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Does Technology Make Us Smarter?

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the hell-no dept

Mon, Sep 19th 2005 9:37am — Mike Masnick
Ah, the age old question is coming back up again as News.com takes a look at technology makes us any smarter and discovers the answer is the same as the first fifty million times this question has been asked. The answer, of course, is no. Technology can help people have more information, process it better or be more efficient, but it still hasn't done much to change just how smart anyone really is.
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  • identicon
    dorpus, 19 Sep 2005 @ 12:09pm

    Does it increase surprise attacks?

    At the "Sofmap #14" store in Akihabara, which sells anime porn, a netter became the victim of a surprise attack, getting stabbed in the back by a 16-year-old while he was reading an anime mag. The victim and the 16-year-old attacker had previously gotten into an argument on the popular "2ch" forum. Police had been swarming around the store for over a month because the kid had made death threats. The store had been checking the bags of everyone entering the store. According to other net stalkers, the blood-splattered posters in the store have been replaced.

    http://www.akibablog.net/archives/2005/09/post_31.html

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bill, 19 Sep 2005 @ 3:50pm

    It does change how smart we are.

    Just in the wrong direction. I sub part time at a small middle school. The students are allowed to use calculators for everything. Homework, classwork, and even tests. They can't even do simple arithmetic, let alone algebra without them. Yes, it is changing how smart we are. It's making us more ignorant.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Tan The Man, 19 Sep 2005 @ 4:22pm

      It makes us look smarter

      Whenever students bring their laptops with them to class, people look. These students are probably pretty dumb considering they need computers to help them take notes.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Laura, 19 Sep 2005 @ 5:06pm

    Some tech does make us smarter

    Actually, I buy part of Steven Johnson's argument from his book, Everything Bad is Good for You, that technology can make you smarter. I don't think all technology makes you smarter. I don't balance my checkbook anymore because 1) I don't write many checks and 2) I have an up to the minute balance available online, so I've lost that skill. But I write more. I read more. I think about different kinds of connections. The question is too simplistic.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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