If you asked a person on the street whether he thinks he’s smarter than a stone age person, he’d probably say yes. If you asked him whether he thinks he’s smarter than someone from the Roman empire, or the “dark ages”, the answer would probably be the same. After all, he knows that Earth revolves around the Sun, and owns a smartphone and a computer.
The interesting thing about smartphones is that I asked my son what do the kids in his class have – he’s 6th grade. It tuned out that most have the top-tier devices like iPhone, Samsung Galaxy 6 edge and Sony Xperia Z5. It’s a jaw-dropping piece of information considering how those kids are not really geniuses; they get average grades, are of average intelligence and are not especially well brought up, to put it more kindly than they deserve. You would ask, what are they using their super-devices for? Games, of course, Facebook and some chat app that’s currently “in”.
Do they use those things to read up on Wikipedia? Not really. Do they use them to navigate Google Earth and see different parts of the world? Not really. Are they reading the news to find out what’s going on in the world? Not really. Are they using them for reading books? Not really. In fact, my son told me they laughed at him when he told them he reads books, because “we’re not in the 13th century to read books”. So basically, those children are idiots with very expensive toys. They are as stupid as a brick, and if you think they would come on top in a comparison with a person from ancient Rome, you are probably wrong.
So, if you strip a today’s person of his technology, how much does he really know, what can he really do, and how much is he really worth?
If you try to reduce social media to the actual message that is shared, it’s all mostly “look at me, I’m a vain, shallow, stupid idiot that’s exactly the same as everybody else; nothing worth seeing here, but do click me because I seek attention”.
The kids in my son’s class act as if there’s a difference between having this or that smartphone, but is there, really? If you waste 10 hours a day hanging out on Facebook, as some of them apparently do, does a better phone help you waste time more effectively, or do you just feel cooler and more important as you do it?
If you strip Augustine or Thomas Aquinas of technology and dress him in rags, does it change what he is? But do it with one of those modern fancy girls who are so full of themselves they can’t stop shooting selfies with their phone and posting them online. Strip her of technology, wash her of her make-up and dress her in rags, and tell me, does it change what she is? What is she, really, if everything she is can be stripped away by removing the superficial?
Modern technology like new smartphones and using them ineffectively (just for facebook, selfies) lately seems to go hand to hand with the idea of global astral manipulation field and whole idea of a human hive mind that SK produced.
Your comment “it’s all mostly look at me, I’m a vain, shallow, stupid idiot that’s exactly the same as everybody else” seems to sum things up pretty accurate.
The additional problem is that even those who actually read the news get their information from the same places, so the entire population is top-down mentally controlled to the extent that would make Stalin and Hitler green with envy. They all think they are informed, that they know what’s going on in the world, that they get their information from the vast and diverse field of Internet, but the reality is, they all click on less than ten websites that all copy each other’s shit. None of it is vetted for accuracy, and it’s very easy to control by the powers that be. People today are very sure of what they know, and the problem is, it’s all shit.
Speaking of which, can you recommend some websites or forums that give actual real news from world, not filtered or spin doctored? Does that even exists?
I am thinking that maybe “real” news can be found on dark net, but problem is that you cannot track that website if somebody does not tell you its link or name, or maybe its even invite only groups.
I don’t think it’s as simple as finding the “real” news site; it’s more like sifting through many sources and making up your own mind about what’s real. The small, independent sources are often even worse than the main stream, and more inclined to crazy interpretations, but they often get interesting pieces of raw data that you won’t find elsewhere and that you can use as a guideline for further research. The problem is that you’re gambling with low odds, and you need to do much more work in order to get anything useful, and even then it can all be wrong.
I’m annoyed when people think that others are “sheeple” because they bought the “wrong” kind of phone, and then they all go to the same cnn and msnbc websites to get their information about the world.