The Myths of Technology Series: “Technology Makes Us Dumb”
by George Couros • • 0 Comments
For ISTE 2014 in Atlanta, I will be presenting on the “Myths of Technology and Learning”. As I am really thinking about what I will be sharing at the conference, I wanted to write a series of blog posts that will help myself and others “rethink” some of these statements or arguments that you hear in relation to technology in school. I will be writing a series of blog posts on different myths, and will be posting them on this page. I hope to generate discussion on these topics to further my own learning in this area and appreciate any comments you have on each idea shared.
The Myths of Technology Series: “Technology Makes Us Dumb”
“In short, people who are able to keep up with technology will outsmart those who don’t (even more than they do now). Therefore, educators, parents and employers should try to foster an appetite for complexity, a curious and hungry mind…” FromIs Technology Making Us Stupid (and Smarter)?, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Ph.D.
When I was a kid, I had this ability to memorize every single phone number of seemingly hundreds of people in my life. Now I can safely say that I know four. My mom, my work, my own phone number, and 911. There are hundreds of numbers that are stored in my phone, more than I could have ever possibly memorized. Did I lose the ability to memorize or did I lose the need to memorize? Am I “dumber” than I was before because of this lack of “rolodex-like” memory, or, is someone “dumber” because they don’t know how to put the information in their phone in the first place? Who loses out more?
The argument that I have heard often is that “technology makes us dumb”, and I will admit, things have changed a lot in a short amount of time. In a hilarious bit by Pete Holmes, he talks about how Google is “ruining our lives”, and he states that, “the time between ‘knowing’ and ‘not knowing’ is so brief that ‘knowing’ feels exactly like ‘not knowing’.” We don’t