Technology Makes Us Smarter

“Far from making us stupid, new media technologies are the only things that will keep us smart,” says Steven Pinker in his Op-Ed for the New York Times. New media, in relation to society, is conceptually indistinct from prior media revolutions such as the printing press, newspapers, paperbacks and television, says Pinker. Through each revolution, people opined that the fall of intelligent life was nigh. But, he concludes, “The new media have caught on for a reason. Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias.”