Are Social Media, Smart Devices And Texting Making People Dumber?

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Are social media sites like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram as well as smart devices and texting actually making people dumber? One study recently released by JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, shows they are. According to their research people who spend as little as 30 minutes per day using social media outlets have an average decrease in IQ test results of 5 to 10 points over a three month period and the effect seems to be cumulative.

In a three year study the effects seem to be greatest among young people most likely because this is now their desired way to communicate and they are more willing to use them. Older people are also being affected too at a growing rate as they discover and like the world of social media and smart devices.

Ironically the study shows that these social media outlets seem to be making people more antisocial in the real world with the users developing a fictional lifestyle based on a computer generated social life. Real world friendships are often abandoned in favor of an electronic lifestyle. According to the study people often gravitate away from real world relations and become fixated in a cyber lifestyle that is not real. To some degree it seems that people feel more in control of something they can simply switch on or off as opposed to dealing with problems in the real world that they would have to face. This study shows that it is not uncommon for parents to communicate with their own children through these social media sites even while they are all located in the same house and includes communication utilizing texting when they are within 20 feet of each other.

According to Dr. Gerald Albeinster, physiologist with the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., he has seen a marked decrease in the social abilities from patients who frequently use social media and other forms of none verbal communications including e-mail and texting. He says these people often cannot cope with real world emotions when confronted in a real world face to face conversation after being exposed to a cyber lifestyle for long periods of time. He adds that people seem to start to believe the world wants to hear from them and that posting to Facebook or other social media outlets becomes their mission in life.

The effects of social media are not the only culprit in today’s dysfunctional society. Although texting and e-mail does indeed offer an instant means of communications, when this is the primary means of communications the person cannot develop needed social skills in the real world nor can they learn to handle or display emotions properly according to Albeinster. In his study he found that without emoji’s people under the age of thirty could not express their emotions in a face to face conversation and would often withdraw back to an electronic world where they are comfortable. He also sites this as one reason for people not being able to hold jobs, long term, or to have lasting relationships even in marriage.

The study also showed that since the introduction of so called smart devices in the early 90’s that basic learning skills have been abandoned with people growing dependent on the internet and smart devices in place of actually learning for themselves. In his study he found that 68 of students set to graduate high school this year could not even spell all the days of the weeks or the names of the months. Basic geography is also another area that seems to have been abandoned because fewer than 20 of those same students could name the capitals of 15 states. He added that if today’s generation’s handwriting were graded back in the 1960’s most would not have the handwriting skills of a third grader. Albeinster said “we want to blame society for the way our children are growing up but when left to social media for their parents and smart devices for their brains what more can you expect?”

In conclusion this report shows that people who frequent social media sites or have grown dependent on smart devices are more gullible and not only likely to believe fictitious internet reports but to spread them to others as well, believing them to be the truth because they came from their fantasy electronic world. The report offers the following as proof of this fact:

Everything you just read is FAKE and was produced on a prank website yet you were ready to believe every word of it! Chances are you’ll pass this on to your friends..... Do you need any more proof?

I wrote this as a joke - a little humor. What worries me is how much of this could be true!