Is it normal to feel that each new generation is stupider than the one before?

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18 Comments

I have a feeling that humanity degenerates. With the easy access to information via google/wikipedia/mobile internet/smartphones, it seems people don't "learn" to learn any more.
Why store information in your brain when it's just a few clicks away? Why learn about a procedure if you can just look it up?

Now, i'm all for easy access to all kinds of information, but seeing kids, teenagers and young adults these days, it seems the human IQ has reached it's peak and is going downhill moderately fast, with a few notable exceptions...i AM talking about the majority of "first world"-people below 30, here.
Is it normal to feel this way?

Voting Results
80% Normal
Based on 60 votes (48 yes)
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Comments ( 18 )
  • [Old Memory]
    12 years ago

    Am I the only one to find the irony in this post?

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  • Katelynn0C
    12 years ago

    I agree with you, however, perhaps the younger generation aren't getting more stupid, they're just getting lazier?

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  • ESCtheCTRL
    12 years ago

    one word
    hipsters

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  • Ono
    12 years ago

    If you go by IQ testing people are actually getting smarter not stupider.

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    • IHATEUSERNAMES
      11 years ago

      in the uk exam grades are getting better by 10% a year!

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  • ChuknasT
    12 years ago

    Hasn't every single prior generation said this? I'm 23 and I hate the tween music genre. I also thought kids were way more stupid. In reality they aren't. The fact that there are more stupid people than smart people is fact. You'll see a larger margin the higher our population gets, and with us at more than 7 billion and climbing, you should not be surprised if you meet 5 billion lazy, illiterate, incalculably stupid people.

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  • [Old Memory]
    12 years ago

    I don't think we're getting dumber, I just think less of us are motivated to do more.

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  • 53739
    8 years ago

    That's your opinion. Information on any topic can be easily found online compared to in the past. People in general are more knowledgable about the world.

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  • [Old Memory]
    11 years ago

    I'm half your age and twice as smart. Rare.

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  • IIN2?uestionlife
    12 years ago

    Its all part of the plan

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  • Anonymous Post Author
    12 years ago

    For those people commenting that "every generation" said that:

    Yes, that _IS_ true. But previous generations lacked the easy information network available today. If you had to look something up, you needed to get a book(lucky if you had one covering what you needed at home) and find the information in there, or try and call someone that COULD know about what you needed. It was worth KNOWING something, to save on time spent retrieving that information.

    Among other things, youths these days, due to shortening text online/in messages often have a serious lack of grammar, they can't do basic math without errors, etc. etc.(could go on with history, physics, chemistry...).

    I am aware such shortcomings are not aquivalent with an individuals intelligence, but the PISA-studies, for example, draw a very dark picture of the future. Many youngsters cannot even fully comprehend the CONTENT of a text they are reading, any more.

    Basically what i am saying is that DESPITE this being a generations-old complaint, i believe that due to the ease of information access and retrieval in today's age, it is finally on the verge of coming true.

    Hell, even an average CAR mechanic who LEARNED his job can't do shit today if the computer is broken. And that's NOT because stuff got more complicated, i am talking about basic mechanical problems that also existed 20 years ago. He's just inable to do it without the guidance because he lacks the skill, knowledge, and experience to find the mistake himself because all the time he relies on his "electronic assistant" to do that job FOR him. And the more i look around, the more i find that kind of thing to be representative.

    Many people out there consider themselves smart, because they know how to look something up. Take away their iphone and laptop and you're left with a moron that, if you are lucky, knows how to wipe after he was on the toilet.

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    • Riddler
      10 years ago

      Its true. Society is getting stupider and we are not even allowed to deal with emotional issues anymore. While I agree delusional disorders like schizophrenia should be dealt with we are not even allowed to be unhappy when its appropriate.

      Anyone who grieves over a death is considered mentally ill and someone will fight to medicate them immediately after the funeral. They discourage kids in school when they go ahead of schedule or think outside the box.

      They teach us about the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and say what a wonderful writer the person writing it was. Yet if a student writes a story about a love that ends in tragedy they are committed and told they are mentally ill.

      How is Shakespeare hailed as a great writer but writing this today makes you a lunatic? If you do not want children to write like Shakespeare don't teach them that Shakespeare was a great writer. Society wants us to be weak, dependent and unable stupid. The more control they have the less likely we are to create an up rise when they fuck us all over.

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    • sega31098
      12 years ago

      Maybe it's that the stupid people are getting more power, rather than the people on average getting stupider.

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    • Rise
      12 years ago

      I don't see how easier access to information makes you stupid. Does having to go through unnecessary trouble make you smarter?

      You act like you're superior because you had to go to the library to go look stuff up, but how exactly does reading a book make you somehow smarter than someone who read it on the internet? Are you more educated because you drove to the local library and didn't open your laptop?

      In fact, that's like saying I should go to Barnes and Noble to buy a book instead of buying it on my Kindle. Does the person who went to the book store have a better book than someone who has it electronically? Does that make the person with the Kindle lazier? Most of my friends with phones are lazy, but I do know people without many electronics who are even lazier than us.

      I'd also like to add that the only person I know that "text talks" is my mother. None of my friends do, and the only one that has really bad grammar doesn't have a phone, or internet access. I know people who have their phones with them at all times that have good grammar, and pretty good handwriting at that.

      You take away phones and laptops from people, the only morons you're left with are the ones that were morons before.

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      • Anonymous Post Author
        12 years ago

        see, thats the problem. you read the text but don't even comprehend it.

        No, there is NO difference between getting your information from a library book or reading it online. I never said that. It's about what you do once that information has been made available to you.

        I said that when it was MORE difficult to get proper information, people actually made an effort to keep that knowledge in their brain, to learn about things.
        As opposed to just looking something up when it's needed and not caring about it any other time.

        And yes, reading a book with the intent of keeping what you read inside your brain DOES make you smarter than reading it on the internet without an intent to keep the information stored.

        The problem that i addressed is that accessed information is handled differently today. When it was harder to access proper information, you were more likely to learn things you may not have needed right then and try and remember everything you could, to save on "access time". Nowadays people don't do that any more. I don't do it myself, i just look up what i need because it's so fucking easy. But the generation growing up now never KNEW something else.

        Did you manage to even understand where i'm coming from NOW? Note that this, of course, does not mean you have to agree on the opinion, but i at least want to get on the same page about WHAT is my concern in this.

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  • sega31098
    12 years ago

    Every generation said that. Go back to the 60's and hear the past generations scoffing at the baby boomers.

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  • Ldizzy1234
    12 years ago

    I think everybody goes through these feelings about the generation after them. And I think that IQ tests could never cover EVERYTHING. So you could never really know how intelligent a person is through one of those.

    Everybody is intelligent in their own ways. And its certainly not all about the basic subjects. I mean, yes, people should know to a certain degree the basic subjects you go through at school. But, I think there's so much more that can make a person intelligent.

    And you're right about how quickly information can be accessed these days. I'll be the first to say that I really depended way too much on a calculator in math class, rather than just using my head.

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  • [Old Memory]
    12 years ago

    I think the fortunate people are getting smarter. There are however a lot of unfortunate people in the world

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