPS more did not do so because they felt they had a poor sense of direction, suggesting that extensive GPS use led to a decline in spatial memory rather than the other way around."
Modern dumb people have more ability to affect things. Modern technology, equal rights, voting rights give them access to more control than they've ever had.
That's my theory, anyway.