# Is Smart Technology Making Us Dumb?



## ae1905 (Jun 7, 2014)

*Is Smart Technology Making Us Dumb?* 

Yes and no: there are reasonable arguments on both sides of the question


----------



## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

I think the biggest problem for the average person and society in general, which they outline it in the article is the access of raw materials, but people aren't deeply thinking. I think the biggest problem is the instant connectivity is making people so focused on the details they fail to see the big picture. They're too distracted to really look at things in depth. For someone with more intellect and isn't focused on constantly consuming information it's amazing to have access to this information to help do deep thinking.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Yes and no


----------



## Mone (May 22, 2017)

Yes and no. 

One of the major is isuess is in my opinion lack of communication and sentence building skills. People are used to quick messages, shortcuts and generally poor vocabulary in daily (online) conversations which leads to these problems.


----------



## IDontThinkSo (Aug 24, 2011)

Problems and solutions cannot coexist. You can't be a fool, which is a problem, and profit eternally from improving technology, which is a solution. Intelligence is not made to serve the fool. The more a technology is advanced the less a fool can benefit from it. People are more likely to be confronted with their mental issues in a world that solved everything... but them.


----------



## Denature (Nov 6, 2015)

I don't know what you'd call this and I'd be grateful to anyone who could provide the correct word for this but, I believe that technology has made smart people smarter and dumb people dumber.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Denature said:


> I don't know what you'd call this and I'd be grateful to anyone who could provide the correct word for this but, I believe that technology has made smart people smarter and dumb people dumber.


Maybe it's amplification of minorities? Not a word, sorry for that.

Edit: stronger (social) division, may fit better.


----------



## Denature (Nov 6, 2015)

The red spirit said:


> Maybe it's amplification of minorities? Not a word, sorry for that.
> 
> Edit: stronger (social) division, may fit better.


I guess I'd explain it as: The digital divide has made the intellectual divide larger.


----------



## ae1905 (Jun 7, 2014)

theatlantic.com 

*Why Technology Favors Tyranny*


----------



## Mystic MagentaRose (May 7, 2014)

I think it depends on the situation honestly. Sometimes people forget to drop their phone in the middle of an outing with they're friends. They don't enjoy the people around them, cause their constantly glued to their phone. The same goes for dates. I'd be turned off if my date was always checking their phone and not communicating with me. Technology is good for things, I just think some people abuse it too much and forget about the people around them. Just my opinion though.


----------



## Blue Wolf (Feb 8, 2019)

It doesn't make people stupid. It just reveals naturally occurring stupidity.


----------



## General Lee Awesome (Sep 28, 2014)

Probably not seeing that these technology does not replace our cognitive ability..


----------



## The Veteran (Oct 24, 2018)

I don't think there is such thing. But if it does cause any problem we should use less of it. But no one should stop you from using these things. We should be free to use smart technology. And not care about these things.


----------



## TricoFeathers (Jan 13, 2019)

I agree with the statement that smart technology is widening the intellectual divide. It encourages intellectual laziness, as well. Why make an effort to learn and retain information when you can just look something up whenever you need to? Many people don't bother to cross-reference sources, either, to make sure what they're sharing is accurate or true.

I feel the social impact of smart technology is more harmful in how it breaks down communication. I often cannot reach family by calling; I have to reach out to them on 'social' media to get their attention. My SO and family members I see in person spend a lot of time on their phones, even during meals or outings where we're supposed to be spending time together. As the only one not constantly glued to my screen at these times, it's lonely and isolating. It's also frustrating because we don't get a lot of time together. I find myself pointing out little things my SO has missed because he just wasn't paying attention. I don't like having to ask him to put his phone away and it causes contention and hurt feelings. It has its uses but it's easily abused and that is unfortunate. Whole groups of people meant to be together and yet they're self-isolated to their individual screens. 

It reminds me of the book _Feed_ by M.T. Anderson. I really enjoyed it when I read it and I see a lot of parallels between society now and the book's projected future.


