Can information cause stupidity?

As we learn how easy it is to access information through modern technology and the web, and we incorporate it further into our lives, how much are we un-learning about good, old-fashioned thinking? Is all our intelligence becoming artificial?

Getting on the bus

The web is the information superhighway - a constant stream of facts, figures, reports, opinions. You can find out anything you want to know at the click of a mouse. With estimates, at June 2009, of almost 1.7 billion web users worldwide  (a 362% increase from 2000), a quarter of the world's population is already riding in the fastlane and more are on-ramping as we speak.

In the USA, the majority of web users are under the age of 18. They are kids. The same either already applies or will very soon in the rest of the world, I'm sure. These are young people who will probably never spend hours randomly paging through the Oxford Dictionary just for the hell of it. They will seldom, if ever, sit surrounded by a sea of Encyclopaedia Britannica's as they research the next school project. Need to write a book report? Google it. Forget actually reading the silly thing and forming your own opinions.

Getting worse

As if it's not bad enough that, already, most first-year University students in South Africa cannot adequately read, write or comprehend - I predict it will get worse. Don't get me wrong, I would never dream of taking anything away from the stellar achievements of apartheid and its legacy in dumbing down our people by the restriction of access to proper information. That is a real concern, and a big part of our current situation. But, my concern here is for the future.

As more and more of our kids are born deeper into this information age, we will breed whole generations of non-thinkers. Soon the incompetence bred by our not-so-distant past will converge with the incompetence encouraged by our fast-approaching future. Ironically, access to information (and lots of it), will produce virtually the same results as restriction of access to information did.

Disclaimer: Yes, I know that in South Africa only 10% of our population even use the web. I know that we have much bigger fish to fry in sorting out our education system in general, before it is even conceivable to raise a fuss about the possible negative impacts of technology. However, I do request that you humour me here.

Convenience at all costs

Have you been on Facebook lately? Now you tell me that you haven't once wondered whether that one 'friend of a friend' can actually write proper English. You know, the one that can post a whole two-sentence comment exclusively in sms-lingo? When last did you do a three-figure calculation in your head, with out reaching for your cellphone calculator? Quick! What's 65 + 17 + 11? (Almost grabbed that cellphone, didn't you?)

We just don't have the time anymore. It's all about convenience and speed - the less effort it takes from me to get it done, the better. We don't even window-shop anymore. Why spend all that time on little things like speaking to sales people, making comparisons and forming opinions when there's a thousand blogs that will review any product you can think of and provide an online purchase link to boot? It's a copy and paste society we're moving into here. We now compare other people's opinions to figure out our own. We are slowly departing from the practise of interrogating the facts - all the facts.

Time to think

How convenient it is to just sit down and have a good think? Not very much if you've already got 9 emails in your inbox, 15 new posts on your twitstream, 3 Facebook notifications and an incoming sms. Not to mention that podcast that you still haven't listened to yet. You have no time to question things because there are so many things coming at you - all at once. You've got multiple tabs open in your web browser at any point in time, new chat messages are constantly flying in, your boss is hollering on Skype. It's never-ending.

Now, developments like Google Wave are determined to make sure that we just about live our entire lives virtually. And that is merely a taste of things to come. Technology will ensure that more and more of the things that, those of us born pre-1990 were lucky enough to not have taken for granted, are done for us... and that may well include thinking too.