Are Smartphones Making Us Dumber?

In January Vint Cerf (AKA "The Father Of The Internet") answered some questions from the Californian folk who watched his keynote.

One of the questions raised (and the mantra of most tech un-savvy parents) is the idea that "Smartphones and the internet are actually making people dumber". It's a compelling argument that having a 3 billion page encyclopedia at our fingertips means we no longer have to store any facts in our head, and subsequently, pub trivia is now a dying experience.

(That said, if hard drive space has taught us anything these last ten years, it's that we can always fill empty space with something).

Vint's answer was the need to teach more critical thinking, and on this point I think we all agree. People who blindly follow Google Map directions onto footpath-free expressways or charge into the wilderness with an iPhone for navigation are the horror stories of the information age (THIS is what I'm talking about).

If the spamming culture of social media has taught us anything it's that critical thinking is a prerequisite to avoid failing Natural Selection 101. We will always have people who like the easy path of being told what to do. All the rest of us can do is highlight these mistakes to enlighten those people about to repeat them, and to also provide a good giggle for those who put critical thinking in the realm of "common sense".

I think the generations of the future will be aware, even more so than those today, that it doesn't matter if you have every answer at your fingertips, you still need to be able to ask the right questions.

You can see an extract of the Vint Cerf's presentation HERE or find the whole interview at www.fora.tv.