Has internet/google/facebook made people dumber/less informed?

[Copprhed]

The internet doen't make people more stupid, it allows more stupid people to communicate with each other and reinforce their stupidity. They do it with rebellion against science(climate change for one, flat earth, no lunar landing, etc.) It has changed from a potential force for good, into a vehicle for the worst of mankind to spout their bile.

[Skuzzy]

The ignorant, by far and away, outnumber the knowledgeable in any given topic of discussion.

I blame Youtube and Wikipedia for the primary resources for the dispersing of bad information.  I do not think ignorance is as bad as corrupted information is.  Unfortunately, the ignorant do not know any better and so it spirals out of control.

Just FYI.  The original Darpa and Arpa NET were comprised of the most knowledgeable people around (university professors, MIT, NASA scientists, JPL...).  It was a pure joy to participate in discussions among those people.

AOL ruined it all.

[Copprhed]

The ignorant, by far and away, outnumber the knowledgeable in any given topic of discussion.

I blame Youtube and Wikipedia for the primary resources for the dispersing of bad information.  I do not think ignorance is as bad as corrupted information is.  Unfortunately, the ignorant do not know any better and so it spirals out of control.

Just FYI.  The original Darpa and Arpa NET were comprised of the most knowledgeable people around (university professors, MIT, NASA scientists, JPL...).  It was a pure joy to participate in discussions among those people.

AOL ruined it all.

You have spoken the truth.

[Ramesis]

Stupid people were around long before the internet and social media were around.

I would substitute ignorant for stupid BUT
+1

[Wiley]

^this. Instead of having isolated groups of lunatics here and there they now can exceed the critical mass for sort of a mass hysteria to strengthen their beliefs. One million flies can't be wrong...

I think that snowball effect might have a tendency to make people less informed.

Where before you wouldn't have had instant reinforcement of whatever crackpot ideas you may have, and in the course of looking stuff up you might have run across information that changed your mind.  The way things are, it's incredibly easy to find an echo chamber for pretty much any idea you can think of regardless of its validity.

There are people who would've been crackpots regardless of what information they had access to, but I think there are also people who might not have been if they didn't have that near instant feedback and validation.

Wiley.

[Vulcan]

The internet has allowed the stupid people on this planet to communicate with each other and amplify their stupidity on logarithmic scale.

[Lusche]

Isn't it strange that "the stupid" are always the other people?

[Arlo]

Isn't it strange that "the stupid" are always the other people?

No.

[Bizman]

Isn't it strange that "the stupid" are always the other people?

No it isn't. It's common knowledge. Ask any people in the World and it's always the other people. If that weren't the truth, every single person on this planet would be wrong.

[horble]

Isn't it strange that "the stupid" are always the other people?

I’m stupid. But I’m smart enough to know it.

[Skuzzy]

Isn't it strange that "the stupid" are always the other people?

Not strange at all.  Everyone knows it is always the other stupid person who is the problem.

[Arlo]

[zack1234]

When Caxton invented the printing press the Powers that be kaked themselves

The fact that people now adays have hundreds of friends on Facebook and don’t really know them shows the silliness of people, I joined Facebook two months ago then deleted it.

The invention of the internet and the jet engine are the reasons stupid people can gain information and then travel the world in the knowledge that they are informed.

People thinking they are in charge and their views are important is the biggest conspiracy theory 

In the 1990’s my boss and myself added information to Wikiidiot on a regular basis, I think some of it is still on there and now has become fact, Simon Johns a TSG manager was in the screen play for Dirty dancing , it was on there for 8 years

By the way the moon landings are a myth and so it the moon, its a projection invented by a dog breeder called Mr Issac Broom in West Yorkshire in 1023, he used it too calm the dogs at night

[pembquist]

I remember the first time I read something in a book that I knew was completely untrue. (This was before the PC.) It was a startling epiphany and suddenly the phrase "don't believe everything you read" actually had significant meaning. One problem of the interwebs beyond the expansion to the nth degree of stuff to read is that there is no authority whatsoever but Google sort of slips into that space. It vomits up search results and by doing so suggests that the results have credibility. Google would never claim to be an authority but what it is doing actually makes it hard to escape being one. It is hard to be useful authority and depend on algorithms for editing. For example: https://searchengineland.com/google-holocaust-denial-site-gone-266353 and https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/17/holocaust-deniers-google-search-top-spot

I think we are going to have to advance somehow to deal with this change and I think Google and Facebook basically denying any responsibility isn't going to help. They really need to develop leadership and standards.

[zack1234]

Moodle and Facemuck need to do nothing and censor nothing, they are commercial enterprises who are not fit to dictate what’s on the internet.

If they have rubbish displayed its up to individuals to argue against it.

The owners of facemuck and moodle are not fit to decide what people should be allowed to see or read.

That Zuckerberg prancing about trying to be Mother Theresa or John Lennon does not fool me.

Bono the Pratt from U2 was at the UN last year telling them to play music to ISIS to stop them fighting, this is how the status of celebrity’s has used mass media to influence the masses