----------



## Tropes (Jul 7, 2016)

I wouldn't say necessarily "dumber", but I have noticed that people seem less technological savvy.. 

For awhile it was an expected truth that younger people will be more tech savvy - When I was young all the adults around me needed help with anything computer related, my grandmother used to ask my father for help with her VHS player and CDs, and she was still attached to her typewriter, and I remember her making jokes about how her own mother couldn't figure out how to use the typewriter. For the geeks of my age this was still very true - understanding basic computer architecture and how networks work and how memory is stored and processed was absolutely critical, it was a barrier you had to climb over to get anything to work.

But now there are people who are in their early to mid 20s for whom technology works like magic for as long as they remember, and the technology behind it is completely obscured and out of view. We've gotten really good at designing intuitive interfaces and improving accessibility, and that kind of has the opposite consequence. When everything just works, people don't need to know how it works.


----------



## ENTJudgement (Oct 6, 2013)

Only when you're the user and not the content creator.
As an engineer it is a real challenge dumbing down my designs so normies can understand and use it.


----------



## valosagutas (Nov 5, 2017)

It makes stupid people stupider, smart people smarter.


----------



## Introvertia (Feb 6, 2016)

we're dumb by default. I'm destroying my own memory on purpose, because what's the point of exercising it? mobile devices remember for me. nurses will take care of me.


----------



## Convex (Jan 5, 2015)

Introvertia said:


> we're dumb by default. I'm destroying my own memory on purpose, because what's the point of exercising it? mobile devices remember for me. nurses will take care of me.


You can say it's on purpose, but it really isn't.


----------



## Kn0wB34 (Sep 2, 2016)

Not dumb⁠—but yes for making us lazier. I've also noticed how older generations complain that technology has caused people (especially Millenials and younger) to always want "instant, drop from the sky answers" to their questions and problems rather than taking time to learn about things. You also see such things on Youtube videos, from where viewers bash overly detailed videos for not getting straight to the point.

It has also resulted in lower attention spans⁠— too many distractions from social media, online gaming, Netflix/streaming, Youtube, etc. Having mobile access from your phone only fuels those distractions as well. Then, I cannot count the number of "Deactivating my profile page" or "Taking a break from X website/app to focus on X" posts I've seen from people. It just shows that such things can take a heavy toll on work/life productivity for many people.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Marcella said:


> I can appreciate life without internet and life with it because i have lived through both. But I wouldn't trade being a kid in the era i grew up in. These kids with smartphones are ridiculous. Too much these days hinges on all the technological advances. I find it so rude that I can be having a conversation with someone and they are playing on their device. I miss the little moments that happen when your bored and coming up with things to do. I think that is why creativity is gone. It wasn't that long ago "internet" was something you did for like 40 min or an hour. Then you lived life. It was an activity. Now it is a way of life. People are on the internet 24-7. Constant information coming at you. Constant negativity. What I see is that very few people have the ability to keep some sort of balance in this matter. I even have a hard time doing it myself, contemplating doing away with my smartphone. The young generation doesn't even know what pre-internet was like.
> 
> 
> The internet took all the mystery out of life. I remember going to the mall to see boys. People don't really communicate within the family as much as we used to, people waking down the street don't communicate with each other at all, people used to greet others with a hello, good morning or whatever, now if you were to do that they would look at you as if you have two fucking heads or something and that is if they even bothered to acknowledge you. We can speak to someone across the world via video but we can no longer speak to the person next to us because that safety net of a screen isn't there, there is so much falseness being shoved in our faces people start thinking it's the norm, people who live out their lives on social media showing everything they do or eat or wear have some serious issues in my opinion, some kids will believe some stranger they think they know on YouTube before their own family.


This is a very negative post. I know that there are people, who are like you say, but to say that society is like that and that people are uncreative, fake or etc. is too much. Maybe you are looking at wrong places with wrong people or perhaps you miss others creativity. And remember, US isn't a whole world. I still see people in a bus and they aren't into their phones, only some occasional weirdo is. Moderation is the key.

