QUOTE(Colonel Mustard @ Nov 18 2013, 09:25 AM)

QUOTE(Kiln @ Nov 18 2013, 08:17 AM)

Too much reliance on technology is crippling people
I don't know about that statement. We're a tool-using species, and use of modern technology is nothing more than an evolutionary perogative; the iPhone is nothing more than the latest iteration of a long line of these tools that started with the rocks our ancestors used to crack nuts.
Despite popular misconceptions, humankind isn't actually being made stupider by the internet; studies have shown that the average information processing capacity of children growing up with the internet is actually much greater than that of those who didn't (admittedly this comes at the cost of shortened attention spans). People think that the internet has made us stupider, but the truth is this; people have always been stupid, but naturally people don't want to think badly of themselves, and all the internet has done has held up a mirror to humanity and made that delusion impossible. Humanity has always been stupid, and the internet has not made us stupid; the internet has simply removed our capacity to lie to ourselves and revealed the idiot within.
Christ, that got heavy...Actually I was specifically talking about features like autocorrect and voice activated searches damaging the necessity for us to actually use our heads for anything. Everything can't be on autopilot all the time or else nobody will ever learn how to fly.
I completely agree that widespread internet access has made people as a whole more intelligent and I cited a direct example of using this myself in my last post when I noted that I often use the internet to fact check people. I'm actually a big supporter of advanced technology, I just want people to be able to hang on to the aspects of human intelligence as well.
Another major problem I have is tied directly to social networking and the voluntary destruction of all privacy. Facebook for instance is a massive data harvesting site that sells information to various companies to help them market products to you but people line up to join and toss away the last shred of their private lives.