Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think people are getting noticeably stupider

413 replies

CurdinHenry · 18/10/2026 19:15

At every level of capability it just feels like the species is in decline

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
BeardySchnauzer · 20/10/2026 11:11

I guess that’s an advantage of DofE as you still have to do the map reading.

when DD did bronze they had lessons and she came back really confused but turned out to get it when doing it in the field

BeardySchnauzer · 20/10/2026 11:12

Although some of her friends didn’t and she did most of the map reading. They only got lost once!

Butchyrestingface · 20/10/2026 11:14

@CurdinHenry

Starting with you and all these weird alarmist threads. 🥴

Rootsinmydreamland · 20/10/2026 13:00

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 20/10/2026 08:29

Oh yes, and someone said there was nothing like Only Connect on TV in the UK decades ago. Possibly not, but Round Britain Quiz on Radio 4 was a very tough quiz which also involved figuring out obscure connections and assumed a high standard of general knowledge and familiarity with the Bible and the classics of English literature. Not sure if it's still on these days.

Round Britain Quiz is, indeed, still being broadcast on Radio 4. It alternates in the R4 quiz slot with Brain Of Britain and Counterpoint. I am an avid quizzer so I enjoy all three series, though RBQ is, I believe, a little less challenging than Only Connect, both because OC is considerably faster paced and Victoria Coren-Mitchell does not gently lead teams to correct answers as is standard practice on RBQ. It is, however, still a very stimulating and enjoyable listen and worth checking out if you used to enjoy this series as I believe it has changed very little over the years.

Differentforgirls · 20/10/2026 17:47

JHound · 19/10/2026 14:59

I don’t mind that. Keeps the child occupied instead of running up and down screaming. Attending dinner with adults can be very boring for kids.

I disagree with you on this. Children who eat dinner at the table every night with their parents see it as normal. They are used to chatting and eating as being normal day to day interactions. Plus, they don't run up and down screaming if meals at the table are normal.

NotAnotherScarf · 20/10/2026 17:51

DeftGoldHedgehog · 18/10/2026 22:38

The Telegraph was 12. The Sun was a reading age of 8 years old.

Sweet Georgia brown...that's scary

godmum56 · 20/10/2026 18:05

Differentforgirls · 20/10/2026 17:47

I disagree with you on this. Children who eat dinner at the table every night with their parents see it as normal. They are used to chatting and eating as being normal day to day interactions. Plus, they don't run up and down screaming if meals at the table are normal.

I agree with this. I wasn't every single night without fail but we were taught table manners and there was nothing unusual about it. At home we were allowed to ask to be excused to go and play but when we were out in restaurants (which were a great treat) then we stayed at the table till it was time to leave. It wasn't strange or difficult.

Anonanonay · 20/10/2026 18:48

theearthsayshello · 18/10/2026 23:47

You are surely aware that ai chatbots regularly (yes, even now) get information wrong, even basic information is often simply wrong. They fabricate sources, quotations, and more.

I have a friend who works on legal reports (not a lawyer) who recently asked for some cases to back up his matter, basically speeding up his process rather than hunt and peck through searching.

Luckily, he always backchecks and discovered one of the cases had simply been invented. It didn't exist at all.

Back when I was still trying ai out I asked it for a Scottish poet, gave the name and a few lines of a specific poem I was trying to track down. It actually invented one, on the spot, and claimed it was the real deal. It looked quite genuine too at first glance. Fortunately, I always check sources too.

The last time I tried to use Chat GPT for anything more than a simple internet search was about a year ago. I gave it a list of places in a particular city and asked it to copy a basic map of the city and highlight just those places I had named.

It simply fabricated streets, it placed some destinations in completely the wrong place and the "map" it gave me was totally useles, it was certainly not from this universe.

This is a well known, heavily mapped city, there is a lot of information available about this place online.

In these three instances it admitted it was simply inventing things when challenged. Oopsie, yes, sorry about that, is very common with chatbots. This is a serious problem that they cannot seem to overcome.

Language matters a lot, the naming of a thing contributes to the trust we put in it, we really need to go back to calling them chatbots.

There is no way at all to tell if a chatbot is hallucinating without seeking verification.

Anyway, I suppose if the chatbot was your only source of information when trying to flee a danger zone it would be better than just guessing, and you might not have time to find a credible source in these circumstances, so not actually necessarily stupid, but certainly not ideal.

Maybe it has improved but it's been enormously helpful for me, lately. Helped me repair a roof, save money transferring money abroad, draft perfect emails in foreign languages, suggest videos for crafting conundrums, you name it. In an emergency I would absolutely trust it over my own guesswork, given that it has access to vastly more information that I do.

Differentforgirls · 20/10/2026 19:02

godmum56 · 20/10/2026 18:05

I agree with this. I wasn't every single night without fail but we were taught table manners and there was nothing unusual about it. At home we were allowed to ask to be excused to go and play but when we were out in restaurants (which were a great treat) then we stayed at the table till it was time to leave. It wasn't strange or difficult.

Edited

Eating at the table was normal when I was growing up. Breakfast, lunch (at the weekends) and dinner. We were allowed our supper in the living room (toast) because we were watching the telly as a family.

