Technology - Making us Intellectually "Lazy"?

[Retro Rob]

The motivation behind this thread lies with something I heard on the local news this morning, that XBL (Xbox Live users, being one myself) can order pizza's while playing Xbox!

Personally, my wife and I perfer to run out and pick up our pizzas on Friday nights -- I've only phone-ordered a pizza probably a handful of times my entire life because I'd rather to at least get some fresh air and get some exercise during my trip. Some people don't have transportation, so they have to call if they want a pizza.

Also, there's a good article, here, overviewing how technology can affect our health and intellectual capabilities.

I've been one to let the autocorrect do all the work for me when spelling words or when texting and typing into Google's/Yahoo's search engine... and I have admittedly forgotten how to spell words I normally could without thinking, and have become too lazy to take the time to type out the entire phrase I'm searching for.

As as a kid, my parents didn't buy me video game systems -- I was told to "go outside and play boy... it's nice out". So I never really played games growing up...I was outside.

Personally, I think if you're too lazy to pick up a freaking phone or drive to the pizza place, you shouldn't be eating a pizza.

I like how technology makes life easier and eliminates tedious employment, helps us communicated better and faster, get us from point "A" to point "B" with relative ease, but I think there should be some limits.

Just my $.02. Thoughts, anyone? :awe:

 

[PowerEngineer]

Well, I suppose it's all about where you want to draw those limits. You certainly aren't going to get me to agree that pizza ordering is the right place to draw it!

It's certainly true that technology relaxes the requirements for some chores. Very few school age kids know their multiplication tables as well as their parents do (or did). Spelling (and legible handwriting) aren't nearly as important now either with the advent of word processors and spell checkers (even now here at ATOT - thank goodness!). It seems to me that even coherent reading and writing are being devalued by the sound-bite tsunami of digital media.

Maybe this is a bad thing. Of course, I imagine that some of our ancestors might have had similar thoughts when the printing press made books so much more readily available that it was no longer necessary to memorize them.

My two cents...

 

[wirednuts]

i think technology is just making it seem like we are slowing our brains... but in reality we are smarter as a whole then we ever have been. anything you want to know is an instant internet search away. i think its actually making our bodies evolve faster, and we will start noticing it in a couple more generations of internet kids. unlimited knowledge cant be a bad thing.

 

[Retro Rob]

Well, I suppose it's all about where you want to draw those limits. You certainly aren't going to get me to agree that pizza ordering is the right place to draw it!

It's certainly true that technology relaxes the requirements for some chores. Very few school age kids know their multiplication tables as well as their parents do (or did). Spelling (and legible handwriting) aren't nearly as important now either with the advent of word processors and spell checkers (even now here at ATOT - thank goodness!). It seems to me that even coherent reading and writing are being devalued by the sound-bite tsunami of digital media.

Maybe this is a bad thing. Of course, I imagine that some of our ancestors might have had similar thoughts when the printing press made books so much more readily available that it was no longer necessary to memorize them.

My two cents...

I think that there should be limits, but I don't know where. If we get to the point, like in the movie "Surrogates" to where we don't even have to ever leave our homes, I'd be glad I'm dead and in the grave by that time.

The printing press gets rid of the time-consuming, tedious work I was speaking of, IMO.. but it doesn't make people read books less. Auto-correct can destroy the need to learn to spell words and type/write correctly.

 

[theevilsharpie]

The printing press gets rid of the time-consuming, tedious work I was speaking of, IMO.. but it doesn't make people read books less. Auto-correct can destroy the need to learn to spell words and type/write correctly.

I disagree. I know several people that have not been the most... "literate" (for lack of a better term), and I've seen their writing improve dramatically as a result of auto-correct showing them how words are supposed to be spelled as they're writing.

When I was growing up, the poster child for "intellectually lazy" activities was watching television, yet TV taught me how to read at a high level early in life. As a kid, I always had to keep the volume down because I'd be watching TV late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping, so I'd keep closed-captioning on so I wouldn't miss any of the dialog and lose track of the story. Not only was I reading, I was able to hear how the words were pronounced, and I was able to pick up the difference between words that are spelled differently and have different meanings, but sound the same. It was like having a parent read to me for hours per day, every day. By the time I finished 4th grade, I was already reading at a college level.

I see no problem with technology making our lives easier, physically and intellectually. While the "lazy" may use technology to avoid thinking about a subject they don't care about, the smarter folks among us are using it to minimize their grunt work so they can focus on higher-level pursuits. It's a win all around.

