Is the internet making people more stupid?

As has been said, the Internet is just a medium, but the instant nature of it makes it easy to highlight stupid/lazy people.

I'm sure some of you have heard of people who spend their time waiting for a well known person to die/marry/devorce or otherwise do something newsworthy then edit their Wikipedia page to include something incorrect, hopeing to catch out lazy journalists who copy+paste from there. It's the person who believes the incorrect information that is lazy/stupid on the Internet, not the fault of the Internet it's self.
 
Anseur said:
As has been said, the Internet is just a medium, but the instant nature of it makes it easy to highlight stupid/lazy people.

I'm sure some of you have heard of people who spend their time waiting for a well known person to die/marry/devorce or otherwise do something newsworthy then edit their Wikipedia page to include something incorrect, hopeing to catch out lazy journalists who copy+paste from there. It's the person who believes the incorrect information that is lazy/stupid on the Internet, not the fault of the Internet it's self.
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I'm a little curious on this point of view as I've seen it repeated.

If all available sources tell you X, including the news, how does that make you, the reader, lazy?

It's not as if you can call up and ask X famous person directly if he or she is alive & well (as was the case with Wikipedia not to long ago). You're sometimes dependent on the information in which you are given.

Now the news agencies should very much confirm things more thoroughly before announcing anything. I think that is something we can all agree on.

But I don't see how everyone else who received such information can be called lazy, with no alternative to verify or disprove, when limited to the sources they have.

If every source says X is true (or false), individuals are likely to believe it. That sadly is human nature. And this is where the idea that The Internet is maybe making people more stupid (if not stupid, at least ignorant in being misinformed or wrongly educated).
 
Adam Howard said:
I'm a little curious on this point of view as I've seen it repeated.

If all available sources tell you X, including the news, how does that make you, the reader, lazy?

It's not as if you can call up and ask X famous person directly if he or she is alive & well (as was the case with Wikipedia not to long ago). You're sometimes dependent on the information in which you are given.

Now the news agencies should very much confirm things more thoroughly before announcing anything. I think that is something we can all agree on.

But I don't see how everyone else who received such information can be called lazy, with no alternative to verify or disprove, when limited to the sources they have.

If every source says X is true (or false), individuals are likely to believe it. That sadly is human nature. And this is where the idea that The Internet is maybe making people more stupid (if not stupid, at least ignorant in being misinformed or wrongly educated).
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Hi Adam,

I can't speak for what anyone else you have seen ment by this, but in the type of things I'm thinking of, every source dosent say X is true, only some of them. I would say that the people I would accuse of being lazy have only looked up their information from a limited ammount of places, or places that I would not trust without several confirmations from elsewhere.

If I find some information on http://www.oed.com/ (Oxford English Dictionary), I am much more likley to believe it than if I saw the same thing on www.urbandictionary.com for example.

A journalist has a telephone and, if they have been in the job for some time, many contacts in the industry they tend to write about, as well as a pair of legs to go find out information. A lazy journalist thinks he/she can get everything with a few clicks of the mouse. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't.
 
stewart1champ said:
Adam, could you link me to that post I asked you about earlier? I still haven't found it on your forums. I am wanting to reply to it.
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You want it. You find it.

Wait... I already know your reply

... blah blah blah ... no proof... blah blah blah .... you're full of it ..... blah blah blah...

This song and dance of you wanting me to backup everything, 24/7 .... Between you and SneakyDave .... It's kind of pathetic.

It was funny at first. I had a good laugh. I'm sure you'll argue that laugh is your own.... But I'll continue to argue that the laugh is mine. And that fact to me is all I need. :)

However, I've grown tired of your continued following me around.

You want it. Go find it yourself. If that's not good enough... That's just to bad.
 
Sorry, I was just wanting to reply to that post. I couldn't locate it on your forums, but the exact same search with xenforo used as the site and it appeared. That was why I was lost. Apologies Adam, only wanting to be socially uncensored.
 

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