Are people becoming less intelligent because of technology?: LiveSimplicity discussion forum

Have your say and share your ideas. Join us on the road to simplicity.

Are people becoming less intelligent because of technology?

I was recently asked a friend's phone number and realized I didn't know it although I call them on a regular basis. I had no idea what the number was and would not have known it without checking on my cell phone. Are we, as a society, becoming too reliant on technology?

View A

Technology exists to make our lives easier and allowing us to become less reliant on our own mental abilities. I shouldn't have to remember the number if I have a mechanism to remember it for me.

View B

We have become too reliant on technology. I used to remember dozens of important phone numbers and other information for myself. Now, I can't remember a simple phone number without needing a device to look it up.

7 comment(s) so far

fang thinks: We may be becoming mentally lazier because of technology but we are also bombarded with much more information than ever before. However I`ve always thought that retention of information doesn`t necessarily denote intelligence. Go ask a Tibetan Monk.

Wouldn`t it be worthwile deciding what intelligence actually is?

henk thinks: I have to agree with fang on what the question of what the definition of intelligence implies. According to Miraim-Webster, intelligence is define as "the ability to learn and understand". Remembering a phone number does not necessarily mean that intelligence is involved. Intelligence would come into play with the understanding of what the phone number is and how it allows one to perform a function, in the case, call another person.

I don't think people are getting less intelligent, but I do think that the reduction of day to day use of memory will lead to people relying too much on technology and create a society that is dependent on something other than their brains to remember important information. Memory and the retention of information is definitely something that has to be worked on and gets built up the more one uses it.

JBonnin thinks: If we are becoming lazier due to technology, this is a side effect.

The side effect is of course dangerous. But it is dangerous to a group only. That group to which it is still a new, rather strange thing.

On the long run, technology is always an expansion of horizons, offering new tools and channels. I do believe that we, as species, will not become dumber due to technology, but exploit the possibilities that it offers.

ca thinks: It's not so much not being able to process or remember information, it's more about using that brain ower towards other means. Focusing the capacities of the brain to perform larger, more complex tasks without having to spend valuable resources on the small things.

clo thinks: Memory loss or lack of focus is simply a result of the daily overload of information. it's not that humans can't remember, it's that there is just too much to remember and the brain has only a certain capacity to store information.

Simpler thinks: technology has made us more intelligent. Why? because of technology you now know dozens of people in many locations, where earlier most people would know only their family and neighbourhood. Knowing more people means you have to apply technology to stay connected and suddenly you need to synchronize PDAs with PCs, mobile phones and email accounts. Clearly this require more intelligence - before you just need a bit of memory...

peon thinks: Remembering phone numbers may not seem to be an important task, but if you think about it, remembering things (anything... facts, patterns, solutions, etc.) is the basis of "intelligence." IMO, intelligence is more than just "being able to learn and understand." That's just the first step. But if one does not remember (i.e., retain the information learned), then intelligence is lost. You learn one thing and forget another.

It would be better if we developed technologies which enable us to use our minds MORE, not less. The human brain in capable of storing a lot more information than we use it for.