When I was in fifth year we all went, as a school, on a dedicated bus to Glasgow Uni. I won't go into what happened to me and my friend but suffice to say were both in no fit state to eat dinner with our families.

My mum still produced my dinner from the oven and made me sit at the table to eat it 😂

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 20/10/2026 19:09

I've just come over here from watching YouTube - an advert showing how you can use AI to tell you when you can take a holiday ('All these wedding invitations - when is it MY turn to go away?') or buy a set of noise-cancelling headphones? I mean SERIOUSLY?

Maybe AI would like to start telling me when to breathe in and out next.

Wibble128 · 20/10/2026 19:14

MrsMoastyToasty · 18/10/2026 19:34

They walk among us, my friends. They walk among us...

And vote.

runhpietkachs · 20/10/2026 19:35

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

MixedBananas · 20/10/2026 19:40

ExtraHotDoubleShot · 18/10/2026 19:28

I saw an archive video from the 1970s on Instagram where some little boys, probably age 8 or 9, were being asked why their football team lost. Their replies were so mature and eloquent compared to how kids would respond today, they were like little adults. They also had a crazy amount of self awareness ‘we lost discipline, we can play well individually but aren’t right as a team’

I see the same when I go "back home". My younger cousins 1 is age 5 are talking with growen men like they are men! It is madness. They know how to be polite and conversate in a mature manner and add to the conversation. They don't watch colourful brain rot. No personal devices. No social media and they live in massive extended families so they speak to adults a lot, they help out with tasks. Do shop runs for small items. Learn how to deal with money from an early age.

Shinyhappyapple · 20/10/2026 21:19

BeardySchnauzer · 20/10/2026 07:45

a child colour in or reading is learning the skill of concentration and delayed gratification that an iPad doesn’t give them. But agree with pp meal times should be a lot engaging in conversation

and if your kids are at a stage where behaving in a restaurant isn’t possible well here’s a novel idea - you don’t go!

Whilst what you say is true, I think that seeing a family’s behaviour in a restaurant is a very small snapshot on family life, so it doesn’t necessarily have a huge bearing on a child’s ability to read, converse etc

BeardySchnauzer · 20/10/2026 21:23

Shinyhappyapple · 20/10/2026 21:19

Whilst what you say is true, I think that seeing a family’s behaviour in a restaurant is a very small snapshot on family life, so it doesn’t necessarily have a huge bearing on a child’s ability to read, converse etc

There’s a big difference between a family who sit the kids down with headphones and the iPad from the start and those who use it as a last resort though

Shinyhappyapple · 20/10/2026 21:24

Differentforgirls · 20/10/2026 17:47

I disagree with you on this. Children who eat dinner at the table every night with their parents see it as normal. They are used to chatting and eating as being normal day to day interactions. Plus, they don't run up and down screaming if meals at the table are normal.

Ah but when you eat at home, you call the children to the table as you dish up. In a restaurant you are all sitting there waiting for half an hour. It’s different. Sure you could chat. But maybe you’ve already been chatting since the child was picked up from school. It’s a small snapshot.

SmallDFartyCarNRG · 20/10/2026 22:22

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

runhpietkachs · 20/10/2026 22:32

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Given that i didn't even post on that thread it's a bit weird that you apparently decided to insult me personally on it but not out of character.

Differentforgirls · 21/10/2026 05:26

Shinyhappyapple · 20/10/2026 21:24

Ah but when you eat at home, you call the children to the table as you dish up. In a restaurant you are all sitting there waiting for half an hour. It’s different. Sure you could chat. But maybe you’ve already been chatting since the child was picked up from school. It’s a small snapshot.

Well when ours were small there were no tablets and they didn’t run around a restaurant screaming!

Saracopp · 21/10/2026 06:10

Absolutely! Just take a look at some of the posts on mumsnet. The lack of comprehension and immaturity of so called adults is astounding

KateDelRick · 21/10/2026 07:11

Differentforgirls · 21/10/2026 05:26

Well when ours were small there were no tablets and they didn’t run around a restaurant screaming!

Same here! Not once. They managed to sit at the table, eat properly and chat. When they were very small I sometimes had a book or a colouring book. I would never have taken them if they couldn't behave, why should other diners be disrupted?

KateDelRick · 21/10/2026 07:13

godmum56 · 20/10/2026 18:05

I agree with this. I wasn't every single night without fail but we were taught table manners and there was nothing unusual about it. At home we were allowed to ask to be excused to go and play but when we were out in restaurants (which were a great treat) then we stayed at the table till it was time to leave. It wasn't strange or difficult.

Edited

That's how I was brought up, and our children. Basic table manners, proper use of cutlery, eating and chatting together. No screens. It's very convivial.

KateDelRick · 21/10/2026 07:15

I had to teach my new A level class how to use an index in a textbook.

Differentforgirls · 21/10/2026 07:17

KateDelRick · 21/10/2026 07:15

I had to teach my new A level class how to use an index in a textbook.

😱

AlwaysNeverSometimes · 21/10/2026 07:28

KateDelRick · 21/10/2026 07:15

I had to teach my new A level class how to use an index in a textbook.

The scary part of that is that they will have been taught/reminded so many times. They just haven't retained the information.

Swipe left for the next trending thread