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With the advances in technology do you think you have become smarter?


fredkawig

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The internet is one of the most powerful information based tools to better one's learning. It is an archive of documents and materials that educate, teach and help people understand a lot of things. With the advancements in technology, it has lead people either too understand more and have a vast array of knowledge and other have become even more dumb. So has the internet helped you understand more things or has it limited your growth and understanding by being misused?

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I haven't seen a big difference in myself, I mean, I possibly have better knowledge in some areas, but where I see a huge difference is in kids, kids know more and more things earlier and earlier, five year old seem like small adults, it's really impressive!

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A lot of changes and improvements in people's lives have been continuously experienced as the advances in technology progresses. Whether we admit it or not, it has brought a tremendous impact in our daily living and will continue to do so as years pass us by.

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I think with the advancement of world wide web and the technology like smartphones and tablets, people are surely becoming more fact aware, simply because they can get to the fact fairly easily with a couple of clicks only, so yes it is helping people to become smarter and make better decisions.

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I'm currently teaching myself a levels and I use my laptop if I don't understand something. I will jump on youtube or google and find a solution. I also use lots of websites to learn languages so yes. Personally, I think that advances in technology are making me smarter.

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I'm glad to hear the advances in technology has enabled you to learn more and have made you smarter instead of the opposite. Though there are still those that caught the bad effects of technology mainly in our country I guess, since most of the youth are on computer shops and playing video games instead of going to school, that I guess and some more are the disadvantage of today's technology.

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I think we are getting dumber by each innovation that is aimed at reducing human work. We don't have to remember things anymore. Before I had a cellphone I had a good memory of my friends' phone numbers and their birthdays. Now I don't remember any. I can get all the information at the press of a button. I used to study new words using a dictionary. Nowadays I don't do it anymore. I can look it up on my mobile dictionary if I encounter a new word. I think we are setting a bad example for the younger generations.

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It is much easier to research information now with the Internet.  Instead of having to find a book on a topic that you are interested in, now you can just type it into a search engine and research away.  I think you can become a little smarter a little faster if you want to learn something now.  If you want to look up something in the middle of the night, information is now at your fingertips.

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I think with the advance in technology we for sure have the possibility to become smarter if we take advantage of it.  Many people don't take advantage of it though. We can learn pretty much anything we want to learn with the use of the internet!

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i definitely have become better. i am smarter than i ever was. i also like to compare myself to my parents who didn't have much technology growing up and i know quite a few things that they don't.

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Uhm, given the fact I learnt English entirely on my own thank to the internet and the Yahoo chat rooms... I'd say that technology has helped me a lot!  I'm sure that if I hadn't had internet back when I was 16... there is no way I'd have been able to learn English. 

I don't think I could have learnt English at a school or anything like that, I'm not that kind of person actually... I need a more natural learning method.  Chatting online was that for me, I started slow and badly, but I learnt from my mistakes thanks to it and learnt so much in exchange :)

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Yes, the advancement of technology has certainly made me smarter. I can remember when I started hearing about all the things that computers were able to do I said it was not for me. Today I use the computer for so many things. It has helped me to expand my ability in so many ways.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think we are getting dumber by each innovation that is aimed at reducing human work. We don't have to remember things anymore. Before I had a cellphone I had a good memory of my friends' phone numbers and their birthdays. Now I don't remember any. I can get all the information at the press of a button. I used to study new words using a dictionary. Nowadays I don't do it anymore. I can look it up on my mobile dictionary if I encounter a new word. I think we are setting a bad example for the younger generations.

You do have a point there, this is true specially for people who are yet to learn things, elementary years and others. Books are very important for this age group and I guess I also got side tracked when I was in my elementary and high school years because of computer games. But still like every other thing, the internet, technology and media have both positive and negative impacts and it is up to the person which one he/she chooses.

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I think everybody has become smarter now. Especially with the help of Google. Everybody could just type anything on the search engine and know the answer to it quick!

