Are people getting dumber?

[Anonymous]

Yes. Mostly I think it just has to do with shortened attentions spans and a corresponding decrease in reading comprehension. Also, less empathy/thinking much more of themselves - we are all expected to think we are all wonderful just as we are now, right? - makes people loathe to admit when they don’t understand something or make a mistake.

Thanks, internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think all the Covid cases are resulting in brain fog and lots of inflammation for many people.

I've seen the effects at work: two coworkers who were very detail oriented pre Covid cases are now all over the place and are having a hard time.

But I guess I’d ask—is the change because they had the virus or because they were glued to their devices and isolated for a year+? Maybe both… I definitely think COVID accelerated this inability to think and live IRL that I’m seeing now.

[Anonymous]

I really think the only way out of this is to get rid of smartphones, tablets, smartwatches completely. And social media. I think historians will conclude that the late 90s, early 2000s was probably the height of civilization. We had the internet and it was actually useful and a net positive for individuals and society because of how much knowledge it could gather and disseminate. But everything after that point has been a net negative. Whatever productivity gains there has been has been washed out by needless complexities and inefficiencies (ex people making a gazillion changes in word documents that are totally unnecessary that they would not have bothered to make when they had to typewrite it).

And the negatives have been tremendous. Kids who never learned to do basic things such as use their own brains. Adults who have lost the ability to focus and maintain relationships. Echo chambers that have left our country and the world more polarized than ever. Americans who are more lonely and more angry than ever. People think we can just have AI do the mundane things of life so we humans can focus on the "big" problems, but they don't realize that most of human existence is lived in those mundane things, and it's those things that actually give life meaning, not the "big" problems. And if we don't do the mundane things, we are incapable of doing anything "big" anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. MAGA is a cult. They’re brainwashed and lost all critical thinking skills. They are America’s worst citizens. They give nothing to America but headaches.

And even worse, people like this posters believes stupidity falls along a political line in the sand.

Technically the leave no child behind started with bush administration. Dude profits off war but he is not maga.

Technically Edward Kennedy's brainchild, in line with Carter's DOEd brainchild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. MAGA is a cult. They’re brainwashed and lost all critical thinking skills. They are America’s worst citizens. They give nothing to America but headaches.

And even worse, people like this posters believes stupidity falls along a political line in the sand.

Technically the leave no child behind started with bush administration. Dude profits off war but he is not maga.

Technically Edward Kennedy's brainchild, in line with Carter's DOEd brainchild.

oops...I meant Ted, and heck, I'm even after NCLB

[Anonymous]

1. Third World immigration - there are probably 100+ million foreign immigrants in the U.S. right now.

2. Every other young adult is addicted to weed and vape weed.

3. Cell phone addiction has fried people’s brains.

4. Xanax, SSRIs, pain pill, and Adderall prescriptions are given out like candy.

[Anonymous]

Yesterday I asked the Chipotle cashier to break down a $5 into singles so I could tip him.

He handed me back 7 dollar bills.

W-t-f

[Anonymous]

I have a child with low processing speed. I am very patient with people who have disabilities and cognitive impairments.

What irritates me is people who have a full complement of neurons, as evidenced by their profession and general behavior, but still manage to vote for cruelty and hate.

[Anonymous]

For the last few decades the rich are hoarding wealth and wealthy & smart families are increasingly clustered in exclusive enclaves. They don’t live amongst the serfs anymore in middle class neighborhoods. The result is low and middle class towns, if not huge swaths of the U.S., have too few smart families propping up the gene pool and test scores.

[Anonymous]

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address

Near the inauguration, I saw someone compare Biden’s farewell speech to Eisenhower’s farewell speech. I went to go read it and what immediately stood out to me was how much more challenging the language is in Eisenhower’s speech compared to a speech that a politician now would give.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address

Near the inauguration, I saw someone compare Biden’s farewell speech to Eisenhower’s farewell speech. I went to go read it and what immediately stood out to me was how much more challenging the language is in Eisenhower’s speech compared to a speech that a politician now would give.

Yes public discourse has been one of the most visible signs of intellectual atrophy. Blame social media sound bites, decrease in people's attention span, and our addiction to inflammatory and dramatic discourse.

[Anonymous]

Yes I think so. I supervise a lot of students. They are less competent and less resourceful than students 15 years ago.
Poor problem solving skills. Poor analytic and critical reasoning skills.
If it’s not right at their finger tips, they are lost.

[Anonymous]

Yes, boys especially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to sound like a grumpy old person (I’m 52), but is it me or are people getting dumber? It feels like people struggle to follow very basic directions generally and maybe it’s just that no one reads anything anymore, but we belong to a group that has sign ups for classes 4x a year and I’m amazed that families who have been doing this for years suddenly seem wildly confused about the process. Or can no longer navigate to a location without gps even though you give them simple verbal directions (eg Take X road, turn right at the light and we are the second house on the left). Or no longer try to figure something out before searching google/You Tube. Or are so easily sways by whatever they read on the internet, that we have people who are well educated spouting off crazy tunes conspiracy theories. I could go on and on, but I’m starting to feel like I live in the twilight zone.

I don't think dumber, just refocused.
There was an article sort of about this years and years ago in the New Yorker. I think there used to be a caste of Indians who were known for reciting epic poems. They didn't read nor write, the poems were memorized and recited as village entertainment. Kind of like how the Greeks and Romans entertained themselves at public squares when orators would chant the stories of The Odyssey or The Iliad to the crowds. The curious thing about this caste of Indians was when writing was introduced and their epic tales were copied down. They relied on the written text instead of committing it to memory. People stopped committing these stories to memory.

I guess the corollary today is the phone number. Once upon a time when I was a teen I knew people's phone numbers by heart. Now I couldn't tell you what my children's mobile numbers are without consulting my own phone. Because I don't need to memorize the numbers, I have another method for that handy.
The google maps thing is a problem because I can definitely see my kids unable to read maps. They orient the map to their physical direction. That is to say, they have the device simulate their position and they follow the arrow on screen telling them where to go. They are not understanding the context nor layout of the greater area to guide them.

I dunno, maybe when paper maps came about older folks started fretting that kids today can't identify trails using trees, rocks and the sun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address

Near the inauguration, I saw someone compare Biden’s farewell speech to Eisenhower’s farewell speech. I went to go read it and what immediately stood out to me was how much more challenging the language is in Eisenhower’s speech compared to a speech that a politician now would give.

Was that where Eisenhower warned about the military industrial complex?