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I have an iPhone now and I use it all the time to look things up. It makes me smarter in terms of shear knowledge, no question. -G

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Less intelligent people use smartphones more, study says

If you don't know who the fifth president of the Republic of Slovenia was, and you're looking it up on Google right now, I have bad news for you.

Researchers from Waterloo University in Canada say that there is a link between heavy smartphone use and lower intelligence.

If you don’t understand the sentence above, the point is – they claim people who use smartphones more are basically stupid.

Oh yeah, also, the Republic of Slovenia has only had four presidents.

The research, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, suggests smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers - those people who rely on gut feelings when making decisions - frequently use their device’s search engine rather than their own brainpower, says Waterloo.

“They may look up information that they actually know or could easily learn, but are unwilling to make the effort to actually think about it,” said Gordon Pennycook, co-lead author of the study, and a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at Waterloo.

The research included 660 participants and examined areas such as cognitive style, verbal and numerical skill. Then they cross-examined the participants' smartphone habits.

Pennycook also stressed out that it’s not the smartphone’s that are making us stupid – we already were. It’s just that we can notice the dumb ones by how much they use their smartphones.

“Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research,” he said.

The researchers say that avoiding using our minds to problem-solve might have adverse consequences for aging.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Why do children play? Why do people group themselves into 'us' and 'them'? There are ancient behaviors we're driven to perform, that we don't even question. Of course it's what we do.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Why do children play? Why do people group themselves into 'us' and 'them'? There are ancient behaviors we're driven to perform, that we don't even question. Of course it's what we do.

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Originally posted by 6STRINGJOKER:
That's instinctual behavior. We have a lot of that. I still believe we have a lot of choice when it comes to what we do.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
As I was musing in my reply to G, what we do is based on some pre-programmed biological motivation, which directs us to a goal; unless of course something is going wrong with our squish-ware.

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Originally posted by G:
How did the author know there are only 4 presidents and not 5? Did he just "think harder" and come up with it? Or did he have to consult written text/something? An iPhone is, if nothing else, access to wikipedia. One might as well say "Encyclopedias don't make people smarter."

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http://www.weinberg.northwestern.edu/after-graduation/weinberg-magazin
e/spring-summer-2014/do-our-smartphones-make-us-smarter.html

Do Our Smartphones Make Us Smarter?: Weinberg - Northwestern

Diane (Dee) Hanlon ’64
President, The Alumnae of Northwestern University
They have an extraordinary access to information, but are they able to think about how much of that is authentic and can be trusted? I don’t know that they are developing the discipline to process and reflect on the questions they are being asked.

Hailey Karcher ’14
American Studies and Legal Studies; Co-Coordinator, Peer Health Exchange
My iPhone has made me ...(more) organized, respond to people more quickly and be more on top of things.
But it’s also a constant distraction. You know that phrase, “giving it your undivided attention”? It’s almost as if that skill doesn’t exist anymore.

Sanford Goldberg
Professor of Philosophy
One of the things that we love about the life of the mind is that we love to think about interesting things. But what is interesting and worth thinking about? ...
I think the worries that many people express about the impact of technology on memory and attention are real worries. But technology is here to stay whether we like it or not, so we should learn to make good use of it.

Matt Taylor
IT Director of Weinberg College’s Multimedia Learning Center
I think a lot of the criticism of the smartphone and its effect on intelligence might really be about complacency: Do they make us too trusting?
And there are other technologies in the works, like Google Glass. What we’re really talking about is the increasing pervasiveness and integration of the computer with the person.

Charles Perry ’08
Account Executive, MentorMob
The snarky answer is, it doesn’t matter. The smartphone is here to stay, so we’d better figure out a way for it to make us smarter, because if it doesn’t, we’re doomed.
My less-snarky answer is, it depends on how we use it. Our smartphones radically increase the amount of media we can consume, the number of games we play, the groups of people we connect with. But it’s still up to us to use all these experiences in a way that’s intelligent and productive.

Paul Reber
Professor of Psychology
You still need to memorize some things. You have to learn the vocabulary to have a conversation in your field. So writing skills, presentation skills, critical thinking skills?—?things that you have to practice and essentially hone?—?might make even more sense from an educational perspective than memorizing fact-based information. Our ability to access information now is unprecedented in human history, and I think that puts a lot more focus on what we can do with it, and perhaps less on acquiring it.

