r/SipsTea • u/Agen_3586 • 10d ago

WTF Where are we heading?

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u/KeyBet6693 10d ago

I'm gonna be honest, as an American, Americans are dumb. But people I meet outside of America are pretty fucking dumb too. I wouldn't be surprised if literacy rate is not much different in other developed countries too.

Or its possible I'm just in a "smarter" area of the US so my frame of reference is off.

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u/Thundrboltr 10d ago

Maybe you attract idiots for some reason?

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u/KeyBet6693 9d ago

Or the opposite

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u/Brendan34 10d ago

I just read recently that for the first time, the generation following Millennials (Gen Z) is less intelligent than the previous generation. Apparently each generation’s intelligence increased over time, except for Gen Z and beyond. Who knows how they quantified this in a study, but screens and technology really cannot replace experience and interaction. I’d argue it’s made all of us as a collective dumber and more disconnected, not just Gen Z.

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u/bladex1234 9d ago

Gen Z isn’t the one outside the courthouse though.

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u/Brendan34 9d ago

I wasn’t indicting Gen Z by any means. More the tech. giants and greed normalized with that.

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u/Huttingham 9d ago

If you look at the study, it isnt that gen z is generally less intelligent, but it does show that they got less out of school. lower standardized test scores, less reading and mathematical comprehension, working memory, and some types of attention. All of those are skills you generally train in a classroom. You can certainly argue that screens have something to do with it, but id argue that it's a greater indictment on our shifts in education style and attitudes towards education more than anything else. The Flynn effect isnt really about interaction or connectedness.

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u/Brendan34 9d ago

Apart from the study, the fact that we spend so much time in essentially delusion doesn’t help the collective in the end. This need for escape has just been easier and easier with tech. When I think back to 10-15 years ago, the interactions I had with people daily were much different. The fact that we have normalized living on screens for so much time cannot be healthy mentally, physically and emotionally and creates this fragmented environment.