Does technology make us the dumbest generation?

It has been claimed that the current generation potentially is the dumbest due to the amount of technology used in essentially everything. Now more than ever people are using computers to find information, social networking, or entertainment. Computers and the internet are thought to make everyday tasks "simpler" to enable a person to complete a great number of tasks at any given time. The problem which arises from this belief concerns the quality of all those tasks being completed. For example, are we truly completing a paper to the best of our ability if we pause every fifteen minutes to check on popular social networking websites? The extent that our attention spans can hold information which we are learning or attempting to communicate is greatly influenced by the example just given. That being said, is all this technology making us dumber? Do we only believe that we are advancing because it feels as if we are completing a great amount of tasks in the shortest amount of time?

 The advantage to technology today is the amount of access it allows people to have. This access is seemingly unlimited from journal articles to finding out what a classmate's major is. The vast amount of information is beneficial if this information is located from a credible source, of course. This eliminates issues that may have arisen in education from the past in relation to what a library is able to provide. I believe that access to a great amount of information that technology can provide strengthens one's intelligence. Once again, this is if the information is from a credible source which can certainly get internet users thinking and responding to what is being expressed to them. Technology is also an almost unavoidable aspect of the job market in present times. Many individuals search for employment opportunities online which expands the amount of jobs they are able to consider. These are all positive aspects of technology which have provided more opportunity and information. When considering if technology makes us dumber we must always keep in mind how vital technology skills have become in employment and career opportunities today. Possessing skills in technology is being reinforced through the job market.

Negative aspects of technology include trouble focusing, lack of social experience, and information that is not accurate. As I previously mentioned, the internet is a vast space of information that does not always come from credible sources. There has been a great struggle in education with the issue of plagiarism from the internet. Students have stolen ideas and entire papers from the internet. This is also an issue with work ethic in the current generation. Technology poses a threat to work ethic because most answers and actions come so quickly. If an individual wants to search for a specific topic they can instantly have a great deal of information before them. Of course, this becomes a question of how work ethic is changing throughout generations. If an individual is so used to having access and answers right in front of them, how will they ever learn the value of hard work?

Overall, I do not agree with the idea that technology is making us (as a generation) dumber. As we advance as a society there are gains and losses that come with any change being made. In the case of technology, this current generation may have poor social skills or issues with attention, but they may be advanced in locating information. I believe that these thoughts of the current generation being "dumb" are due to the changes that have been taking place. Older generations may begin to view what was essential to them as an individual, a student, or a worker and become concerned that such skills aren't used to the same degree. In turn, the current generation is developing a different set of skills and some of these include areas that past generations were not as advanced in. It truly is a trade off as times change. This is not to say that the current generation does not have the same skills that older generations did. For example, technology may pose a serious issue when it comes to attention span. In the past, individuals may have had little to no trouble writing a research paper and not feeling distracted. Individuals belonging to the generation today still have the ability to do the same but they have not had as much experience truly focusing their attention. In conclusion, I do not believe that technology makes us dumber but it does provide a new set of skills that are positive and negative to a certain degree.