In fact, way too often I see university lecturers, who don't use tech as much as they should be. I still remember, how it was impossible for me to contact one lecturer for weeks. He wasn't old and wasn't unaware of tech, he was focused on other things.


----------



## Marcella (Sep 13, 2019)

The red spirit said:


> This is a very negative post. I know that there are people, who are like you say, but to say that society is like that and that people are uncreative, fake or etc. is too much. Maybe you are looking at wrong places with wrong people or perhaps you miss others creativity. And remember, US isn't a whole world. I still see people in a bus and they aren't into their phones, only some occasional weirdo is. Moderation is the key.
> 
> In fact, way too often I see university lecturers, who don't use tech as much as they should be. I still remember, how it was impossible for me to contact one lecturer for weeks. He wasn't old and wasn't unaware of tech, he was focused on other things.


I admit. There are some good things about the internet. Without the internet I wouldn't have the ability to ever hear things from great people like you here on this forum. But my daughter likes to stay in her room and text, listen to music, go on the computer and hang in her room. She comes down and we'll talk for like 10 minutes then back up to her room. I ask her if she wants to watch a movie with us and she says no. I've asked her if she is sad, etc and she says she is fine. She just likes to hang in her room. She is addicted to her goddamn phone. I am appalled when I am out in public, and I see YOUNG kids...like ages 4 through 10, playing with the current galaxy phones. Their eyes never leave their phones to even look at the world around them.

When I grew up, there were no cell phones. It was "be home before dark." It was fun with out internet and cellphones. Things were much simpler.
We managed to have social lives without cell phones.

We waited and called someone back when we got home. Or you went and knocked on someone's door to see if they were home. The rule of "be home before the sun goes down/streetlights come on" was the best rule. Your parents didn't care what happened as long as you were home by then. Going outside completely unsupervised, having to actually think and figure things out as opposed to googling everything. Oh, and walking to school was a blast. Being at home meant eating, doing homework, watching some TV, and sleeping. I'd say it was a lot better than staring into a screen for 8 hours a day.


----------



## Marcella (Sep 13, 2019)

The red spirit said:


> This is a very negative post. I know that there are people, who are like you say, but to say that society is like that and that people are uncreative, fake or etc. is too much. Maybe you are looking at wrong places with wrong people or perhaps you miss others creativity. And remember, US isn't a whole world. I still see people in a bus and they aren't into their phones, only some occasional weirdo is. Moderation is the key.
> 
> In fact, way too often I see university lecturers, who don't use tech as much as they should be. I still remember, how it was impossible for me to contact one lecturer for weeks. He wasn't old and wasn't unaware of tech, he was focused on other things.


When I was 16 (1992) I paid £16 in a Virgin Megastore for the Point Break soundtrack, just for this song (there were a couple others on there that were ok too, luckily). Imagine trying to explain that to a 16 year old today! Ratt and Point Break . One of the last songs of a great generation .


----------



## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Marcella said:


> I admit. There are some good things about the internet. Without the internet I wouldn't have the ability to ever hear things from great people like you here on this forum. But my daughter likes to stay in her room and text, listen to music, go on the computer and hang in her room. She comes down and we'll talk for like 10 minutes then back up to her room. I ask her if she wants to watch a movie with us and she says no. I've asked her if she is sad, etc and she says she is fine. She just likes to hang in her room. She is addicted to her goddamn phone. I am appalled when I am out in public, and I see YOUNG kids...like ages 4 through 10, playing with the current galaxy phones. Their eyes never leave their phones to even look at the world around them.
> 
> When I grew up, there were no cell phones. It was "be home before dark." It was fun with out internet and cellphones. Things were much simpler.
> We managed to have social lives without cell phones.
> ...


Have you tried taking the phone away and telling her to play outside?


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Marcella said:


> When I was 16 (1992) I paid £16 in a Virgin Megastore for the Point Break soundtrack, just for this song (there were a couple others on there that were ok too, luckily). Imagine trying to explain that to a 16 year old today! Ratt and Point Break . One of the last songs of a great generation .


