Following the viral post this week about 9/11, I have been thinking lots about how much technology has advanced over the past 20 years and yet, well, we still are quite stupid as a species, aren't we? We have devices in our hands that literally hold all the information and facts you could ever possibly want, but are we smarter? I don't think so.
Other examples this week have included:
A clearly fake video of a '15 week old fetus plays and flicks with the umbilical cord.' The video was clearly doctored and the baby was easily almost full term, yet there were thousands of comments of people saying how amazing it was, that now they know that's what they felt during pregnancy etc. Alarmingly, these women would have had ultrasounds and known that a 15-week-old fetus doesn't look like that anyway!
A doctored photo shows a blue whale breaching the water to dive about 20 feet from the beach. 'Wow...nature is beautiful.'
Every day, the adults thundering down the stairs sweating and in a puff racing towards a train despite the numerous screens telling you the train isn't leaving for 10 minutes!
'Does this bus go to grumpy town?' they ask, pulling in the bus that says 'GRUMPY TOWN' on the front pulls in, and the screen telling you that the bus to grumpy town has just arrived, and the numerous travel apps that alert you to the bus arriving and where it goes.
There is often the argument that schools do not do enough to teach teenagers the actual real-life practical day-to-day knowledge to navigate the world (how tax works, bank accounts, pensions etc) but should more be done to teach IT and internet literacy?
What is the point of having all these incredible apps and advances if we still aren't taught to use them?