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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think we’re getting dumber?

111 replies

ByMerryTiger · 22/06/2025 13:52

AIBU to think people are getting… thicker? Not just ‘bit slow on a Monday’ thick, but ‘can’t read a basic sentence without spiralling into nonsense’ thick.

You see it constantly on here. Someone writes a clear post: paragraphs, punctuation, even the odd line break. And the replies come from people who’ve either skimmed one word and filled in the rest with fever dreams, or who seem to think reading comprehension is some sort of woke conspiracy.

Post: Neighbour offered me Battenberg after reversing into my fence, do I accept or ask for cash?

Replies:

  • ‘Why are you so anti-cake?’
  • ‘Maybe it was your fault for having a fence.’
  • ‘You should be grateful she reversed slowly.’
  • ‘My mother died in a freak fence collision and I find this offensive.’
  • ‘Fences are a capitalist construct.’

The leap in logic. The total inability to process what’s actually been written. It’s like everyone’s brain has been replaced with a malfunctioning Alexa.

No one seems to follow a thread anymore, let alone a thought. You’ll get replies that directly contradict the post or themselves. Tangents about school shoes, astrology, or ‘back in my day we didn’t have fences’.

It’s not just here either. It’s emails, conversations, work meetings. Words go in, soup comes out. We’re a nation of people who couldn’t pass Year 6 reading SATs but think they should be in charge of policy decisions.

Anyway. Fence is fine. Battenberg was dry. Mind is unravelling.

OP posts:
GirlInterrupted · 22/06/2025 16:48

TLDR Black forest gateau! 🤤

ByMerryTiger · 22/06/2025 16:53

ittersbitters · 22/06/2025 16:10

What I have noticed in recent years on Mns is people can't seem to separate statements or facts and personal opinions. So if you say "Trump has a strong chance of winning the election" you must be a Trump fan. Is it a lack of comprehension? The fact that you have to be so binary in your views nowdays?

YES! This! I have noticed it as well and it’s so frustrating! Then there’ll be loads of people attacking the ‘Trump supporter’, telling them how horrible he is, and how horrible they must be for supporting him.

OP posts:
RunningNananananananananana · 22/06/2025 16:57

I think it's because my local co-op has stopped selling cream slices 😔

Alconleigh · 22/06/2025 16:58

RichHolidayPoorHoliday · 22/06/2025 16:36

I don't think we are dumber as a whole specifically, just that dumb people are given far too many media to express their idiocy.

Your friends tend to be in similar "bubbles', so traditionally you were less exposed to sheer stupidity because why would you. Nowadays we go on MN and it 's painful. Sometimes. 😂

There is truth in this. I yearn for the halcyon days where we simply weren’t exposed to so many people’s opinions. Ignorance in that sense was bliss, it turns out.

SapporoBaby · 22/06/2025 17:18

You have to remember that people aren’t all replying in the same frame of mind. Some have had a few glasses of wine of an evening and that makes them make less sense.

Bridport · 22/06/2025 17:20

Thread on my local FB page now.

OP - Does anyone know where I can take a zimmer frame? NHS local hospital don't want it back and local charity shops won't have them.

First reply - NHS will have them back.

OP - No they won't, I've tried and they said no.

The next seven posts all suggest various local NHS places to try including the hospital mentioned in the OP.

OP - I have tried the NHS and they said no thanks.

Three more posts, all suggesting the same local NHS places already recommended including the one in the OP's first post. Again.

Final post - "charity chop (sic) by pets at home will take it"

Honestly, it's tortuous.

FastMauveQuoter · 22/06/2025 17:31

Partridgewell · 22/06/2025 14:03

Why are you so anti-Battenburg? Racist.

Don't you mean Cakeist.

ByMerryTiger · 22/06/2025 17:32

Maxorias · 22/06/2025 16:45

I don't think that skill is vanishing, or that people are any dumber today than before. What's happening is that the internet is exposing us to the opinions of a lot more people from a variety of backgrounds and from different countries. Back in the days, people who showed up on TV didn't tend to be your average folk, they were picked from a restricted pool of people (people who wanted to make a career of it, experts called in to comment on a specific issue, etc).

So it's not that there are more idiots today, it's that the same number of idiots who always existed now get greater exposure.

And also perhaps the fact that not everyone has english as a first language. It's my second language and I have no idea what the battenberg thing was about.

It’s my second language, as well! Don’t worry, the Battenberg thing is just silliness. 🤣

You make some really fair points. I can’t disagree with any of that.

