It's Not The Internet Making People Dumb... It's Other People Who Benefit From You Being Dumb
from the agnotology-at-work dept
There have been various attempts to claim that the internet makes people stupid, though that seems difficult to support in actuality. As someone recently sent to me (uncredited, tragically -- so someone feel free to claim it!): "the internet doesn't cause stupidity, it just makes your stupidity more obvious to others." However, it does need to be admitted that there are a ton of ridiculous ideas online with no factual basis -- and some people cling to those ideas fervently. This certainly goes against the early utopian theories of the internet that said making more information available to people would help fight ignorance.So what's going on? Clive Thompson checks in with a fairly compelling explanation. He points to research done by Robert Proctor, a science historian at Stanford, who coined the term "agnotology" to explain the phenomenon of ignorance increasing with the spread of information. But it's not the fact that information can be spread more easily that's at fault, but that there are special interest groups who benefit tremendously from that ignorance being spread. Thus, they make use of the same tools that most of us use to try to spread legitimate information to spread propaganda -- and it often works. Sometimes, it goes to an even more ridiculous level, where they purposely spread ridiculous information that's similar to legitimate information, just to make people stop trusting anything, including the legitimate information.
Of course, there's an immediate next question: can (and should) anything be done about this? Thompson suggests that collaborative tools like Wikipedia that are built through consensus are actually quite good at combating agnotology -- though, I would imagine that the internet-is-making-us-stupid supporters of the world (who tend to be Wikipedia-doubters) would disagree. They tend to prefer "official" sources of truth, though I think history has shown those to be just as prone to propaganda forces as well. In the end, much of it comes down to the individual level: how open are they to actually learning the truth vs. merely looking for facts that support pre-held opinions. One thing you can't change easily is how open people are to new ideas.
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Filed Under: agnotology, ignorance, internet, special interests
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Or as Mark Twain said,
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
The internet provides ample opportunity to remove such doubt.
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Stupidity
Forest Gump
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Preferences
I can absolutely continue to believe and follow any ignorant or wrong belief I want to. And can easily find voices online to back me up. But if I want the truth, it is online as well. And I no longer am reliant on a few gatekeepers and their "official" versions of truth.
Too often in the past(and even recently), the official versions of the truth were manipulated and falsified. And when that happened, people had no way to find any alternate views or versions of the truth.
These days truth can be obscured by flooding the channels with false information, but it can't be hidden entirely because no single source controls the information channel. So the facts and true story will always be available.
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Sooooo....
And I though people were just dumb... oh, wait.
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Re: Sooooo....
Yes, there is.
He used agnotology to leverage social networks?
No. The Republicans spent the last 8 years running this country into the ground, and a majority of American voters decided that they didn't want more of the same and voted Democrat. It really is that simple. Some people call it shotgun podiatry, others call it digging your own grave. But regardless of which political party you support the simple truth is that people saw Republicans in control when things went into the shitter and voted accordingly.
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Re: Sooooo....
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-Mark Twain
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Using the internet doesn't make you dumb, it can be hard for people to use if they aren't familiar
The speed of transactions/conversations/decisions have shrunk to an obscenely small amount of time, as communication has become increasingly easier.
I guess the next evolution is video conferencing, maybe when people start seeing those they are talking to who are trying to hussle them body language may tip them off on whats going on.
Or at least offer photos of the scammer given that i'm sure most video conversations will end up saved etc. Of course then they will start paying teenagers to "act/play parts" for them, or create avatars that look human/act human to allow them to scheme idiots ten fold.
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comfortable lie vs inconvenient truth
I think that about sums up a lot of it.
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A point to refferance
But as you look for things, it gets confusing as hell, in this FOREST of knowledge.
Im not saying that its ALL TRUE/REAL/pertinent knowledge.
Knowing and understanding ARE not the same thing.
Lets look at Digital TV.
Composite,
component
RGB
DB15
HDMI
COAX
Svid
These are all the connections you COULD see on the back of a NEWER TV/LCD/LED/Plasma/LASER/OLED.
WHICH of these WILL/CAN/SHOULD give you the best picture?
WELL, ALL of them SHOULD be able to, EXCEPT COAX and Composite. The rest have the ABILITY to give you signal and video resolutions EQUAL or BETTER then those suggested for the NEW Digital Wide screen format.
WILL a NEW TV give you ACCESS to these abilities WITH the other formatted inputs? NOT ALL, but a FEW companies WILL give you the MOST options..NOW to figure OUT what a TV will do? thats the fun part.
GET the thing home, and you CANT figure out HOW to hook it up?? FUN..
Cant figure WHAT res to use?? fun
NOW try this idea/concept in trying to look up SOMETHING else, like religion. between the TRUTH and BULLS** out there, and what works for you.
try it on "HOW to install Heating DUCTS" you wont find much.
BILLDIV.
If you look at what was happening..the Other side THREW in the towel, and gave up. it was so 1 sided and the OTHER side didnt WANT the ball, or to be elected..they JUMPED out of the battle and RAN. they had to put SOMEONE up for the election, but after that they QUIT trying.
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Re: A point to refferance
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Seen
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Fox News
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"You can't fix stupid."
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Another explanation
Basically, I'm not convinced that "special interests" are really the best explanation for this phenomena. I think individuals' own biases have a lot more to do with it.
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>Another explanation
Trick-nology!
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Link to the wired article?
Truth and facts change (what I mean by that is that often truth can change as more facts are revealed), how many different theories of evolution have we gone through? Often a new theory arises based upon more research revealing more facts. And it seems that if a reputable scientist dares to question the theory or probability of evolution he is smeared for daring to question the theory. So sure perhaps as we have more information we become dumber, but the examples given basically makes him the gatekeeper of truth which defeats the entire purpose of the study, basically he is saying that I shouldn't drink the kool-aid from anyone else but him. End result is still stupidity.
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Belief systems
But I'm not worried she might read this, as she's convinced that all blogs are horrible and berated me when I linked her to this site. :)
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