I am so smrt!… phone.
Smartphones are becoming prevalent rapidly, nearly half of all adults have at least one. Why wouldn’t they be this popular? They are a computer, that is as powerful as my old full-sized PC, that can make phone calls; how awesome is that? Why wouldn’t they be popular, You can do a damn lot with them.
They are being used throughout our days with any time we have to spare. If you’re sitting around watching TV and an advertisement comes on, you pick up your phone to check the news, social networks or play a game. It’s always on and it fills in time brilliantly but does this constant time-killer make us more stupid?
People like to state this constantly. They don’t question it, they state that smartphones are making us dumb. Among the statements made, in regard to this, is that we no longer need to memorise things like phone numbers and addresses but why would you memorise something you know how to find?
I truly can’t understand how people believe these little computers are making us stupid. It is information constantly available at our fingertips. If someone states something that they heard as a truth and it sounds rather dubious, you have the ability to pull out this device and find the facts. It doesn’t mean you will just find them at that moment and forget instantly after. You will be very likely to memorise that information for the next time someone states the same thing. If anything, in this sense, it is just making it harder for false information to travel around.
For example: someone told me that the reason they put lemons or limes in the necks of Corona cervaza’s is to keep the flies out. This sounds reasonable enough but it doesn’t really sound precise. I quickly looked it up and found this isn’t true. The most probable reason that it became a popular practice was, as stated by a Corona representative, “Corona is bottled in clear glass, and before modern methods of refrigeration and transportation, the opportunity for spoilage from exposure to sunlight was increased.”
The main reason I am against the idea that they make us dumb, is that it allows constant connection to the Internet. The Internet is definitely making it easier to educate people and people are more inclined to educate themselves using the Internet. No classes, no asking “stupid” questions in front of other people, no socialising, etc…
The Internet also allows us to look up things, with relative ease, that we would have had to visit the library or owned a set of Encyclopedia’s to find out. How can that not make us smarter. I see it like this: 20 years ago someone would have told me that Corona story and I would have had to accept it because it would have been difficult to discover the correct information.
I would like to hear some good arguments in support of smartphones making us dumb, as I have yet to come across one.
Here’s some other opinion pieces on this subject:
http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/are-smartphones-making-us-stupid-058217
http://gentlemenslounge.org/2011/11/do-smartphones-make-stupid-people/
http://blogs.news.com.au/technology/blog/index.php/news/comments/do_smartphones_make_you_smarter_or_just_more_smartphone_reliant
http://tryingtobeastylishmom.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/smartphones-are-making-us-stupid.html
http://www.heidi-miller.com/2011/08/how-smartphones-are-making-us-smarter.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wygant/are-smartphones-making-us_b_783750.html
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/smartphones-kids/
http://rixxblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/smartphones-making-us-smarter/