OP posts:
Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast · 22/06/2025 17:32

I think you have a point.

Like already suggested I think the rise of the Internet has had an unintended consequence.

Why learn and remember anything when the answer is at your fingertips?

I reckon we'll evolve into mute creatures with smaller brains, hands that phones fit securely into and muscular thumbs. We won't need to be able to speak because we'll just all be texting each other instead. 😁

Redpeach · 22/06/2025 17:34

Isn't there a personality trait where people think they are cleverer than everyone else? 🤔

Blobbitymacblob · 22/06/2025 17:36

Mr Kipling or homemade?

spoonbillstretford · 22/06/2025 17:38

My IQ is apparently over 140 but I still miss things on here sometimes.

Pedallleur · 22/06/2025 17:39

I hate Battenburg. Not so keen on the Hapsburgs either but a Schnitzel, strudel or Sachet Torte is welcome in case I am regarded as anti Austrian. That Hitler tho could just go right away. No use to anyone not even the Austrians.

Gingernaut · 22/06/2025 17:39

Redpeach · 22/06/2025 17:34

Isn't there a personality trait where people think they are cleverer than everyone else? 🤔

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740

Works the other way too

Smart people fail to realise they are not 'normal' and overestimate 'normal' people's ability to see what they can comprehend

Dunning-Kruger Effect: Why Incompetent People Think They Are Superior

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which the incompetent lack the skills and cognitive abilities to recognize their own inability. Learn how it works.

https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740

Joyinthemoning · 22/06/2025 17:42

German Fences! Whatever next?

ginslinger · 22/06/2025 17:45

Good grief OP have you ever thought you're the problem neighbour? Expecting Battenburg and having snobby ideas about fences.

Swirlythingy2025 · 22/06/2025 17:46

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 22/06/2025 13:53

YABVVU, because now I want Battenburg cake.

they had some reduced in my local mini market but its the sugar and cal for one bar that put me off.

Swirlythingy2025 · 22/06/2025 17:46

or the opposite in the show town called eureka

Redpeach · 22/06/2025 17:48

Gingernaut · 22/06/2025 17:39

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740

Works the other way too

Smart people fail to realise they are not 'normal' and overestimate 'normal' people's ability to see what they can comprehend

Interesting - i was also thinking of narcissists.

Swirlythingy2025 · 22/06/2025 17:48

@ByMerryTiger i think part of the issue is people dont want to seem dumb.
they rely on the media to tell them whats what
they jump from point to point eg you try to explain one item in context mention something else and then they jump to that topic.
plus people dont seem to be able to admit they are wrong or if they do they seem to take offence etc

Swirlythingy2025 · 22/06/2025 17:50

plus people in general would rather study football or reality tv shows and let "experts in the media" tell them whats what but when someone has read books or watched documentarys people seem to stick to well the media says this etc as if the media is gospal

SapporoBaby · 22/06/2025 17:53

The13thFairy · 22/06/2025 16:11

There was a thread recently asking about mammograms, and if we would be ok with a male doing it. So, so many women wrote about how a man delivered her baby, a man was once really gentle with a speculum, a man spotted her breast cancer, if it hadn't been for a male surgeon she'd be dead, and so on. The original question was answered by a bit more than half the posters.

But that’s not people being thick that’s people who are using SIMILAR but not the same experiences with a man doing medical care to them (generally in an intimate place) and how they were Ok with it. So it’s answering the question through their similar experience.

Thats what conversation is, even online. Discussion would be very boring if people stuck religiously to the question and just said yes or no.

Dominicus · 22/06/2025 17:57

I blame the lack of reading.

ByMerryTiger · 22/06/2025 18:05

Swirlythingy2025 · 22/06/2025 17:46

or the opposite in the show town called eureka

I LOVED that show. They apparently cancelled it because it was too expensive to make. Broke my heart. 😢

OP posts:
ReacherOMGyes · 22/06/2025 18:20

I haven't RTFT but you sound like hard work OP, if your husband wants carrot cake instead of battenburg just buy if for him. Do you even want to be married?

Sorry couldn't resist

I questioned about there being a lot of bot replies on here a while ago, as some threads the first half dozen replies are almost the same and are so left feild of what the poster was asking. Some replies I have to question if the poster is replying to the right thread tbh

I think it's just SM in general, got to post first reply, get the most likes, get quoted as much as possible, the quick fix of feeling relevant for 5 seconds. It's quite sad really

Swipe left for the next trending thread