Umm... that still kinda exists. If you are into animation or games, some of them have OST CDs available in online stores. Well, I'm 19 year old, and it's obvious to me. Not really far off from 16 year old.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Marcella said:


> I admit. There are some good things about the internet. Without the internet I wouldn't have the ability to ever hear things from great people like you here on this forum. But my daughter likes to stay in her room and text, listen to music, go on the computer and hang in her room. She comes down and we'll talk for like 10 minutes then back up to her room. I ask her if she wants to watch a movie with us and she says no. I've asked her if she is sad, etc and she says she is fine. She just likes to hang in her room. She is addicted to her goddamn phone. I am appalled when I am out in public, and I see YOUNG kids...like ages 4 through 10, playing with the current galaxy phones. Their eyes never leave their phones to even look at the world around them.


Well, without internet I couldn't do much. My university work depends on it, there's sometimes no other way to know when I will have to write test or complete some work. Obviously, if there wasn't internet, it would be remade to work in the older ways, but it's really no brainer to use internet for that for obvious convenience benefits. 

I see young kids in phones too. I really have nothing to think about that. They are young, they will change, they will find their own ways. I got phone early too, wasn't addicted to it. To be honest, they just use what is available to them. If I had PS4 in my room and some games for it, I would play it from time to time, but I wouldn't buy one. I actually see similar effect if I go travelling to other countries. There's no time to be picky, you use what you can to achieve tasks. Sure, phone is definitely not a necessity and for young kid not really a convenience, but it serves purpose of entertainment device. A kid would be satisfied with a rubber ball, if he had nothing else, but when there is a phone, there's just no contest.

If you say that they are addicted, well maybe they are. I would like to think of it as a phase. After some time they won't be doing that. Of course, some education should be pushed to them for desired results. But what is wrong is to think of them as some degenerates with rotting brains (sorry for slight hyperbole, but I guess you get my point).




Marcella said:


> When I grew up, there were no cell phones. It was "be home before dark." It was fun with out internet and cellphones. Things were much simpler.
> We managed to have social lives without cell phones.


There are many kids for who life was generally boring without internet and going outside felt like a waste of time. Such factor is easy to ignore, if you weren't feeling like that. I personally, enjoyed simple social life at school, but I barely ever wanted to go somewhere after school. Partially, it could be because my friend used to hang out with sketchy people. But still, I just felt like there was no purpose in that. 




Marcella said:


> We waited and called someone back when we got home. Or you went and knocked on someone's door to see if they were home. The rule of "be home before the sun goes down/streetlights come on" was the best rule. Your parents didn't care what happened as long as you were home by then. Going outside completely unsupervised, having to actually think and figure things out as opposed to googling everything. Oh, and walking to school was a blast. Being at home meant eating, doing homework, watching some TV, and sleeping. I'd say it was a lot better than staring into a screen for 8 hours a day.


Well, to each their own. I have no regrets of this switch in life. In fact, I probably discovered more than I would have otherwise. 

If both systems are abused, then that's obviously not good. You say that being at screen for 8 hours is bad, but same argument can be used for being too long outside. You can be internet hater, but then again you can be hater irl. It works both ways. Also there's a slight effect of forgetting small negative things of the past. The greatest example is music. There was a lot of shitty music from 80s, just like we have lots of shitty pop music (like Anaconda, Bieber or Friday). It's just that we tend to forget bad stuff of the past and that's natural. Every era offers something great and something bad, you just have to find that and know how to enjoy it.

This effect applies to pretty much anything old. Especially, to those old retro communities. They enjoy things from the past like they are new. There's nothing wrong with that. Some people still say that Sega Mega Drive is best console ever. And that's okay. But to me, someone who never lived in that era (and certain region) I just can't help but cringe at those sayings. I see how different everything is, there are some good point and some bad points, usually it's painfully obvious why such things don't exist anymore. Sometimes it's not as straightforward. Either way, very rarely I think that it would be wise to go back to certain time and era, to destroy everything that happened later and call that better. Change is inevitable. It's great to have your own opinion about certain things, but you have to realize that sometimes it may be only you with it. 

