Interesting to me. I've had thoughts along these lines for a while, especially since becoming dependent on the internet and all its devices: computers, phones, watches, cameras. Our brains have become unburdened from the physical obstructions to obaining and retaining information.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Any opinions? Heh. Need I ask?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2022 12:01AM by lost in space.

“I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,”

And they expect us to read past that point?

I actually don't think this is a new change. Long before the the web and search engines, after graduating college when I no longer needed to memorize all sorts of facts that would be on an exam I would instead remember which text book or other reference material contained all of the knowledge that I had learned about the subject so that I could find fine details when needed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2022 02:18AM by GGD.

I have a rule with my kids that they or I cannot immediately go to Google to look up something we are talking about. It doesn't always work, but they are hopefully getting the idea. Maybe.

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Hurts like a bastid...

This has become an issue in classrooms. Students don't want to learn facts, teachers hear "why do we need to learn this? I can just look it up if I need to know. One of the strategies being used is to try to teach them how to look something up and determine if it is from a reliable source. That is far easier said then done.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

If it’s on the web, it must be true, right?

"I could look it up if I need it" has been the excuse since the printing press was invented. It's also true--I CAN look it up if I need it.

I haven't read it yet, but looking back, it amazes me how many phone numbers I once memorized. I don't think youngsters would believe that the avg person memorized LOTS of phone numbers.

Before books and internet, if you wanted to know something, you consulted the expert(s) who knew, and learned from them - IF they would share the information.

What's changing is how we find the information we want to know.

I read a graphic/meme that said "what happened to all the phone numbers we used to memorize?" The answer is "passwords."

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“If I really want the answer the foolish questions you have asked or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer any question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me why I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”

Henry Ford

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Ombligo
This has become an issue in classrooms. Students don't want to learn facts, teachers hear "why do we need to learn this? I can just look it up if I need to know. One of the strategies being used is to try to teach them how to look something up and determine if it is from a reliable source. That is far easier said then done.

One of the ways my institution has been dealing with it (what you described about looking something up to determine if it is from a reliable source) is to have the students look at a particular question, especially something topical and relevant to real life -- for example, "This weight loss drug promises you will shed 30 pounds in ten weeks!" and then have them investigate it from all sorts of angles, consider the quality and veracity of their sources, and eventually write up something and/or have them debate it.

The ongoing shift to competency-based education is on the assumption that students can indeed find things out by just looking them up, but that evaluating/interpreting what they find and applying the skills and knowledge is really where they need help... I can attest to that personally, where I've still occasionally had students claim that something is true "because wikipedia says so".

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

tl;dr

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=TC

PeterB—- I like it. Engage the inquiring mind and engage critical thinking. Just because you saw it — in a book, on TV, on a web page, in a TikTok, on Intstagram…. Never means it’s factual.

Printing press!? Haven't people been complaining about how basic writing made people stupid long before the printing press? Why bother memorizing anything if it's possible to just write it down?

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Todd's keyboard

Todd's Cuneiform keyboard

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hal
I haven't read it yet, but looking back, it amazes me how many phone numbers I once memorized. I don't think youngsters would believe that the avg person memorized LOTS of phone numbers.

I still remember my late mother's phone number from 60 years ago - don't ask me for my son, daughters or grandkids numbers from today.

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GGD
“I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,”

And they expect us to read past that point?

I actually don't think this is a new change. Long before the the web and search engines, after graduating college when I no longer needed to memorize all sorts of facts that would be on an exam I would instead remember which text book or other reference material contained all of the knowledge that I had learned about the subject so that I could find fine details when needed.

The text books and reference materials you used provided a context for the information you were after. Having such sources gives us an idea of where the information we're looking for sits in the larger scheme of things. One of the problems I see when we look up information on the web is that there is no context, unless we dive deep enough to find it. I liken it to Apple or Google maps, especially on phones. We see only a postage stamp-size piece of the area we're interested in, but don't get an idea of surrounding areas—context— like we get with paper maps. We get where we want to go, but only gain enough knowledge for the destination, nothing about the surroundings (which we usually don't care about anyway, right?).

And then, too often, people glean that little isolated bit of information and consider themselves the wiser for it.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2022 08:15PM by lost in space.

when i look at a phone map, it's for a specific purpose, usually directions to a destination.

much different than looking at a paper map, or an atlas.

so much of information we gather is contextual.

mushrooms: reference for drawing, or source of food? for one of them, the variety is much more important than the other.

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