Study: Internet and Tech Making Kids Dumber?

Status
Not open for further replies.

alidan

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2009
1,681
0
19,730
[citation][nom]squallypie[/nom]The last paragraph is so true![/citation]

the last paragraph is a paranoid rant.
o i see an advertisement more geared tward something i may like, big deal.

i put nothing of any importance online ever, so what do i care if a company uses that info?
 

nesters

Distinguished
May 25, 2010
5
0
18,510
It's not only about leaving info there... Companies are also researching how people react to different things on site, layouts, etc. They make you register, even if you don't leave any information there, they achieved something and there's always a little chance that you will end up using their product.
 

alidan

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2009
1,681
0
19,730
[citation][nom]nesters[/nom]It's not only about leaving info there... Companies are also researching how people react to different things on site, layouts, etc. They make you register, even if you don't leave any information there, they achieved something and there's always a little chance that you will end up using their product.[/citation]

ok so you are complaining that on a site like facebook, you have to register to have an account? or is it that you have to register to make an online purchase? personally its a pain but it saves time on re entering credit card info, it also keeps tack of my purchases on better websites.

and are you ACTUALLY complaining that companies are using the info that gather to make a more user friendly websites or making there products better.

now i stay up late and walk around, it helps me to think. i pace around the basement, and watch some infomercials as background noise. they make me want to buy the products, like th nuwave oven, or any of the food things, but i dont. i have willpower.

if you are complaining that people with weak wills will buy products they dont need on impulse... yea... i believe you are complaining about nothing.
 

terror112

Distinguished
Dec 25, 2006
39
0
18,580
"They have an average of 440 friends apiece on Facebook. Do you know how long it takes to check in on 440 friends?"

This line is completely taken out of context. Of these 440 friends, a vast majority are only acquaintances. A reasonable number of "true" Facebook friends would be 20 or 30. And the amount of time needed to check up on these friends is significantly reduced due to the news feed feature. That's not to say that facebook isn't time consuming, it's just not for the reason stated. In my opinion, a majority of the time on facebook is spent communicating with a smaller group of friends.
 

shin0bi272

Distinguished
Nov 20, 2007
271
0
18,930
There was a study out a few months ago that said that the internet made kids smarter because they could look up the answers to questions instantly even on their phone. It sounds to me like this pilly paper is just jealous and/or conspiratorial about big corporations... I guess someone has to be the bad guy right?
 

Travis Beane

Distinguished
Aug 6, 2010
251
0
18,930
It's also these people who become engineers and scientists.
It's difficult for me to stop myself form saying many negative things about that Philadelphia magazine.
 

alyoshka

Distinguished
Oct 2, 2009
576
0
19,010
I wouldn't be much bothered about the corporates gathering behavioral information about my kids, but what really does bother me is their complete lack of wanting to go out into the fresh air and do something constructive because of their addiction to Farmville and Facebook.
I'd rather the Farmville actually invested with face book into setting up Biospheres and have free tours and work camps for it's juvenile members to be able to get together and yet interact..... actually and not kinda online all the time.....
 

normano

Distinguished
Mar 11, 2010
29
0
18,580
[citation][nom]terror112[/nom]"They have an average of 440 friends apiece on Facebook. Do you know how long it takes to check in on 440 friends?" This line is completely taken out of context. Of these 440 friends, a vast majority are only acquaintances. A reasonable number of "true" Facebook friends would be 20 or 30. And the amount of time needed to check up on these friends is significantly reduced due to the news feed feature. That's not to say that facebook isn't time consuming, it's just not for the reason stated. In my opinion, a majority of the time on facebook is spent communicating with a smaller group of friends.[/citation]


i think we possibly need to define the term 'friends' - you and I may view many 'friends' as just acquaintances - but the young view them differently. Try having an IT savvy teenage daughter in the house and you will understand my point. They talk to these people incessantly irrespective of if they are regular friends or not.
 

demonhorde665

Distinguished
Jul 13, 2008
802
0
18,930
and this here is why outside of my school work (i major in game art design at an online school) and outside of school related emails and outside of steam games, i don't really spend much time on the web, i do have a face book page but i rarely look at it or post stupid comments on it i occasionally add more of my art work to my photos section. but the whole social web thing .. i really dont do , would rather go outside and hang out with real friends that live in town.
 

