The New Measure of Intelligence

TVO, A Canadian Public Media Company, recently posted a video on YouTube titled “Does the internet make you dumber?” The video highlights our diminishing attention spans, how we’re losing our memory skills because we have instant access to full information.

The host also postulates that maybe the concept of intelligence should be more about what we can do with information and less about the ability to sign our names to knowledge.

It’s an interesting question and rings very true. I remember just a year ago, if my friends and I had a pissing contest about smarts, we’d argue to no avail. Now, we’ll carry on for a moment or two then verify that I’m the smarter friend by Googling something on an iPhone.

I’d wager to say the video unknowingly positions the ability to research as an invaluable skill that aids in intelligence. If you agree that knowing is no longer the important factor, then the ability to weed through the endless amounts of information and know when you’ve collected enough to make decisions and ideas happen becomes as valuable as any memorized knowledge set.