 

[jaqie]

I've been one to let the autocorrect do all the work for me when spelling words or when texting and typing into Google's/Yahoo's search engine... and I have admittedly forgotten how to spell words I normally could without thinking, and have become too lazy to take the time to type out the entire phrase I'm searching for.

As as a kid, my parents didn't buy me video game systems -- I was told to "go outside and play boy... it's nice out". So I never really played games growing up...I was outside.

I too was one of those kids, but I very very much preferred video gaming, techie stuff (first electrician and then once I discovered them computer tech), and also driving though I cannot afford the latter anymore and am too ill (terminal neurological illness) to bike and hike like I used to all the time.

I had to buy my own video games and systems, I was never really bought anything, I even had to earn the things I was 'given' several times over... that definitely taught me a few things about the value of items. Growing up was far from a picnic and no way was it all good for me, I have a thread in health and fitness if you are interested in that.

As for autocorrect... what do you use? I find myself even after literally adding words and such to firefox's built in dictionary for years (every reinstall gets FEBE backuped and restored into the next install, all settings incl dictionary) and I still have to correct it far far more often than it corrects me...

I also already mentioned my neurological problem, on top of that I have two forms of advanced arthritis and I still type everything out, I have integrated that as part of my own personal 'style' and that helped avert that habit quite well. Maybe you could do the same?

I do know that some tech has made us intellectually lazy, things like calculators... I am 35 so I grew up in the last little bit of 'you must learn your maths yourself' before everyone just gave up and used calculators. I can still do some of it though algebraic equations are far from recallable anymore.

Some lost skills I think are not truly making us lazy, just a change in society, such as typewriters to computers, the old corn on the cob 'ding' joke no longer gets people, as does reading time on an analog clock face - it's just outmoded stuff and not really lazy there, IMO.

Some things really do keep us intellectually engaged, its just that the choices for us all are exponentially wider... mind games such as sudoku once known only to very few can be found out and played by anyone on the planet with a few clicks or someone mentioning the word... You can tune into how-tos, documentaries, engineering shows, science shows, even NASA and government stuff live all you want. It's all in what you want to do and choose to do nowadays, sadly many choose the less mentally exercising options. That is where things are slipping is choice and socially passed values, not the tech itself.

 

[jaqie]

pizza's

It also doesn't fix grammar.

AAARGH fixit fixit fixitfixitfixit! {/ocd}
sorry, that just messes with me really bad!

 

[cwjerome]

I think technology has made us more physically lazy... not so much intellectually lazy.

 

[Retro Rob]

I disagree. I know several people that have not been the most... "literate" (for lack of a better term), and I've seen their writing improve dramatically as a result of auto-correct showing them how words are supposed to be spelled as they're writing.

True, it can be used in that way as well, and I have benefited from autocorrect in order to spell words I didn't know how to -- so I understand that.

I guess what my point is that it isn't required to correctly spell words nowadays to use Google or Yahoo! in order to find something. Some people, myself included, have taken full advantage of not necessarily needing to correctly spell words. To help curb this, I don't use autocorrect in my brower anymore.

When I was growing up, the poster child for "intellectually lazy" activities was watching television, yet TV taught me how to inread at a high level early life. As a kid, I always had to keep the volume down because I'd be watching TV late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping, so I'd keep closed-captioning on so I wouldn't miss any of the dialog and lose track of the story. Not only was I reading, I was able to hear how the words were pronounced, and I was able to pick up the difference between words that are spelled differently and have different meanings, but sound the same. It was like having a parent read to me for hours per day, every day. By the time I finished 4th grade, I was already reading at a college level.

I see no problem with technology making our lives easier, physically and intellectually. While the "lazy" may use technology to avoid thinking about a subject they don't care about, the smarter folks among us are using it to minimize their grunt work so they can focus on higher-level pursuits. It's a win all around.

Great post! This is why I constructed the thread title in the form of a question so to extract views different than mine.

 

[shortylickens]

http://www.amazon.com/The-Shallows-I.../dp/0393339750


EXCELLENT fucking book.
Everybody on this forum should read it.

 

[JTsyo]

I see no difference between calling or ordering online. I don't think we should ever limit things since it's not what we did before. While we might not be comfortable with the way society evolves, we must allow it to change and not try to limit it to our comfort zone.

I'm sure there's things on the horizon that would truly push the limits. ie bio-engineering, cybernetic enhancements and such.

