Is society
dumber? It can be said that for a few years now I've been asking myself this
question, looking at what the television is offering us, that is shows like
"Hidden Truth", "Why Me?", "School",
"Hospital", "Warsaw Shore" or evolution in the music, where
everyone can now become a star, as long as the words rhyme somehow and there is
a good accompaniment. Last time I was on public transport I met a school trip
and literally every child was staring at the phone and watched "funny"
things on YouTube. Maybe I'm exaggerating and there's nothing to worry about,
but I recently read an article about this topic that shows that the average IQ
score is decreasing from generation to generation.
The article
presents the results of research conducted by Norwegian scientists from the
Centre for Economic Research of Ragnar Frisch. They dealt with the results of
IQ tests of 18-19-year-old Norwegians born between 1962 and 1991, who took part
in tests as part of the national compulsory military service. The analysis
included about 730,000 results of IQ tests, which concluded that the Flynn effect reached its peak for people born in the mid-1970s and has decreased
significantly since then.
The Flynn
effect is an increase in the IQ of 0.3 points per year or 3 points over a
decade.
According
to the authors, the decline in IQ is due to: changes in educational exposure or
quality, changing media exposure, worsening nutrition or health and social
spillovers from increased immigration.
Can such
studies provide a clear answer to my question? I think not, because the worse
results of IQ research among younger and younger people indicate that the
skills necessary to live freely in the digital age require a new definition of
intelligence and new ways to measure our IQ fairly.
Nevertheless,
in my opinion, society is becoming dumber and the fault lies in new technologies
and their excessive and easy use. I am most concerned about the youngest ones because when our generation was young, all these technological innovations were
just entering the market and we had a chance to get used to them step by step,
but the youngest does not have such a privilege. The same applies to television
and the Internet, which are flooded with a lot of fake and even stupid
information.
Questions:
1. What is
your opinion on this subject, do you think society is getting dumber?
2. Is the IQ
test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
Sources:
Comments
This kind of tv shows reflects how business works: If they can't make everyone happy, they will just try make something that won't reject noone. There are a lot of good movies, good music, good tv shows. Even youtube channels like Historia Bez Cenzury or Zapytaj Fizyka show that we not necessarily digest only dumb pulp from tv.
Another important factor is that we lack focus and we desire as much stimuli as we can - this is another reason why there are more flashy and dynamic tv programs.
2) yes and no. Some people say that there are different kind of intelligence and to some degree i agree with that. IQ test measures our logic intelligence and i believe it is best king of test we have. On the other hand it doesn't test our different kinds of intelligence like musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence etc.
No, society is getting smarter, it's an unavoidable consequence of evolution.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
It's the one and only way of measuring human intelligence, there was some attempts to create more efficient test but it was always IQ test which was the most accurate.
Yes and I would say the decline is even more dangerous then it seems. But I wouldn't say it only affects younger generations. Every person watching too much dumb things on the cable on Internet in my opinion is getting dumber and dumber. Some people are really moving backwards with their evolution. Also technology and Internet really showed us that we don't need to be highly intelligent when we can just type some question and immidiately get an answer to it. Problem becomes when people are asking even more basic question totally forgeting what they learned in previous years.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
Not exactly, every test is more or less a check of how good are you in tests. More appropriate would be a test in real life, how people react and what they do in particular scenerios in which they need to solve a problem being unprepared for its occurrence.
2. I believe it really can measure human intelligence somehow, and the results of IQ test can be considered as a benchmark to make diagnosis of current state of knowledge of the society, but judgement shouldn’t go on exclusively on IQ test results, I think that we should also take other researches and test under consideration if we want to make a really truthful and clear statement.
A "society" - no. A majority of people - definitely yes. As a society we constantly achieve new steps in development of our daily life, but I think the people who make that happen are in less than 20% of human population. The rest is just getting accustomed to new fancy features the 20% gets, which enables them to save some time which is wasted on really dumb activities.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
Well it is certainly the best one but I would not say it is optimal one. There is always something to improve and so is in this case. Not much has changed about it throughout these years and taking into considerations the scale of changes in the world, it simply can not be that good for today.
This is a difficult question, I've never thought about it so thoroughly, but the first answer that comes to my mind is - no. I think that society is not getting dumber, or maybe on the contrary, it's a bit better. The constant development of technology and civilization promotes the evolution of man who can learn and learn more about the world. We live in the age of the internet, where everyone can find any information that interests him. However, when it comes to young people, I think it's not unusual, that they often behave stupidly and improperly, because such behaviors are created by today's world and young people adapt to it. I think that over time they (the most of them) will become more intelligent and add something to the global development.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
I don't know. The IQ test can certainly tell us something about a person's intelligence, but it's not 100% reliable. However, as far as I know, at the moment this is the best way of checking the level of human intelligence. I don't know, however, what test would give the correct answer in this topic, but someday humanity will certainly come up with something like that.