And don't bash those kids. They aren't adults yet. Their personalities aren't formed yet, that's not their final form.


----------



## Marcella (Sep 13, 2019)

The red spirit said:


> Well, without internet I couldn't do much. My university work depends on it, there's sometimes no other way to know when I will have to write test or complete some work. Obviously, if there wasn't internet, it would be remade to work in the older ways, but it's really no brainer to use internet for that for obvious convenience benefits.
> 
> I see young kids in phones too. I really have nothing to think about that. They are young, they will change, they will find their own ways. I got phone early too, wasn't addicted to it. To be honest, they just use what is available to them. If I had PS4 in my room and some games for it, I would play it from time to time, but I wouldn't buy one. I actually see similar effect if I go travelling to other countries. There's no time to be picky, you use what you can to achieve tasks. Sure, phone is definitely not a necessity and for young kid not really a convenience, but it serves purpose of entertainment device. A kid would be satisfied with a rubber ball, if he had nothing else, but when there is a phone, there's just no contest.
> 
> ...


My brother-in-law absolutely insists on conversing with my husband via SMS. I've watched 20 minute text 'conversations' that could be had in 2 minutes on a call. Bizarre!?! Remember when you actually called people to share good news, congratulate them for something, wish them a happy birthday, etc. Now all those things are taken care of with a 5 second Facebook post. You don't have to put any effort or real emotion into maintaining relationships with people. It makes social interaction feel hollow to me.The other one that's worth remembering is why the Guinness Book of World Records exists. The reason is people kept arguing about random stuff over drinks , and back then you couldn't whip out your phone to answer. Instead we would argue about random facts for hours because no one knew the answer. That was a great time...everyone was right and everyone was wrong. It didn't matter the correct answer. The argument was the best part. Meetups were hard. Waiting around for your friends for long periods was common, because you had no idea why they were held up or if they were coming at all. Lots of value was placed on being on time even for casual things, because you didn't want to make people worried or upset. Also, you had to write down meetup times in a book, or remember them all and risk failing. Excitment over seeing someone you haven't seen in awhile. I run into someone I haven't seen in years and I already know everything that's happened and we just say hi and make small talk. It was a fun thing, giving highlights of your life in the past years. There are no highlights anymore.


----------



## Marcella (Sep 13, 2019)

The red spirit said:


> Umm... that still kinda exists. If you are into animation or games, some of them have OST CDs available in online stores. Well, I'm 19 year old, and it's obvious to me. Not really far off from 16 year old.


You are 19 year old. You are too young. You just don't understand.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Marcella said:


> My brother-in-law absolutely insists on conversing with my husband via SMS. I've watched 20 minute text 'conversations' that could be had in 2 minutes on a call. Bizarre!?! Remember when you actually called people to share good news, congratulate them for something, wish them a happy birthday, etc. Now all those things are taken care of with a 5 second Facebook post. You don't have to put any effort or real emotion into maintaining relationships with people. It makes social interaction feel hollow to me.


Well, that only happens to you. I gotta say, that I still get real letters from my relatives in another continent during birthdays and if something truly meaningful happens, people call. Or it could just the way my relatives are. Not only those relatives send letter, but also the closest relatives do too.




Marcella said:


> The other one that's worth remembering is why the Guinness Book of World Records exists. The reason is people kept arguing about random stuff over drinks , and back then you couldn't whip out your phone to answer. Instead we would argue about random facts for hours because no one knew the answer. That was a great time...everyone was right and everyone was wrong. It didn't matter the correct answer. The argument was the best part.


Well, that's exactly what happens in online forums, just that it's not really fun.




Marcella said:


> Meetups were hard. Waiting around for your friends for long periods was common, because you had no idea why they were held up or if they were coming at all. Lots of value was placed on being on time even for casual things, because you didn't want to make people worried or upset. Also, you had to write down meetup times in a book, or remember them all and risk failing. Excitment over seeing someone you haven't seen in awhile. I run into someone I haven't seen in years and I already know everything that's happened and we just say hi and make small talk. It was a fun thing, giving highlights of your life in the past years. There are no highlights anymore.