 

[smackababy]

I see no difference between calling or ordering online. I don't think we should ever limit things since it's not what we did before. While we might not be comfortable with the way society evolves, we must allow it to change and not try to limit it to our comfort zone.

I'm sure there's things on the horizon that would truly push the limits. ie bio-engineering, cybernetic enhancements and such.

There is a big difference, I don't have to shout my CC number over the phone to some kid getting paid $9 an hour, who won't put it in correctly the first few times. At least when I order online, I can ensure it takes the least amount of time as possible. But, then again, the pizza place I order from is literally next door to my complex, so I just phone and walk over and pay.

 

[DaveSimmons]

There's a good pizza place a half a block away from me now so I just walk there, but before I moved here I preferred online ordering. When a computer takes the order it's less likely to mess up the toppings list or write down the wrong address.

 

[rudder]

i think technology is just making it seem like we are slowing our brains... but in reality we are smarter as a whole then we ever have been. anything you want to know is an instant internet search away. i think its actually making our bodies evolve faster, and we will start noticing it in a couple more generations of internet kids. unlimited knowledge cant be a bad thing.

But is having access to a search engine really making people smarter? Will i try to retain information knowing I can just type a query into said search engine? Does this require me to do any Thinking?

Lets say I take a drive to a location in a city I never visited before. If I rely on GPS does my hippocampus get any simulation if I don't use that part of my brain to remember landmarks that I can use on future trips to this new location?

Seems to me that all this access to easy information is making our brains lazier.

 

[irishScott]

Quite the contrary IMO. The advent of the internet has opened up a host of educational possibilities. I knew my multiplication tables just fine, my handwriting is often superior to my peers, and in addition I knew how to search the web and properly before my parents did. That has never made me "lazy" in the slightest (ever research sources for a paper via google? More often than not it's hard to find what you're looking for.)

As for video games, depends on the game and how often its played. I see no problems with video games in moderation. In fact many video games can be quite intellectually stimulating, especially strategy or puzzle games.

Technology is no more making us intellectually lazy than cars made us physically lazy. Sure it's perhaps easier for someone to be lazy nowadays, but as society stands the downsides to perpetual laziness still far outweigh the "benefits".

To end on another analogy, having access to large amounts of food does not make one fat.

 

[alzan]

I think we are more socially and emotionally lazy from technology than intellectually. In some ways I see us as losing the ability or even desire in some cases of connecting socially and emotionally. Emotionally has always been with us but is further enabled by technology.

This is not just limited to youth; many friends and acquaintances from my generation (last of the baby-boomers) have or are succumbing to the "digital catatonia" created by smartphones, wifi everywhere, etc.

 

[KirbyCodeMonkey]

Have you seen the hand writing of kids constantly connected to technology? When I was sub for some high school I was appealed. I asked students to rewrite their work, but it never got better. I don't believe it has made them smarter. They can't retain the knowledge because they can just google it. It was kind of sad.

 

[natto fire]

I think we are more socially and emotionally lazy from technology than intellectually. In some ways I see us as losing the ability or even desire in some cases of connecting socially and emotionally. Emotionally has always been with us but is further enabled by technology.

This is not just limited to youth; many friends and acquaintances from my generation (last of the baby-boomers) have or are succumbing to the "digital catatonia" created by smartphones, wifi everywhere, etc.

I agree 100% with this and particularly when it comes to basic etiquette about when it is ok to use cell phones. I have had rare occasions when I am in a line at a store using my phone but I always make sure to end my call by the time I get to the checkout. Not sure if it is because I used to work retail, or I am just interested in human interaction, but it drives me crazy when people treat clerks like robots going through their convo barely paying attention to the person that helped make it possible. As if it was not enough these people are running me off the road when I am driving, I now have to see them disregard everyone else while shopping too.

 

[Exterous]

unlimited knowledge cant be a bad thing.

It depends on how we use it. We've been given a fantastic and powerful tool in the internet but I think its getting more and more misused. Internet search is seen as a means to an end and not a method of investigation. You have a problem? You type it in and you expect to get the answer to your problem. By itself this is not an issue unless you expect it to spoon fed the answer every time. I think that is more often becoming the case and I think it's detrimental to your problem solving skills while leaving you without a foundation of knowledge to deal with similar\related issues.