Yuka

Distinguished
May 3, 2007
246
0
18,840
[citation][nom]terror112[/nom]"They have an average of 440 friends apiece on Facebook. Do you know how long it takes to check in on 440 friends?" This line is completely taken out of context. Of these 440 friends, a vast majority are only acquaintances. A reasonable number of "true" Facebook friends would be 20 or 30. And the amount of time needed to check up on these friends is significantly reduced due to the news feed feature. That's not to say that facebook isn't time consuming, it's just not for the reason stated. In my opinion, a majority of the time on facebook is spent communicating with a smaller group of friends.[/citation]

Still, 5 minutes each on 30 friends, that you actually spend "time" on, is 150mins, thats 2.5 hours of a day wasted on "checking" friends; note that 5mins per "close" friend is still low and we all know that. Now you have to add Mailing, MMS/SMS'ing, Twitter, MMORPGs and other online services which hook up "buddies" on the regular kids these days. You could easily add 8 hours, which is about the whole productive day for studying (why not?).

It ain't a "soft topic" IMO. And it doesn't affect only kids in the USA; it affects the whole world.

Cheers!
 
G

Guest

Guest
Facebook, text messaging, and social networking in general that is done through technology serves no good purpose but to make the companies that provide it money. Its a waste of everyone's time, but society as a whole does have a tendency to place importance on completely meaningless and/or inpractical things. And thats to say nothing of the addictive shovelware that is facebook games. If the extent of a game is basically logging in every few hours and clicking on something so you can have more of it, whats the point of playing (i realize this also applies to WoW, but I personally don't like the everquest combat system anyway so I'm fine with that).
 
G

Guest

Guest
If one were so inclined to read the entire article, one would find this was not a 'study,' but rather a few teens and parents talking about their experience with technology, social groups and school. There was no huge, random sample of data collected that tested intelligence quotients, or any sort of assessment for defining the author's assumptions. I'm all for kids going to play real games and talking to real people, but if someone is going to publish an article like this, I'd much rather see hard data over a large sample than hear a few opinions of how technology affects our youth.
 

K-zon

Distinguished
Apr 17, 2010
179
0
18,630
At first its making them smarter then its making them dumber and then smarter again, and to be dumb at being smarter and smarter at being dumb. Is more like it, rather it is worth anything to anyone. Given knowledge does contain power it does contain its own powerlessness to say as well. So, which ever part of it that seems to find a better suit of such is of that that we will hear about the most and read of the most. Rather its the corporation offering the services or not.
 

quantum mask

Distinguished
Aug 24, 2009
121
0
18,630
I look at some of my friends kids today and I think of when I was their age. I can't help but think to myself, "wow, when I was there age, I knew a lot more" When you really think about it though, they're not dumber, they just know different things. I will say this though, I think the use of a lot of technology is ruining their imagination. When I was growing up, we had to use our imagination all the time. Kids today have imagination served to them, so they really don't need to use their own. They're not dumb, they just use different "muscles" than we did.

When I was coming up, the only real tech out there for kids was Atari. We played it alot, but being outside was more fun sometimes. I do know this . . . when my friends get together with their kids and we all get into a game of Monopoly, the kids seem alot happier than when I see them mindlessly droning away in front of Facebook.
 

kingnoobe

Distinguished
Aug 20, 2008
360
0
18,930
Lets start off with the military. Their getting worse recruits, because their focus is simply on getting numbers. This is a FACT, they have quotos they will do what it takes to get people in. And basic training is no where near what it used to be. NEWS FLASH: You lower the bar, you get less!

Teachers are getting laid off, schools are getting shutting down due to not having enough money. We pay plenty of taxes but it gets wasted for a bunch of dumb crap. Why? Because politicians care more about what's in their pocket then the American people anymore.

Sure we're getting more dumb kids, that happens when you get a higher population. We're also getting more smarter people. You just hear about the dumb ones more because they make the news. You don't hear about that doctor that works in the ER constantly saving lives, or military personal, cops, fireman, or the average joe that plays WOW or hops on Facebook on his downtime. That still live what some would say, "is a normal life". Why? Because that would be boring.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.