I know people joke about H&S gone mad, the nanny state, babysitting a nation etc etc and the “dumbing down” of everything from TV news reports and quiz shows to school tests – but at some point, taking away the need for people to use that “organ in their head” (so to speak) must cause it to atrophy??
Can you give any examples?
I’ve heard people say they News is dumbed down because they allow regional accents now.
I don’t believe ‘school tests’ are any easier or harder than they used to be, certainly not since my school days – workload has gone up, they squeeze 6 lessons a day in now, used to be 4 in my day and my 10 year old does more homework in an evening than I did – well ever, but we had about an hour a week, he’s doing half an hour a day.
I believe the opposite is true, I read the internet was 25 yesterday, but it’s widespread use is not as old as that – everyone these days has access to unlimited data, so the requirement for ‘knowledge’ has changed – the truth was always “Genius is not knowing all the answers, but knowing where to look for them” and these days ‘the answers’ are easier to find than ever – the rate of human development is getting faster – dumbing down? Kids these days have useful, marketable skills that their parents didn’t gain until way into adulthood and their grandparents never had.
Things change, old skills lose importance, new skills and requirements emerge – bemoaning that kids these days can’t speak Latin or recite all the countries in the world just makes you out of touch.