I dunno, that's exactly how I would meet someone. Gotta say that I never wrote anything down and there wasn't much waiting and that system was pretty reliable. I must confess, that I haven't seen my friend for years and I have no actual contacts (phone number, email, FB), just location of his relatives. If I ever going to meet him, it will happen just randomly. That's the way it happened after school (after 8th grade to be more precise).


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Marcella said:


> You are 19 year old. You are too young. You just don't understand.


What exactly do you think I don't understand? Obviously I never knew that you could buy songs from movie on CDs, because it's just a weird American thing, but I sure as hell know what it means to record a song from radio station on cassette.


----------



## Marcella (Sep 13, 2019)

The red spirit said:


> What exactly do you think I don't understand? Obviously I never knew that you could buy songs from movie on CDs, because it's just a weird American thing, but I sure as hell know what it means to record a song from radio station on cassette.


Maybe you are right. Maybe it is an American thing. Maybe things are different in other parts of the world.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Marcella said:


> Maybe you are right. Maybe it is an American thing. Maybe things are different in other parts of the world.


You could never find anything like that in USSR countries. After fall of union, it definitely wasn't common. It never really became a trend and now is just obscurity. That's how OST CDs never were a thing here. But just CDs were really popular. Cassettes were just as popular, mostly due to ability to record stuff.


----------



## Marcella (Sep 13, 2019)

The red spirit said:


> You could never find anything like that in USSR countries. After fall of union, it definitely wasn't common. It never really became a trend and now is just obscurity. That's how OST CDs never were a thing here. But just CDs were really popular. Cassettes were just as popular, mostly due to ability to record stuff.


I gotta admit I hate it when people use their phone at the expense of a conversation with someone in the present.

But you know who's to blame for that? It's not the phone.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Marcella said:


> I gotta admit I hate it when people use their phone at the expense of a conversation with someone in the present.
> 
> But you know who's to blame for that? It's not the phone.


Well, yes and a bit no. The thing is that new generation haven't seen the world differently, they are rather incomplete human beings yet. I would like to disagree a bit just because schools worldwide focus on too much shit that doesn't matter. I personally would remove half of maths from schools, because they are fucking useless. At the later years it becomes purely theoretical and there's almost no value in it even for those, who will be willing to study stuff related to them. Why is that? because very similar math is being taught in university. The only difference is that it is streamlined and only really useful parts of it are left. You only have to know maths, if they can help you achieve something. I'm specifically picking up on maths, because no other subject is as time wasting as this one. Instead of maths there should be something like "time management", "lifestyle history" or "mental resource management" subjects. Instead of religion or ethics subjects, there should be "fulfillment" or "soul studies". As a branch of biology and after reduction in PE, there should be "health" subject.

You know, I learned one things very well from social welfare studies at university. Is that society is often not to blame for malfunctioning, it's hugely related to how it is set up to operate. Young people are mostly influenced by school. Also most young people will agree that school is really boring and in too many cases useless.

I personally ignored school a lot and just focused on my hobbies. I did what I was required to do, but way too often it felt like a waste. I would also like to think that lessons are kinda dumb, teacher teaches 30 people at once and usually half of them don't give a shit or don't understand anything. Those who try, they are simply held back by how fast and clearly teacher can communicate her thoughts. In other words it's reality inefficient system. If person in class actually wanted to learn something, one would ignore teacher and just work by himself. In many cases I found this strategy to be very effective, actually if I did that all the time I could have learnt subject 3-4 times faster. 

I heard that America, South Korea and Japan are very brutal with homework and tests. Remember, I said that most of that school stuff is a waste of time and useless, if not? That's the way most internet is set up too. Most sites are set up to make a quick buck, so quality is often poor. Many people research nothing, blanket statements are rampant and most of young person's time is wasted watching dumb youtubers, that aren't really very entertaining. I wonder if this effect is deeply ingrained in school. Most students don't care about things that they should be learning, they just cram information. After years of doing that, brain changes to be more effective at that task. Thus information filtering is declining and satisfaction is gained from neverending stream of information. Those, who perfect this technique and adapt, they are good at academics. The cost of that is high. American particularly is one of the most mentally ill country in whole world. Japan is leading in suicides. Many South Koreans end up being addicted to internet. Japanese people are often robotic and not really known for their creativity. 

