No, the iPhone isn’t making us dumber
The millennial generation has an incredibly difficult uphill battle. With the introduction of devices like the iPhone we can see how our attention is constantly being shifted from the world around us to our to our Facebook notifications or the Leafs score. As noted in Nicholas Carr’s article “Does the Internet make you Dumber”, the author explains that there is growing scientific evidence that proves this question to be true. “People who are continually distracted by emails, alerts, and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time” (Carr). I think this undermines the importance of the iPhone and other connected devices. With these devices always connected to the Internet, we have the entire encyclopedia of human knowledge at our fingertips. This is a huge step in our ability to disseminate knowledge and information. I also believe that the claim about productivity is simply dependent on the kind of productivity we are speaking to. Yes, when studying for exams being able to access your social feeds on your iPhone can definitely be distracting. From a corporate side, being able to access your calendar, emails and browser on the go from anyway in the world is incredibly important in the day-to-day operations of many businesses.
It is also important to look at how the author is defining “dumber”. If I am sitting on the bus heading to work, I can look at Twitter and see what’s going on in the world around me, domestically and internationally. I can easily catch up on world events that I would otherwise completely overlook if I didn’t own an iPhone. Being able to access massive online news feeds allows us to be informed about all types of issues that may personally affect us. Especially with media channels like television and newspaper, many of the stories published through these mediums have a slanted point of view due to political and corporate alliances. While, these views can be replicated through social media, there is more of a democratizing process as the viewer is able to see a significantly larger amount of responses and messages. With this in mind, the continued growth of connected devices like the iPhone means that we must acknowledge the importance of media literacy training. This is going to be an increasingly valuable skill as these devices continue to become more embedded in our education system. We must learn and understand their benefits but also the detriments they create.
On the other hand, our education system must still focus on teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills so kids growing up with these devices don’t solely reliant on them. Children still need to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as these are life techniques that will be used regardless if they have their iPhone on them or not. We need to put an emphasize on this kind of training as sadly, I still know adults who are over the age of 20 that still can’t do their multiplication tables over 7 x 7.
Carr, Nicholas. "Does the internet make you dumber." Wall Street Journal 5.10 (2010).
