There are many ways in which technology has already made a long-lasting impact on our lives, but one question keeps creeping up, and that is the effect that technology has had on our intelligence. While some people think the internet is making us smarter, others believe that the internet is making us a lot lazier and in fact dumber. To show that sometimes the internet can have both positive and negative effects on our intelligence, we have decided to explore this topic in more details.
Is Internet Knowledge Real?
Some people believe knowledge is paralyzing, but it can be even more so with internet facts. While you can find a lot of useful information online, you can also be sure that internet knowledge can be misleading as well. Learning how to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information that you can find online is also really important for any project or research. If you want to get to the verified facts, you need to know where to look for them. It is not enough that you use a simple internet browser and find the first article or video, you need to learn how to find the sources from where these facts come, in order to make sure that the knowledge that you are acquiring is actually a verified fact or figure.
How the Internet Makes Us Smarter?
There are many ways in which the internet is making us smarter. It is allowing us to research, find facts and learn something new. Even if you are watching videos you can learn a lot from YouTube. The freedom of researching whatever topic interests you in a matter of seconds, make the facts a lot easier to check and access them. In that respect, you can frequently check your facts, even if you forget something. So, your knowledge is always expanding with each search for a certain fact. If you are one of those people who really like to be certain of what they are about to talk about, then checking your facts on the internet can be a great way to check up on your knowledge. As you know we all forget facts as time goes by, so learning continually whole your life and using the internet to do so, is not such a bad idea after all.
How Is Internet Making Us Dumber?
In the same way almost, the internet is also making us dumber. The Internet is making us lazier to learn, simply because we know that we do not have to know everything, because we have the internet. Having said that, how many times have you read something online that was absolutely false? What happens when hackers change some of the facts that you are absolutely certain of and that appear even on the most trusted websites? Should you really rely on the internet alone, to provide you with information that is trustworthy? In fact, no. This is the time when you have to think with your own head and really find reliable and trustworthy information in this sea of information that is called the Internet.
Should You Read Books Then?
One might argue that even historical books and research of any kind can be just as manipulated as the online knowledge. In fact, it is said that history is written by the victors, as Winston Churchill had put it. In other words, even historical books and resources that you are supposed to believe provide you with undeniable facts, might be wrong, commissioned or dated. This is why even the knowledge from books is rather arguable. On the other hand, internet knowledge base is always updated, it changes, evolves and continually grows. If you want to get to the truth, all you need to know is where to look for it. Furthermore, even scientific research is arguable in that sense that you do not know who did the research, with what sample and where in the world. If you start thinking that way, then no knowledge is real knowledge, internet or otherwise.