Digitalization: harm or benefit?

Today we will talk about the sore point – digitalization. Has it brought us more benefit than harm, or vice versa? Where is the future of our planet and the intellectual development of the younger generation heading? Let’s discuss modern tools and their application by humanity.

“Digitalization is a general term for the digital transformation of society and economy. It describes the transition from the industrial era and analog technology to the era of knowledge and creativity, characterized by digital technology and innovation in digital business. “

Introduction

When the Internet became generally available, the seed of digitalization was born. In the early 2000s, in small steps, many things in our everyday life began to move into the digital world. Cassette players gradually disappeared and replaced compact mp3 players. Online stores began to appear. The learning process also began to transform. Essays, term papers – all this could already be downloaded in the early 2000s. Everything seemed rosy, the business was expanding virtually, but the degradation of the younger generation was gaining momentum. Let’s talk about this in more detail.

Generation Z is coming

Remembering my school years (88-99), I project them onto the modern world. My son is in 8th grade, and I closely follow what happens to the youth.

Access to information is open. Download, browse, absorb any knowledge, but no. In the early 2000s, the speed of the Internet did not allow for distractions as much as they do now in terms of study. Then, in order to download an abstract or a book, you still had to find it on the wretched, first sites. Yes, it was possible to do and not study, but shaking media content was still that torment. Then we still used digitalization for its intended purpose.

Now, children, schoolchildren, students are burning their lives and degrading, ineptly using a digital resource. Even from the cradle, they have tablets / phones / YouTube channels with degrading content. Yes, my generation is still trying to save and restrict it somewhere, but society dictates its own rules.

Look what is happening now, what our children are learning and what will happen next.
YouTube is full of stupid videos, and sensible material is somewhere in the corner. Then comes the school, where teachers of generation Z are already appearing. What can they give if they themselves have already become the first victim of laziness? That’s right, nothing.

I assume that at the junction of generations X and Y, quality ended. I still remember the teachers who taught me. How they looked everyone in the eye. It’s like actors of those times and now, like football players. Then it was for the idea, but now for the money and faster.
There are still intelligent teachers who do not send to Google, but explain themselves, but there are very few of them.

The modern oversaturation of all kinds of courses, going into online education – all this leads to a decrease in intelligence and socialization. The man “googled” and forgot in half an hour what he was looking for there. Previously, he would have had to go to the library or contact an acquaintance. Now everything is simple and fast. It flew into one ear, flew into the other.

Next comes higher education. Everything is the same there. Nobody wants to study now, most of them like to go online for fun.

I do not argue that there are 20-25% of the population of our planet who sincerely strive for knowledge. The rest – as luck would have it.

Ball entertainers

Moving away from the topic of education, we are moving into adulthood. The first generation Z batches are already leaking out. And what do we see? What was taught, it worked out. They sit in offices, surf Facebook, and run for smoke breaks every 5 minutes.

I live in a metropolis and am amazed. The overwhelming majority is buy / sell. Everyone is lazy. Eat – I will order food. Come up with – I’ll steal an idea or buy a ready-made version. “Idiocracy” in its purest form.

Some, in our time and thanks to digitalization, manage to make money out of thin air. The same Bitcoin….

Specialists from the Norwegian Center for Economic Research. Frisha Brent Bratsberg and Ole Rogeberg analyzed 730 thousand IQ tests for 1970-2009 using computer programs. The scientists found that the average fell annually. The annual difference is small, but over a generation, the level of intelligence fell by 7 points. Is it a lot? At this rate, 150 years from now, humans will, on average, have such low cognitive abilities that are currently considered mild mental retardation.

Average IQ by year of birth (A) and IQ score distribution (B)

I think the rate of decline in intelligence is much higher, gaining momentum every year.

And where is the benefit?

Undoubtedly there is some benefit. I won’t flatter, but thanks to digitalization, the IT sphere has reached even greater proportions. I won’t say that all the other drones, but office plankton do not have such a density of smart employees as in IT.

Digitalization has given a powerful impetus to business development. Brilliant minds plus the modern world work miracles, but these are isolated examples.

It’s like in Dud’s article about Silicon Valley, many had admiration. Only the realization does not come immediately that a share of luck and high intelligence give such a result.

The development of infrastructure in various niches of activity is faster and easier. There are advantages and this cannot be denied. I myself am with both hands for the progress of technology, but it must be properly consumed and applied.

It is a shame that many corporations spend their resources not in the initially important areas of research. They come up with electric cars, but forget about the research of diseases. Musk will fly to the moon faster than we get some important vaccine.

The situation is similar in public content. There is so much useful material and scientific and educational things in the network, but there is no popularization. That’s right, all because it’s easier to “stick” in a tick-tock than to look at panoramas from Mars. This is how we teach the AI ​​that burning butter in a frying pan makes humanity research popular. And this despite the fact that there is a lot of material that is not boringly served.

Output

Please do not take the material as from a grumbling grandfather. I keep up with the times and simultaneously assess what is happening. I understand that had such development and digitalization been 20-30 years ago, perhaps we would have been different. I make allowances for this for the younger generation, but the rate of decline in intelligence is sad.

Now, as in every generation, there are geniuses and capable people. Yes, everyone has a grain, it is simply important to develop it in time, to take a course.

One in the field is not a warrior, and I urge: let us devote more time to our children. They are the future!

Back in the mid-2000s, we discovered a downward trend in intelligence among British teenagers.
But in the new study, scientists recorded a decrease in IQ within real families, and therefore this effect is not due to demographic factors, such as the dangerous genetic accumulation of unfavorable genes in different sectors of society.
Also, one of the possible reasons for such results is a change in lifestyle, possibly, methods of teaching and raising children, as well as how they spend their free time.

Intrafamily estimates of the Flynn effect

So that “Idiocracy” does not turn into reality, it is worth making every effort. To teach our children how to use such huge resources for knowledge correctly.

“Cogito Ergo Sum”

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