2. I think that a well-designed and reliable test can give a true response. It depends what we want to achieve, if we compare a fool with an intelligent person then it will apply. It is worse if we expect a very accurate and reliable result. I think that education has a lot of influence on tests and in theory it shouldn't be like that. Because if we compare someone who has never had the opportunity to learn and suppose that the level of intelligence is comparable to someone educated, that person will probably have a much worse result.
2.I think this test is well suited for collecting statistics. But it does not reflect the absolute percentage level of intelligence of a particular individual. This test was invented by people who also have small errors in mental ratios, like all normal people. Nobody's perfect. You can compare the relative performance in a narrow range of people. That is, in a company or organization, if you give all employees certain tasks and the same amount of time, then you can compare some indicators, these indicators will speak about certain mental qualities, but not to the full extent.
One the one hand, we are able to educate ourselves for free. You can find in the internet the answer for 99% of the questions. Both on simple blogs or Wikipedia and in specialized scientific groups or on universities' websites which offer collection of papers written by their workers for free. Taking that into consideration, we can't say that the Internet make us dumber.
On the other hand, there are many tv series or Youtube channels which aren't valuable. The question is - are we forced to watch them? There were always some people who weren't interested in "intellectual things". Right now they only get new source of their "field of interest". Technology didn't change the fact that some people are smarter and the rest is not.
To sum up, I don't see that trend, but maybe there is such statistical observation. What I'm sure about is that we can't blame technology for our own faults.
2. In my opinion, it may be useful for statistical purposes, but isn't that good to really examine one's intelligence. These tests are quite characteristic. If you make some of them before you'll get the method and be able to perform better on them. To be honest, I think it's being made only because statisticians need some form of examining peoples intelligence. Maybe this one is not perfect, but better than other ideas.
It is funny because now we have quick access to big data, we can check or learn anything just from reading and watching something on our phone but still we can speak that society is getting dumper in which I agree.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
It is in some way. People with high IQ have jobs like doctors or engeeneering and vice versa so it a measure of some human capabilities but we are to complex to be placed somewhere just after results of one test.
Thanks to the internet we can learn a lot of thinks at home, but in Internet we have a lot stupid videos. There is a lot of youtubers who are famous because they do stupid thinks. They are famous, because they had hundreds of views on their channels. Someone have to watching it.
2. I’m not sure. Because most of us don’t think about it and we even don’t know how much points we have.
2. I think not because the test itself usually consists of mathematical and geometric puzzles that can be difficult for some. They are not adapted to non-mathematical minds. It is also not difficult to fake such results by learning how to solve these tests.
S20108
2. No, in my opinion the iq test is not an indicator of human intelligence. All these tests are done schematically and you can simply learn them.
2. Most of them are schematic. If you do a few tests, you will find schemat in the next ones. So in my opinion it's not an appropriate measure of human intelligence.
Is there any other options? I think IQ test maybe should be adjusted a bit to the present times, but it is for now pretty much the only accurate test to measure human intelligence.
Depends on how we understand that therm. People don’t get dumber without a reason. In my opinion, the Internet and mass media influence us in a bad way, it makes us more lazy, because we don’t have to think too much, we’re being served with everything in a simplified version. On the other hand, if the Internet is used in a wise way, it can have a beneficial impact on our brains, because it’s a great source of new information and there is so much to learn and we can actually look up things that interest us and broaden our horizons.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
It’s a good psychological measure if used in a correct way. Unfortunately, because it has become more and more popular, and it’s so widely available on the internet, it’s getting more irrelevant. The test was created to be done once, maybe twice, because the more you practise, the better you get at it and know how to answer the questions. Then it doesn’t show your real intelligence, because you already know what to expect. That’s why I think it’s not as relevant as it used to be. Also creating such test is a really hard task and you can’t come up with exercises that have never been done before.
2. I think it was a good way to measure intelligence a few decades ago. But now, this test does not take into account all the factors that can affect the accuracy of the results.
2. IQ tests are kind of a hard topic. It's not like they are oracles while it comes to human capabilities, but there's no better way to do so right now. Also to everyone who says that it favors certain groups of people or that people can learn how to answer to such things, I couldn't disagree more. Yes it favors mathematicians and physicians, as those are one of the hardest paths to choose, and you have to be really inteligent to pursue them. And yes, you can learn how to solve them, but like author already replied to someone, those tests aren't like online IQ tests. Moreover even if we learn how to answer to questions that may appear, we can do so for easy ones or even average questions, but I'm quite sure that you won't learn pattern for hard ones. I also disagree that it's made just for statistical purpose, because even if it's not a good measurement, it's still the best way of measurement we have.
1. It is hard question. This topic is to me very relative. Surely the shape of modern world affects our states of minds. Nowadays access to information is so easy, that a lot of people ignore the fact that they also need to learn not just type and read.
