Is the Digital Revolution Making Us Dumber?
The digital revolution has democratised opinion, information and knowledge. There is now a proliferation of voices and perspectives.
But has this revolution actually improved the quality of our opinion, information and knowledge?
I think the truth is that the proliferation has simply burred and obscured quality opinion, information and knowledge in tonnes and tonnes of trash, making it more time-consuming and arduous to find the quality amidst the rubbish.
Information Overload
I suppose one thing social media does (in theory) is allow those with the time and stamina to sift through the detritus to disseminate the quality for those who do not have the time or stomach. Yet, my own experience and observation is that trash is disseminated just as ubiquitously and regularly as quality. Perhaps more so.
I think (fear) that one consequence of this digital litter is that the quality opinion, information and knowledge becomes less and less relevant, as it is seen by fewer and fewer eyeballs, and is diluted by all the trash around it. Future generations, fed on a steady diet of information dung, probably won’t even have the ability to distinguish between quality and excrement.
The consequence? We will definitely become dumber. We will definitely become more fragmented. We will inhabit overlapping and often contradictory pseudo-realities that are not functionally effective, leading to an inability to do all of the basic things necessary to maintain a civilisation, such as run institutions, create laws, enact justice etc.
We are probably doomed.
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Originally published on Dr Jonathan Cole’s page.
Subscribe to his podcast, The Political Animals, for more insights.
Photo by Edmond Dantès.
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We deserve to be doomed Jonathan. Don’t know if we are or not. Now find someone you care for to walk n talk with. Eat some good food…….share it.