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Jun. 7th, 2010 01:00 pmIn the Wall Street Journal -- oh look at me, all fancy with my high brow newspapers -- they ran a story this weekend asking whether the internet is making us smarter or dumber. Both those links are basically op-ed pieces.
I know this is a good hook, and I know exactly why the WSJ set this up the way they did, I can't help it, I was born cranky: the internet doesn't make us anything.
The internet, like a hammer, is a tool. If you choose to hammer down a wall, the hammer has made you a demolitionist. If you choose to hammer two bits of wood together, the hammer has made you a carpenter.
I swear to god, the first person who makes a hammer-is-my-cock joke will be declared dead to me. I KNOW YOU, INTERNETS.
Anyway, the internet is definitely changing the optimum goal for communicating and processing information, which might make us seem individually smarter or dumber based on how well we fit those new goals. I've talked about this some from the conference -- moving away from where to find information and into how to discern good information from bad. Part of my own personal conscious education in this has been learning how to categorise how vital any given piece of information is, and keep, discard, or share it appropriately. I think there's no doubt that I am more well-educated than I would be without the internet, but well-educated is not necessarily intelligent, and it is a result of the way in which I use the tool, not the existence of the tool itself.
LOL, HE SAID TOOL YOU GUYS.
And I'm out for lunch. When I come back I expect a 3000 word essay on -- wait, no I don't. I expect cat macros.
I know this is a good hook, and I know exactly why the WSJ set this up the way they did, I can't help it, I was born cranky: the internet doesn't make us anything.
The internet, like a hammer, is a tool. If you choose to hammer down a wall, the hammer has made you a demolitionist. If you choose to hammer two bits of wood together, the hammer has made you a carpenter.
I swear to god, the first person who makes a hammer-is-my-cock joke will be declared dead to me. I KNOW YOU, INTERNETS.
Anyway, the internet is definitely changing the optimum goal for communicating and processing information, which might make us seem individually smarter or dumber based on how well we fit those new goals. I've talked about this some from the conference -- moving away from where to find information and into how to discern good information from bad. Part of my own personal conscious education in this has been learning how to categorise how vital any given piece of information is, and keep, discard, or share it appropriately. I think there's no doubt that I am more well-educated than I would be without the internet, but well-educated is not necessarily intelligent, and it is a result of the way in which I use the tool, not the existence of the tool itself.
LOL, HE SAID TOOL YOU GUYS.
And I'm out for lunch. When I come back I expect a 3000 word essay on -- wait, no I don't. I expect cat macros.
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