Is the Internet Making Us Smarter or Dumber? Yes.

gigaom

I found this search while looking for something else in a google search.  That something else was the question: Is the internet making us more insular?  I found nothing at the top of the search, so I tried the alternate one such as this one.

Insularity relates to intelligence, does it not?  Being detached from the group makes their information inaccessible to you.  But the world wide web should disseminate information more widely, should it not?  Yes, it should, but that may not be happening.  Instead of that, what you may be getting is that people will retreat into like minded sites, which I referred to once as "churches".

Upon finding their church, they will not seek out other sources of information.  Then, they become insular.  This may lead to the phenomenon known as groupthink.  Being super intelligent and well informed does not give immunity to groupthink.  In fact, those most succeptible to groupthink are those who are intelligent and well informed.  Quite the paradox!