I can say that I only cared for subject that were interesting to me, that was the bane of my existence. Even if I had enough brains to understand certain difficult things, I often just didn't want to learn maths. I barely scrapped by minimum grades. Same with biology. I often ignored details and just wanted to learn some general truths and underlying ideas. My grades were poor and I was at the bottom of my class. But my situation changed dramatically just by one event. The exams. Generally, exams suck and nobody wants to see them, but partly due to how I was I was at benefit. I passed them and really well, I got:
100/100 from English B2
100/100 from Lithuanian
100/100 from Biology
58/100 from Maths

Was my stubbornness actually valuable. Eh, maybe a bit. In the end not really. It was fun to know that I was worth something, but then university came. It's basically school, but some useless stuff is removed. Still, it comes with different types of useless stuff and random bullshit. It's a little bit easier, but not dramatically. I'm lucky if at least 1 subject is actually fun, most of them are not. And again focus is mostly on bullshit. In many cases, subjects are overloaded by useless tasks or tests. I would be far more useful expert at my own field after 4 years working in it, rather than trying to get bachelor's degree. And I'm talking about what Americans would consider a STEM subject (Natural Sciences and Ecology). For some reason I had to grow diarhhea in learning about linear and turbulent liquid flow, remembering lots of geological crystal names and recently I have to learn calculus, which has really nothing to do with what I would ever be doing (parabolas, why would I ever need that?). Gotta say, that I yet again relapsed to just making ends meet and sometimes enjoying fun stuff (Social Welfare, Japanese level 1, English C1, Economics).

Wow, I was derailed it a bit, but what I want to tell is that youth are bombarded by encouragement to cram information without caring whether it is useful, meaningful or not. That's a problem. Then later in life they are pressured to get a job and then to focus on money.


----------



## Marcella (Sep 13, 2019)

The red spirit said:


> Well, yes and a bit no. The thing is that new generation haven't seen the world differently, they are rather incomplete human beings yet. I would like to disagree a bit just because schools worldwide focus on too much shit that doesn't matter. I personally would remove half of maths from schools, because they are fucking useless. At the later years it becomes purely theoretical and there's almost no value in it even for those, who will be willing to study stuff related to them. Why is that? because very similar math is being taught in university. The only difference is that it is streamlined and only really useful parts of it are left. You only have to know maths, if they can help you achieve something. I'm specifically picking up on maths, because no other subject is as time wasting as this one. Instead of maths there should be something like "time management", "lifestyle history" or "mental resource management" subjects. Instead of religion or ethics subjects, there should be "fulfillment" or "soul studies". As a branch of biology and after reduction in PE, there should be "health" subject.
> 
> You know, I learned one things very well from social welfare studies at university. Is that society is often not to blame for malfunctioning, it's hugely related to how it is set up to operate. Young people are mostly influenced by school. Also most young people will agree that school is really boring and in too many cases useless.
> 
> ...


With smartphones and social media, we started using our phones all the time. Dating apps are now for everything: finding friends, hookups, a third for your threesome, another couple to swing, someone who just wants naked pics because it’s more exciting to jerk it to “real” people. IMO online dating would be so much better if all the pervert guys stopped using them, or simply learned to behave in a civilized manner. That's the root of the problem, for both women and men.

Today, most people actually use dating apps for non-social reasons. Some look for the ego boost, o see how many matches they can get, which makes them feel good. Other people swipe away mindlessly like playing a video game (blame that on Tinder, who invented the swipe).

Both those practices forget the actual human on the other side of the match. These practices also lead to a lot of ghosting and what looks like rejection to people looking for actual dates on dating apps. Add to that the phenomenon that people behave more aggressively online than they would in person, and you have a layer of outright asshole on top of it.


----------