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Originally posted by G:
1. Smartphones provide information the way we want it.Does that make *us* smarter? Technology is completely customizable now. While your iPhone may be preloaded with apps to help you check the weather or follow stocks, there are a host of alternatives that you might like better than the native apps that will keep you organized and send information to you in different ways.

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2. Smartphones capitalize on shared knowledge to make us smarter. Access to more of everything - especially more fake news and advertising - served up according to our preferences - pretty much guarantees we won't find anything outside of a product or propaganda that we already accept. It doesn't make *us* smarter, just more programmed. Increased app use has opened the door to inventors and those who have the knowledge to make our world easier. Today, if someone knows how to calculate and keep up with business expenses, they can create an app for people to use. If you want to make your life easier, there's probably an app for that.

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3. Smartphones improve our memory. According to my favorite science source, Bill Nye the Science Guy, smart phones can actually make you smarter, because they help free up memory you'd normally use for mundane information, so you can use it for something else. pretty much debunked by actual science. Smartness is correlated with better working memory - not the same as long term accumulation of information - along with efficient interconnection between different functional areas of the brain.

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4. Smartphones might be improving our nonverbal reasoning. According to a recent study by Psychology Today, one recent study by Psychology Today - the epitome of scientific rigor smartphones might be playing a role in increasing the overall IQ of our society. The increase stems from the improvement in our nonverbal reasoning skills, which can be attributed to the way our brains process information from our smartphones and other technology. And an exact opposite conclusion drawn in actual - yanno - science.

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Originally posted by G:
Do you have a smart phone btw?

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Can Your Smart Phone Make You, Well, Smarter? - NotePage, Inc.
www.notepage.net/learning-center/can-your-smart-phone-make-you-smarter
.htm

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About the Author -
Sharon Housley is the VP of Marketing for NotePage, Inc. a software company for communication software solutions.

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Are smartphones making us smarter? | CreateDebate
www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Are_smartphones_making_us_smarter_3
If you only look at the fact if the smartphone is making us smarter, I think the answer is yes. If I look at myself, I look up information all the time on my phone when ...

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But just knowing the time and temp does actually make one smarter than not knowing them, if only just.

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Originally posted by 6STRINGJOKER:

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
As I was musing in my reply to G, what we do is based on some pre-programmed biological motivation, which directs us to a goal; unless of course something is going wrong with our squish-ware.

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Maybe that's it, because we all do it wrong. I won't say it is behavior exclusive to human beings since I'm not an expert in the field, but it's pretty rare for other species to behave so abnormally.

Then again, maybe on a micro-scale and macro-scale that is exactly what we are doing in our self destructive behavior? Modern tech and medicine has tipped the scale so far in our advantage that Darwinism has been thrown out the window. There is no such thing as equilibrium anymore. Nothing in the animal kingdom or that nature could throw at us puts a dent in it.

Maybe we do what we do because we are the only ones at this point that could cause equilibrium?

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Back to AI - considering that it's already here - does anyone have any trepidations?

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Well, they sure didn't make you any smarter!- GSTRING

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Yanno, you'd think someone who pissed on this forum almost daily with their drunken ramblings for the last 4 years would know enough to stf up and not complain about what others post.- GSTRING

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Originally posted by G:
Yanno, you'd think someone who pissed on this forum almost daily with their drunken ramblings for the last 4 years would know enough to stf up and not complain about what others post.

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Signym trolling.-GSTRING

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Jack's incessant drunk ramblings were beyond trolling. Daily. I ignored him for YEARS and largely still do. His complaining about what someone else posts because he doesn't like it? Beyond ungrateful.-GSTRING

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And Kiki? Sorry - being purposely obtuse or just contrary to be contrary is also a form of trolling.- GSRTING

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BS Sig - you told T you had no deal with him and threatened him and then personally insulted him throughout the week. Same: I had no "deal" with either Kiki or Jack. -GSTRING

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My posts were in fact ON TOPIC= G

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You're not reading it with comprehension - I said knowing those things makes you smarter, as in: you would know how to dress for the weather, which route to drive because of the time, things a thinking person would like to know.

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smart
smärt/
adjective
1. Having or showing a quick-witted intelligence.

intelligence
noun
1. Intelligence can be defined as a person's cognitive abilities to learn.

