Does The Internet Make You Stupid?

[::trainwreck::]

What worries me about the internet is the loss of social refinement that physical interaction brings. These kids I see who text each other being that they're located in the same room just boggles me. With that said, I think the net doesn't make us stupid intellectually however will hinder some social aspects of communication.

Actually had a conversation about this the other day. Kids will say things on the internet that they wouldn't say face to face with someone, and lose a lot of genuine human interaction.

I wonder what the world will be like when lolspeak is the dominant langauge for all cultures.

 

[camz]

Actually had a conversation about this the other day. Kids will say things on the internet that they wouldn't say face to face with someone, and lose a lot of genuine human interaction.

I wonder what the world will be like when lolspeak is the dominant langauge for all cultures.

LOLing and all these chat/forum abriviations is definitely going to speed up the evolution of communication and language. I heard an interview in KQED of the man who invented the internet happy face =), who use to be a Research CS student from Carnegie Melon almost 35 years ago. He says that he's glad to make this little contribution to the world. And I agree with him because it really has change our ways of communicating (As I look at all the different smilies on the right side of my screen ).

I don't think the world will change too much, I think there's just going to be another type of language out there free and universal. Might be a good thing..

 

[Dominantly]

-Too much thought into a very broad subject
-Not the first thread, not the last; I wonder if there is a thread about threads like this?
-Ah, the pleasure of a world where you can be who you always wanted to be, talk how you always wanted to talk (out loud) and live without fear of repercussions. The joy of anonymity.
-The, "give me now"; generation. Answers are sought, no desire to read through anything to find my answer, even though tools have been created to ease the agony of research; I'll just ask someone so they'll do the leg work for me.
-Coincidentally, along with road rage caused by someones lack of patience, or desire to make it to their destination 60 seconds faster, we have Internet rage. Rather then pass over a new thread posted about the same thing, time and time again, you will find Internet Rage-a-holics poised and ready to point out the way they perceive it should be.
-New members, more site traffic, site profit from increased vendors and advertisement, site improvements, community growth, knowledge bank building for future searches, etc etc...

 

[PhotoXopher]

I think the worst part is... when someone actually DOES do a search, they get flamed for bringing up a thread for 3 months ago!

 

[DennyCrane]

The internetz simply make everyone ever so much more so of what they already are. The massive information available to those who know where to find it (and no, I don't mean wikipedia...) can make the intelligent more equipped to discuss a topic. It makes the idiots even more foolish when they quote bad internet sources.

But there's the ones in the middle that often take the brunt of abuse because they're simply not internet-savvy. It might have taken all their ability to find TPF or some other forum, get a membership, and post a question about what camera to buy. The concept of searching the forum for similar questions, or doing a research on Bing or Google might only not have occurred to them, but may have been beyond their ability. I think most people here are tech-savvy enough to take those things for granted. But imagine yer grammy trying to figure out what camera to get on her own and not knowing internet more than basic email and checking her bank statements.

That said, I have been actively overlooking Asia for over 11 hours now.

OMGWTFBBQ!!!!111!!!eineeine!!!! 1337 hax0r!

 

[Lisa B]

I don't think that the internet makes you stupid, per say. I think it actually makes you feel less constricted and more confident to say those things you wouldn't necessarily say to another person in person because, although you don't have the human interaction with it, you don't have the embarrassment of a sticky situation/conversation etc either.

As for the LOL'ing, I do think that the convenience of abbreviation was already present prior to the existence of the internet - nobody wants to spend the day typing legibly by long hand (sigh), which I don't have a problem with, but, when it comes to children (and adults alike) that spend THAT MUCH time using abbreviated speech in text I worry that the art of good penmanship and solid communication through writing and letters may become less graspable to those who rarely now use decent language.

A friend of mine actually said LOL to me once in a conversation, and I was almost offended were it not for the fact that they clearly weren't thinking straight, nor actually laughing out loud!!!

So, no, the internet doesn't make you stupid, but it can make you lazy and a little bit strange!

 

[Dominantly]

A friend of mine actually said LOL to me once in a conversation, and I was almost offended were it not for the fact that they clearly weren't thinking straight, nor actually laughing out loud!!!

So, no, the internet doesn't make you stupid, but it can make you lazy and a little bit strange!

Really? OMG, LAWL.....
You're wound pretty tight if you would find offense in something like that...