Intelligence

     In Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows, one of the topics discussed is how the internet is affecting people’s IQ and SAT scores. Carr mentions a man named James Flynn who came up with the saying, the Flynn effect, which questions in a way why if people are so dumb, how do they still become smarter? This Flynn effect is used to defend television shows, video games, personal computers, and now the internet. He wonders how electronic devices, such as the internet, are able to increase knowledge, therefore raising IQ scores. Other people though say IQ has been increasing steadily since World War II and the recent internet is not the reason for intelligence improvement. I agree more with Flynn that it is the internet and electronic devices that help aid our intelligence because there is a surplus of information out in the world today. Through devices like the internet, it is very easy to become educated about anything and everything in the click of a button. I also believe though as years go on, more and more information is discovered and released to the world, and that would explain why people have become smarter since World War II.

     If you think about it, your brain is just like a muscle, without exercise, it won’t be in its best shape or performance. The brain needs to be challenged and faced with new problems to grow stronger and in theory more knowledgeable. Reading more challenging articles, or researching something new, the internet offers a surplus of information to help educate the brain. Today, there is lightning-fast search engines that are profoundly changing the way people gather information, and available at any time to look up. Computer skills make people today far more efficient, and allow them to present more accurate and more intelligent information. With such a complex society today, having knowledge about the internet and how to use it is almost a need. By becoming familiar and used to how to work the internet, it is easy to become connected with the rest of the world and stay updated. With that note, I believe the internet is an important aspect to improving people’s knowledge and connecting people to one another.

     It is also mentioned in the book that due to the use of internet, students taking the SAT tests have gotten lower scores as the years progress with technology. Perhaps this is because technology has become more of a distraction than an aid when it comes to school academics. Teens today are easily distracted with games, music, and videos that come from the internet, and find more interest in that than studying for a standardized test. This would result definitely in a decrease of people’s test scores.

     After many years, Flynn though came to the conclusion that the “gains in IQ scores have less to do with an increase in general intelligence than with a transformation in the way people think about intelligence.” So I also agree with him there, where people are intelligent almost because they believe they are intelligent or not. Anyone can become smarter or dumber depending on how well they want to do in life.

Jacque Rideout