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  • 6 months later...

I think the potential to be smarter has grown with the access to so much information. And if taught correctly how to think critically and evaluate evidence, people have the potential to effectively sift through this information to find what they believe to be "good" or "bad" information. I am happy with the advancement of technology. Especially things like MOOCs where people can go to sites like Coursera and anyone can have access to learn certain topics that are generally only taught on a college campus.

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Definitely. Now-a-days, we have no right to be ignorant. We can learn so much right in our own home on our own pace and at our convenience. We just click on our keyboards and presto! We got loads of answers to a question in a matter of seconds. The internet is such a powerful tool!

What more, with the latest gadgets, we can learn anywhere we want to. As long as there is internet and/or wifi connection, then learning never stops. Or we can always depend on our mobile network's data services. Life has become so much easier in this aspect. I just hope people will be wise enough to put it into productive and worthwhile use.

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I always make a lame joke about google being one of my best friends. But it's actually true. Whenever I need to know something, I immediately look it up on google to get a basic idea. I have learnt a lot with the help of the internet. I have managed to successfully complete several courses that furthered my career massively and opened many new doors for me. I also get a lot of information from free e-books and other free literature. But one of the most valuable aspects on the internet for me is when people write in forums about their personal experiences, such as how they overcame certain difficulties, how they managed to create a better life for themselves, and so on.

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I'd say I'm more knowledgeable but not necessarily smarter. I consider myself to be just as clueless as I always was because my traits stem too far back to my childhood when there still wasn't any internet. I think the newer generation will definitely be smarter though since there's so many things available to them at their developmental stage and way before they are set in their ways.

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The advances in technology has not only made me more knowledgeable, but it has piqued my curiosity and prolonged my thirst for greater knowledge.  Of course, despite such advancements, I still think that traditional modes of education, such as reading, writing, and the exercise of our mental faculties, have already made us smart in a certain way.  Technological advancements will only reinforce what we have learned.

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I don't see any significant difference, to be honest, in regards to me being "smart." In fact, because of these latest technologies, I get distracted most of the time. I'm not saying that today's technology is bad, but rather, it can lead a person to think that it's okay to not to put much effort in studying.

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I can honestly say, after finishing school, the internet has informed more than what I learned in classes. When it comes to classroom learning, its' a set thing they teach you. You only get information that the teach has thrown back at you. While with the internet, it has some much that you can learn that it's terrifying. Not only are there things with archives upon archives available digitally, but there's a chance for someone to mislead you into thinking something is true, when really, it's not. In order to become smarter, you have to do the research first.

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The first time I got on the internet I was 24. I have been hooked ever since (I am now 40). Because I am an inquisitive person, and I love to have facts and information, the internet has been special to me. I can remember having to go to the library or read an encyclopedia. Now the answers are easy as walking to your computer or picking up your cell phone. I genuinely believe I have learned more from the internet in the last 16 years than I would have learned in my whole life without it.

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I suppose we first have to define what valuable means to us before we can definitively pinpoint which language is the best to learn. For me, I am learning Mandarin because I have always wanted to live in China - I find the vast land and the billion people fascinate me. Sure, there are all the stereotypes of Chinese people that annoy me but I bet you that the majority of the people outside the major cities are amazing people to get to know and to see how they live. So the 'value' for me to learn Chinese is having access to many people to learn from - ie. the Chinese culture and way of life.

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The resources available on the Internet have helped me immensely with homework and with learning Spanish. I wouldn't say that technology has made me smarter, but I know how to utilize technology to help me with assignments. Technology overall has made life easier, and thanks to that, I can spend more time studying. You definitely have to careful when using your phone or the Internet- using it inappropriately can hurt you in the long run, and can make you seem 'dumb'. I just try to make sure I don't send any text messages that I'll regret and I use the Internet 'responsibly', even though there are no rules set in stone as to how to use the web responsibly. I guess not harassing or trolling people would be responsible...even though it happens all over the Internet :/

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