Is connectivity making people smarter?
I’m not talking about those with the inclination to investigate every innovation, develop platforms for interaction or keep track of what humanity is up to, although I do wonder what Julian Assange might have done with his smarts if the Internet didn’t exist and how many other brilliant minds might have gone to seed in the days before sitting around in your bedroom in smelly sweats for days on end allowed one to reach into the guts of power of all sorts.
No, I’m thinking about the reasonably bright lot for whom ease of access to information, one-click research and breakfasting on RSS feeds just might be growing brain cells or teaching the ones already there to shake hands more often.
Historically, availability of info has been proven to do just that, and along with the process of getting smarter shit happens, as this WSJ article illustrates:
As Gutenberg’s press spread through Europe, the Bible was translated into local languages, enabling direct encounters with the text; this was accompanied by a flood of contemporary literature, most of it mediocre. Vulgar versions of the Bible and distracting secular writings fueled religious unrest and civic confusion, leading to claims that the printing press, if not controlled, would lead to chaos and the dismemberment of European intellectual life.
These claims were, of course, correct. Print fueled the Protestant Reformation, which did indeed destroy the Church’s pan-European hold on intellectual life. What the 16th-century foes of print didn’t imagine—couldn’t imagine—was what followed: We built new norms around newly abundant and contemporary literature. Novels, newspapers, scientific journals, the separation of fiction and non-fiction, all of these innovations were created during the collapse of the scribal system, and all had the effect of increasing, rather than decreasing, the intellectual range and output of society.
I started blogging back in 2003 on a professional site that eventually saw my posts getting over 100,000 hits a month. It was new to a lot of people then, all this Internet interaction, but the site was topic-specific … adoption … and many came to it looking for information tailored to their issues, questions and needs. Approaching what was to many a new way of gaining knowledge with an agenda encouraged participation, and a jump into one pool of info prompted leaps into others.
In pursuit of fodder, I joined a bunch of groups … Yahoo first, then Google offered forums for exchange, and the give-and-take was often lively after people overcame their original shyness.
Most new members announced themselves as such, apologizing in advance for any blunders as they tiptoed into discussions, but soon gained confidence not only with the technology, but also in their ability to convey meaning through writing their thoughts.
Unlike in the time when written material was often a one-side lecture and responses took days or weeks to lob the discussion ball back over the net, hot debates started happening in real time with only seconds passing between one point and the next.
People not only began to type faster, they learned to frame thoughts in ways that could be typed fast and understood. Without the benefit of vocal tone, eye contact and body language, words needed to be well chosen and presented if one had any hope of having meaning comprehended by the target audience.
Online groups led to social networking, and chatting and typing got even faster. People grew beyond the fear of putting thoughts in writing … an ‘engraving in stone’ idea that had some concerned for a while about the written word … and began to converse comfortably with their fingers.
The global scope gets people from widely-flung countries and cultures talking, an opportunity that serves to extend the range of thought at the same time it encourages us to consider people geographically distant to feel like neighbors chatting over the back fence. With online translators … as crap as they are … we can even communicate across language divides.
Sure, a lot of what goes back-and-forth is inconsequential bollocks … flirty bullshit, schmooze, schmaltz and preaching to the choir … but it is back-and-forth, active, so has more likelihood of developing into something of interest than sitting in front of the TV. For those who think inconsequential bollocks is what it’s all about ….
The decade the pessimists want to return us to is the 1980s, the last period before society had any significant digital freedoms. Despite frequent genuflection to European novels, we actually spent a lot more time watching “Diff’rent Strokes” than reading Proust, prior to the Internet’s spread. The Net, in fact, restores reading and writing as central activities in our culture.
On a personal level all this connectivity has made life on a tiny island vastly more interesting, and, yes, it has made me smarter. Friends from all over the world share ideas and information freely and easily, so my perspective is wider. I can read news from just about anywhere, from the Red Bluff Daily to Al Jazeera, and although I often feel the overload I can click from link to link to link and examine any issue. When I have a question about anything I can find an answer … or 1,000.
Sure, I can also watch Bullwinkle pull a rabbit out of a hat … oops, wrong hat … and read all the stupid shit that floats, but even that keeps my brain working.
There is no going back … I hope, although today’s news on the ramping up of what is rapidly evolving into a war has me worried that we’re sure to see serious attacks designed to rein in freedom of information.
Those of us with Internet access … even me with my fucking unreliable Kokonet connection … have grown accustomed the routine of getting a bit smarter, or at least better informed, every day, and as more people connect the world gets smaller and smarter, both through reference sources and personal contacts previously impossible.
For example, I have a facebook friend in Niger, so can not only Wiki the country for info, I can write to my pal with questions on day-to-day living, his take on politics and events and a weather report.
When news happens … the recent tragedy in Cambodia comes to mind … it’s not difficult to get a first-hand account from someone there.
The option we have now of removing or ignoring filters placed by those with an agenda we may not see makes it possible to get closer to the bottom of any issue of interest, and as we get better at learning how to use our ‘connections’ to plumb depths we expand the concept of our place in the world.
Of course, there is a downside …
It’s a lot harder to find an excuse to be stupid.
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Paradise Preoccupied 
Hey baby. Wanna come over and check out my blog?