2. To me it is not. High iq of course can mean something, just like a low one. However, there are various types of inteligence. One may have high iq but struggle in life.
2. To my mind, such tests are just for statistics. They can separate people. I think people should do what they like, of course, if those things are legal.
2. I think this measure is not working in modern society. For me it's fancy test which was loudly promote in web.
Oh, definitely it is. Modern society is degrading every year more and more. I will not go into excessive criticism of all these bloggers, streamers, instagrammers of stupid TV shows and other trash, since only a few of them try to convey useful information and really do useful work. I'll give only an example from life. When I was preparing to enter the mathematical lyceum, I had assignments from the entrance exams of different years from 1970 to 2010. Of these exercise, I could solve only those that were after 2000s. After analyzing all the tasks with the teacher, I realized that every year exams became easier because the students became dumber and could not solve the tasks of complexity of those years. Then I found out that the tasks for the period of the 70s, which at that time could be solved by almost any student with knowledge of mathematics above average, in 2015 were the final tasks at the mathematical Olympiad of the CIS countries.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
I think that no common test can truly assess each individual to the fullest.
I don't think that we are getting dumber, it's just our memory that is getting weaker. When we have our phones in our pockets 24/7 we have an access to every kind of data that we need anytime we want. So our brains are evolving in a way which makes them use data but not remember it for a long term. There have always been dumb people, now they just might be shallow.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
It is good to have a way of measuring someones intellectual potencial but I think that it should work only as a suggestion - not a scientific data. Categorising people by their test efficency cannot be a flawless way of defining their intelligence. Some genius people might have difficulties in such trivial activities, but might be outstanding when it comes to more demending tasks.
2. I think human intelligence can be perceived in so many dimensions like, for instance, emotional, that it is difficult to measure it and reduce it to numbers using only an IQ test; there's more to human intelligence than the mere capability to score X points on a test.
I think humans aren't getting dumber. Dumb people just have more outlets to be heard.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
IQ test assessments are relevant for just a small fraction of cognitive faculties. You can without difficulty educate IQ assessments to boom your rating much like every other check. Therefore it isn't an objective test of intelligence. Interpersonal assessment of rankings is simplest relevant while the peoples are being in comparison that had the precise training in IQ assessments and similar puzzles. This is nearly in no way the case. IQ tests also fail to test any of the cognitive faculties to do with rationality. Various rationality quotients have therefore been proposed..
2. Definitely not. The IQ test is outdated and is just a number that provides too little information.
The question is inappropriate on my opinion. The planet is big and we have a lot of different societies. If man in USA or Europe uses the dozens of mobile apps which making his life easier - that is it. The same man could create the space rocket.
And on another side of planet we have Africa where the people servive without apps and without pure water. Are they smarter?
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
No, one test can not measure the human intelligence. I must repeite and write that the planet is big, the billions of people are different and if we divide them only by one test which consists of some "questionare" we are deeply wrong.
It's hard to say if society is becoming stupid. It seems to me that just because almost everyone has access to the Internet, unintelligent people can share their thoughts with the public regardless of whether they are wise. It seems to me that once stupid people did not reveal themselves. On the other hand, due to the fact that nowadays access to information is so easy, people are lazy and do not put effort into developing. Unfortunately, but nowadays stupidity sells very well.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
I can't answer if the IQ test is an appropriate measure of human intelligence. It is certainly not a perfect way to measure human intelligence, but it seems to me that the best we know.
In my opinion I don’t think society is getting dumper, but I think it’s getting more lazy, naïve, confused because of information overload and easier to control… hmmm maybe it’s really getting dumper .
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
Yes, I think that IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence but it’s not very precise and IQ test will not tell how well this intelligence is used.
2. I feel IQ test offers and ample opportunity to a candidate for the preparation by expanding his knowledge under various study materials and making an opportunity to go for the discussion in their lets say "groups" and in this line it is likely that IQ test makes a good scope for enlargement of his knowledge with a successful career.
This test offers to measure some certain ability of thinking, but it is not an end in itself ,as we know that Knowledge is power it cannot be measured,it cannot be defined and knowledge is just as vast ocean.
2. The IQ test can certainly tell us something about a person's intelligence, but it is not 100% reliable. However, as far as I know, this is the best way to control this level of human intelligence right now. However, I don't know which test will give the right answer, but someday mankind will certainly come up with something like this.
2. I'm not sure that the IQ test is the right method to verify our intelligence. I think you should go with the times and how it expands and works the world today and invent a new test or other way to test our intelligence.
It might be something with it. Looking by the new ways of enterteinment especially for the young kids. Everything now looks like it wants to fool us and sell us something.
2. Is the IQ test an appropriate measure of human intelligence?
I dont think so. I dont really know the definitions of IQ and never done any IQ tests but i dont considere one exam to be able to define the inteligence of the person. Its more complex than one test i guess.