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Well, they sure didn't make you any smarter!- GSTRING

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Yanno, you'd think someone who pissed on this forum almost daily with their drunken ramblings for the last 4 years would know enough to stf up and not complain about what others post.- GSTRING

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And Kiki? Sorry - being purposely obtuse or just contrary to be contrary is also a form of trolling.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
If AI develops anywhere important in the wild .... as opposed to in a lab ... it will be on the internet, with series of self-replicating software which can be mutated as it is replicated.

All of the ingredients of a giant "brain" are there. At first the AI will be unconscious, but studies of anesthesiology say that "awareness" comes from semi-independent processes communicating with each other, and that is possible on the inet.

I'd say: don't depend on the inet for ... well, anything. Not for GPS for ships, planes, trucks and cars; not having your refrigerator send you a text that you've got spoiled food inside; not for coordinating electrical power distribution. Prepare for that as you would prepare for any prolonged disaster.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Now, to get back ON TOPIC. If at all possible ... my comment was that one should prepare for the development of an AI "in the wild" just like one should prepare for any sort of prolonged widespread emergency (earthquake, flood, hurricane, solar flare) ... be ready to survive "off the grid" for at least two weeks.

Now, if the AI chooses to launch nuclear weapons across the globe, that's not survivable, but short of that just be prepared to tough it out.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Since I can't predict what an AI in the wild would do, I would suggest just preparing for the worst, if such can be prepared for.

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You're not reading it with comprehension - I said knowing those things makes you smarter, as in: you would know how to dress for the weather, which route to drive because of the time, things a thinking person would like to know.

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smart
smärt/
adjective
1. Having or showing a quick-witted intelligence.

intelligence
noun
1. Intelligence can be defined as a person's cognitive abilities to learn.

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G, let's use "automobiles" as a technological extension of walking. Has the introduction of "automobiles" made us more fit, as people, by improving our ability to transport things?- SIGNY

Totally broken logic. Cars were not designed to make us more fit. Do cars allow us to travel more distances and get more things done? Yes. Smart phones are designed to make us smarter (the clue is in the name).-G

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In order to get "better" (fitter, smarter) you need to put in effort. Making things less effortful or more convenient doesn't make us fitter or smarter, it just makes the result faster. Even in my own job, when it's far too easy to look up chemicals online, I can no longer deconstruct an IUPAC name or necessarily remember what an "amide" is without looking it up. SIGNY

You're just getting older, that's your memory waving good bye. I agree about effort. Can't make people think harder if they don't want to - that was my point to you and Kiki. If you hold onto prejudices, as many of your contemporaries who were born way before the advent of smart phones do, then you will not fully understand their scope. I thought that paper link I posted was a perfect illustration of advances in the use of smart phones. Did you read it?- G

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In addition, the incredible amount of people's "screen time" and the focus on virtual communication, narcissism, and consumerism is making us lose all kinds of abilities, like the ability to pay attention to anything for more than a minute, physical capability (brain growth and remodeling is stimulated by physical activity), empathy, and the capacity for independent thought, as well as breeding a whole generation of iPhone addicts.- SIGNY

Again, bad logic. Screen time does stimulate brain growth. It may be for trivial things, but thing of what the user would be doing otherwise - staring out a window? Being bored out of their minds? It's also true that video games are used for training - they are used to quicken thought reflexes.-G

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I can see that there are potentially all kinds of potential benefits to smart phones, and I PERSONALLY feel that I have learned a lot online. But few people go outside of their comfort zone and expose themselves to new or unfamiliar ideas or information, which is part of the learning process. And I can see a lot of downsides as well. I don't have time to post links. Maybe later SIGNY

That's just your negative, unfounded assumption talking again. You can't let go of your prejudices can you? Here's a nugget: "as of June 2016 Android users were able to choose between 2.2 million apps. Apple's App Store remained the second-largest app store with 2 million available apps."

Ask yourself who is writing those and who is using them? They're not all games btw - I'm guessing that's what you think. Just look how many language apps there are. People are getting smarter from their smart phones.-G

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Originally posted by G:
Disagree - again, you are thinking of the negative space. Arriving at information sooner, faster, allows you to conclude, prove or disprove something sooner. Make your proofs sooner, build that foundation of knowledge on which you build the next discovery, sooner, faster. That leads to smarter to me.

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