You betcha! Be right over …
A seemingly infinite amount of fascinating information, but still only 24 hours in a day filled with other responsibilities. The “smarter” I feel, the more overwhelmed I feel . .
Or the more overwhelmed you are, CM. Knowing stuff ain’t for sissies …
But seriously, folks …
I’m guessing self-preservation is the reason I’m not interested in knitting patterns, the anatomy of newts, traditional dress in Chechnya, the silly game of cricket and a bazillion other things I could study in detail daily. Thankfully, my inner filters still kinda work most of the time.
Thanks for stopping by, and for taking a bit of this 24 hours to comment.
Best,
Sandra
Heck, now I gotta go look up the difference between “feeling” and “being.” Aw, forget it. And you’re welcome. 🙂
Let me know if you figure it out, CM … and if you have any extra time, how about the diff between wanting and needing? Oh! the devil IS in the details, dammit!
Sandra, that’s why I read your blog – to broaden my perspective and learn from a pro.
Why, thank you, Marianne. And for commenting again, since I just realized I’ve not yet changed that link! Busy day …
Hard but not impossible as evolution effects everything, making the smart smarter and the stupid, well you get the drift…
I was about to ask what the evolutionary mandate for stupid could be … then I thought about if for a second, and … well … never mind.
do tell
I wondered Sandra, about living where you do…it IS (I would imagine) a gorgeous place, but I can also imagine somewhat isolating. Maybe that’s the point? 🙂 Regardless, the net seems to be handy for reaching out when one wants to connect and you can turn it off anytime too.
You said: It’s a lot harder to find an excuse to be stupid. I agree, I also think it’s a lot harder to be uninteresting. You’ve got to be making a real effort at it when so much information is available and so many fascinating people are right at our fingertips.
Be well.
Gorgeous it is, and somewhat isolating, and being connected is often a saving grace.
There wass never an excuse to be uninteresting, however, even when all there was available amounted to a stick, some fire and a rock.
Thanks, Teri. Your comments keep me thinking …
Sandra, the flip side question is: are we just knowing less about more. There is much ado about the reducing concentration span of the younger generation. I am sorry – no substantiating links, but I am sure you have seen the articles just as I have. Wiki is often just plain wrong – people think they know when in fact they don’t.
Don’t get me wrong, the internet and all the related benefits are wonderful, I agree. I am not yet convinced we have learned to use it properly or effectively.
Reduced concentration spans probably have as much to do with the timing of ad breaks on TV than anything on the internet. However, having worked with people who write for web sites professionally (marketing) and listened to them present the reasoning behind their writing styles, I shudder to think how many people actually do not get the “full bottle” on anything any more. To those writers, trying to grab someone’s attention in what seems like a split second, the entries you or I write would be considered way too long! 🙂
You are a writer, not only professional but gifted: I am not – you at least have that advantage when competing for the attention of the itinerant surfer.
While I won’t live long enough to find out, I’d love to be a fly on the wall 200 years from now. I’d love to see how it all pans out.
what a great article. i have undertook the most amazing journeys from the comfort of my own living room. met the most amazing people. forged friendships that will last a lifetime. had the most amazing discussions.
i remember a few years back talking to a young engineer from rural Pakistan, controlled by Al Qaeda about reconciling the values of being a Muslim and the violence found under Taliban rule. I will never forget it.
Or the discussions I had with one of the explorers from the original team who discovered the ship that Pirates of the Caribbean is based on.
Or the tale from a woman who’s great grandfather was a wealthy business man in Siberia. Executed on the personal instructions of Stalin. Whos mother fled to China. Who’s great great uncle composed the Hungarian national anthem.
Recently I discovered that my Great Grandfather fought in the Anglo-Boer war. Was a POW in Shri Lanka. Within a day I found pictures of the bungalow where he was kept in Ceylon. What the harbor looked like where they arrived.
I day after this someone from the UK mailed me my great grandfathers POW number along with that of his two brothers who were imprisoned with him.
I found a detailed account of the battle in the Free State where he was captured and where I was first told that it was an insignificant battle, I learned that the Boer forces were under the personal command of the President of the Free State, President Steyn and that the battle was a turning point in the war.
I managed to trace my ancestors as far back as the 1500’s in Waldeck, Germany and a few months ago, a distant relative from Holland visited Waldeck and managed to trace our ancestors back to when surnames were first adopted.
what an absolutely amazing world we live in!
GREAT article!
Fascinating! Now we just need to find the curiosity switch on many folks and flick it to the ‘on’ position. If more could be stimulated to click from porn and such to sites with more information than titillation we might really be able to grow smarter as a species. Or not. There are, after all, huge and crowded chat rooms of naked, grunting peeps who learn nothing more from their virtual connections than the range of sex toys and consider only one form of growth a positive. But, so it goes. Not everyone is interesting.
And, thank you, Eben.
(Pirates of the Caribbean is based on a ride at Disneyland. I’ve seen the ship many times … 😉
Oh come on! You know how many things I have learned from porn sites! Things I would not have imagined and wow. . . it actually works in practice!! hahahahaha!
Hm. Actually, Eben, I don’t know, but if you’d like to demonstrate your wisdom and skills, I am single, so it might be fun to see what you’ve learned. 😉
and i thought im gonna need to “invent” a reason for visiting your island! :-))
Hahahahahahahaaaaaaaa … Seems that bit’s sorted …