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I specifically remember being told that the internet would make people smarter.
It does, having all the humanity knowledge in your pocket is amazing and you can learn a lot which people do use to learn and get smarter. Sadly not everyone uses it that way and some just refuse to learn but that's just loud minority (I hope).
I would argue that it’s contributed to the collective stupidity of humanity on a global scale. It’s had a lot of positive impacts as well, of course. I guess the negative ones just seem more palpable.
Maybe the internet has shown us people that were already dumb but we just didn't have a way of knowing they exist?
It gave them the means to find each other and also gave them a sort of megaphone to shout and spread their stupidity.
And then they voted, and turns out it was like half of the voting population.
Yes, but now stupid people can easily collaborate with other stupid people, amplifying the echo-chamber-circle-jerk on a global, nearly instantaneous level. Furthering the stupid at a never before seen rate.
Used to be every village had their idiot. Now every idiot has their village.
Has it, though? I grew up in the 80s, and I feel like I simply didn't have a clue how ignorant people were or what batshit things people believed behind closed doors. Even when people disclosed to me their inner narrative, I feel like I just assumed they were joking or using extreme hyperbole.
The internet has made me realize ... they weren't joking. At all. They really believe that shit.
I'm approximately your age. I assumed the same thing. Hell, I thought crazy conspiracy theories were just people pretending "What if..." together.
In my younger days I would have been on a lot of bandwagons just to joke about the people who "didn't get the joke". It turns out I was the one that didn't get it.
I would look at it from a different angle. Before the internet you had to have a lot of knowledge in different areas to be able to sound and behave smart, and also to make good choices.
Now you have knowledge readily available everywhere and there is much less incentive to learn things you don’t currently need, just to have it available in case you talk to someone about this topic.
This has become even more evident with AI, where you don’t have to skim through a lot of context to find your information, you just ask what you need and it is presented the way you need it right away.
Internet can make people smarter, if they actually want to get smarter.
I think I'm general it has, but it also makes the dumb ones very loud.
It’s the Disinformation Superhighway