Smart Technology is Making Us Dumb?

Observation. Does our reliance on computers diminish our ability to think?

I can still remember how impressed I am with my friends. Whatever I said to them, they always had an answer. I'd point to a ship, and they'd tell me about the Queen Mary, Bremen, the Lusitania, and the Titanic .. .all the great passenger liners.

 I'd talk about elephants and they answered with stories of Africa, Asia, Hannibal's warriors and the Indian Maharajahs. I was so impressed with their vast knowledge.

Want another example of this?

Think navigation. I went my whole life looking at maps and finding my way. I have a long, long history of reaching my destinations, whether on foot, by boat, or by car. I looked at a map, related it to the world around me, and found my way. All too often, navigation today is handed off to a machine.

 Many motorists can't make sense of a basic road map, or estimate the distance between two points on a printed page. They are lost if their machine loses touch with the satellites.

For many people, web browsing has replaced book reading. Recent studies suggest that their attention spans are reduced as a result. When we rely on a computer to look up facts, instead of our own memory, the price may not be obvious. But I believe it's there, and it real.

It's a point to ponder for sure. Easy answers aren't always free.

Difficulties arise when we try to solve large, complex problems using fast ‘System 1’ thinking. When ‘System 2’ thinking is deliberately put in to action, with the brain given enough time to allow it to percolate, great things can be achieved. In fact, many of the smart technologies that stand accused of dumbing down a generation would have been designed using ‘System 2’ thinking.

There is evidence that dual-process (system 1 / system 2) thinking isn’t the best explanation for how we solve problems – UNSW is amongst leading universities in Australia and the US that believe that a single-process model offers a better explanation, and they are conducting research to try and establish which model does.

Regardless of single-process or dual-process thinking, you still need to have tools, skills and knowledge available to help solve the problem. A “second system” won’t just magically kick in.

 And what’s interesting and important about Google’s Moonshot lab is that they don’t punish for failed projects, so people can try out risky ideas. This allows staff to take time and develop ideas, even in a commercial environment.

Disclaimer: The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensue discussion or debate.     

Thank you … Are smartphones making us smarter?

So much info

Information is so much easier to access than having to go to a library to find the right book. With the internet we can find info directly and not have to read a long and boring book. Technology is the way of the future. Smartphones help us learn. Smartphones are the way of the future.

Just the opposite.

No, smartphones are not making us smarter. I think that smartphones are making us less smart than we would be without them. We have grown too reliant on technology and this has caused many of us to become extremely lazy. This is a big problem, I think, and I am no exception to the problem.

Smartphones are making us dumb.

Have you ever been lost in a new city, trying to find a bus stop; your companion is standing in the middle of the sidewalk using the latest bus finding app on their smartphone?

You both know you're close because you looked up the bus schedule earlier, but your aren't totally sure which side of the block and the street you should be standing on.

While "smartphone" is totally oblivious to the world around them, you decide to look around and see that one of the streets is busier than the other.

You also notice that several buses have already gone down that street. You decide to check it out. Sure enough there's a bus stop.

You walk closer and see that it is the bus stop for your bus. You look back and see "smartphone" still poking at his screen and shout for them, "Hey, I found it!". True story, this happens to me all the time. I don't need a smart phone. I have foresight and common sense instead.

Want to add word or two?   

We can improve knowledge via it.

The smart phone is very important and easily in life. It is can bring everywhere and it's smaller than computer and tablet. More and more the smartphones we use 3G or 4G and FiWi, but other use only FiWi and if do not have Fiwi it will die mean it cannot process but smartphones can do it.

Don't make us bored

Smart phones don't make us bored like books and all. Sometimes after reading books we may feel bored but if we are using a smart phones we doesn't feel bored.

And if we talk about reading you all will say that it is better than using smart phones. But now a days we can read books in smart phone too. We get to know many things from smartphones .So, I want to say that smart phones are not breaking but making today's youth.

Your comment ….? 

They don't make us stupid.

Smartphones do not make people dumb, they really just make people lazy. But they can also help you find out new information. Some things you can't find in a book. It can save you gas too, you can look online and see if a certain place has what you need instead of driving up there and wasting your gas.

Smartphones do everything for us

Smartphones don’t make us stupid as in school or books or anything. However, they are making us stupid with doing everything for us. Texting is all people do now. No one knows how to actually talk to a person.

They tell us how to get places but shouldn't you know how to read a map just in case you don’t have phone service or something?

People think a smartphone will do everything for you and when they don't have one they are lost without it. Come on people let's learn how to do stuff on our own.

The smartphone in your hand enables you to record a video, edit it and  send it around the world. With your phone, you can navigate in cities, buy a car, track your vital signs and accomplish thousands of other tasks. And so?

Each of those activities used to demand learning specific skills and acquiring the necessary resources to do them.

Making a film? First, get a movie camera and the supporting technologies (film, lights, editing equipment).

Second, learn how to use them and hire a crew.

Third, shoot the movie.

Fourth, develop and edit the film. Fifth, make copies and distribute them.

Incorporating human skills into a machine – called “black boxing” because it makes the operations invisible to the user – allows more people to, for example, take a blood pressure measurement without investing the time, resources and effort into learning the skills previously needed to use a blood pressure cuff.

Putting the expertise in the machine lowers the barriers to entry for doing something because the person does not need to know as much. For example, contrast learning to drive a car with a manual versus an automatic transmission.