Its like giving a guy a book on how to fish but having him constantly ask you how to bait the line and then coming back to you when he needs to know how to cast and then what that little wheel thingie is because he didn't think to turn the lever to see what it did

I see this often with more complex situations in the travel miles&points game and basic retirement planning where one size fits all solutions are rare. The tools are out there and often free and plentiful but people 'don't have time' to figure things out (but they have time for facebook, TV, looking at cats with cheeseburgers on their head etc). They just want someone to tell them what to do for their specific situation instead of researching to figure out the problem on their own. Then - when they encounter a new problem or need to do something else they need someone to help them with that as well. If they had bothered to learn about it instead of just seeking an answer to a question they would likely be able to deal with the new issue on their own

 

[randomrogue]

While technology has limited my ability to memorize things (since I don't need to memorize anything any longer) I think it has also expanded on our pool of knowledge.

Sure in 1989 I had 50 telephone number numbers memorized but if I wanted to know something I had to go to a library and look it up which wasn't always realistic. I recall the joys of doing research and having to scan through microfilm. Not fun at all. My family had the 1982 World Encyclopedia so I could look stuff up in there as well but I might need to look up changes in each of the following 7 yearly updates and might still not find what I was looking for.

Today if I wanted to know about the ruling party in Malaysia I found out first thing this morning right after it happened. In 1989 I might have to wait a year to really find out since odds are I wouldn't notice the page 27 B section article about it in the paper (if it was even mentioned) and who knows if World Book would update their information in the next years updates.

 

[Paul98]

Knowledge vs Understanding... You have a large number of people who have lots of knowledge on different subjects, yet understand very little. The internet has made this worse. This gives a disconnect and is dangerous when trying to come to conclusions or make decisions.

This knowledge vs understanding thing I have been thinking about a lot recently. The more I read or hear people talk about things it seems that most people have no or very little understanding about the things they talk about. Especially if it's a "hot", or popular topic. This allows people to be easily manipulated.

This is where many common misconceptions come from on all types of subjects. It's painfully obvious when looking at things like relativity, evolution, climate change, or really any physics.

 

[smackababy]

Knowledge vs Understanding... You have a large number of people who have lots of knowledge on different subjects, yet understand very little. The internet has made this worse. This gives a disconnect and is dangerous when trying to come to conclusions or make decisions.

This knowledge vs understanding thing I have been thinking about a lot recently. The more I read or hear people talk about things it seems that most people have no or very little understanding about the things they talk about. Especially if it's a "hot", or popular topic. This allows people to be easily manipulated.

This is where many common misconceptions come from on all types of subjects. It's painfully obvious when looking at things like relativity, evolution, climate change, or really any physics.

In those issues, people don't have knowledge or understanding. They have misinformation and ignorance. They assume they have knowledge because they heard something, somewhere about the subject. You can't have knowledge about physics without understanding it. Or relativity. How many people know what E=mc^2 even means? How many can name what c even is?

 

[CrackRabbit]

But is having access to a search engine really making people smarter? Will i try to retain information knowing I can just type a query into said search engine? Does this require me to do any Thinking?

Lets say I take a drive to a location in a city I never visited before. If I rely on GPS does my hippocampus get any simulation if I don't use that part of my brain to remember landmarks that I can use on future trips to this new location?

Seems to me that all this access to easy information is making our brains lazier.

Using your GPS example, yes, at least I for myself try to familiarize myself with my surroundings for future use. Technology can and does fail, and one should always try to be prepared for when it does.
Sadly many people don't, but I don't think that is the fault of technology in of itself.

 

[Paul98]

In those issues, people don't have knowledge or understanding. They have misinformation and ignorance. They assume they have knowledge because they heard something, somewhere about the subject. You can't have knowledge about physics without understanding it. Or relativity. How many people know what E=mc^2 even means? How many can name what c even is?

I am talking about real knowledge, such as that the speed of light is constant in all inertial frames of references but no idea what that really means.

Or have knowledge that climate changed in the past, then understanding that to mean man can't effect climate.

But it's not just things like that, it's everything even down to the most basic and what should be obvious. Instead of learning and understanding, simply remembering what they were taught with no understanding of it.

 

[randomrogue]

You're taking it to an extreme. Was very common in college. The speed of light being constant let alone what an inertial frame is means nothing and has absolutely no importance to the average person. Yes you find it interesting and important but it's no more important to Joe the Plumber than the types of fittings that are under your sink are to you.

Critical thinking and truly being able to analyze a situation and draw logical conclusions will forever remain a skill for the minority. You think we have it bad here? Go to China. There's 1.5 billion people and they aren't taught critical thinking or analysis there. Just memorization.