To think people are getting noticeably stupider

[CurdinHenry]

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

Apparently this is actually true. Something to do with wealthier people (who are usually, by definition, cleverer, having had the brains to make piles of cash in the past) having fewer children than they used to (not like in the olden days when they’d have 7 or 8 in case some of them died of childhood illnesses) - so their clever genes aren’t being passed down so much now most people are only have 2 children at the most. However, poorer, less educated families are apparently still having larger families, and therefore there are more people around who aren’t as smart.

this is since the 1970s apparently - I don’t remember who told me this but it sort of makes sense.

After 20 years in this type of job, this is the exact reason why I’m glad I retired! The entitlement and rudeness was off the scale😱

Ha yes, in the work place too! Glad your boss finally sorting things out. My partner has this - years of being run ragged by people asking him to do their job. He's finally now ignoring emails/not help and suddenly these people are actually able to do it themselves after all.

Oh, and no thanks, ever for helping people out. He only hears from them when they have an issue. What's that all about?!

I’ve been off work since last Tuesday. A colleague has some documents on her desk that need posting fairly urgently. I’ve just been catching up on my emails and between about 4 people they haven’t been able to take them to the post room to be sent off or ask post room to collect them so their solution is to wait until I’m back this Tuesday to deal with it. And these are LAWYERS 🙄

There's a definite drop in General Knowledge. I strongly believe it's to do with the ability to pick and choose what we watch and listen to. I remember in the 70s and 80s we had one TV in the house and so I'd be forced to sit through whatever my parents were watching, even if I was just sprawled on the floor, playing with my Lego while the news was on, some of the information would still get lodged in my mind. I watch a lot of quiz shows and regularly hear younger contestants use "it's before my time" as an excuse not to know things. Well, I can answer questions about the Tudors, the Titanic and so on despite not being there!

People are increasingly incurious, uneducated and illiterate in an age of mandatory free education existing and written communication (albeit online or via texting) being a multiple times a day event. It’s boggling.

I see my nieces and nephews move through the world with so little knowledge of anything and it’s heartbreaking. A couple showed signs of being very clever as small children but phones, tablets and social media cut them off at the knees. Not one of them has ever read a book. Or even a magazine.

Judging based on some of the posts I've seen you put on here, I'd definitely agree.

I think reading is becoming a lost art. My old neighbour (gone now) was chatting with the younger members of staff. None of them had read a book since school and couldn't watch a whole film, said they didn't have the concentration but would spend hours on their phones. Everything consumed by them was 2-3 min snippets at most.

this.

I agree.

ha that's my husband too - we have similiar lives 😅. he only gets contacted by his family etc when they need stuff to be fixed etc. no invite to anything no asking about our lives etc. he now not answering or delaying replying back etc to all these queries taking a step back
it's amazing how people can find the answer or the help they require when they have too.

@Halfblindbunny I get this endlessly from a relative who is constantly spouting right wing shite she’s read on Facebook. When I counter it with facts she very accusingly says ‘where did you hear that’ and when I say ‘in newspapers and on the television where they report the whole story’ only to be told ‘I don’t trust newspapers to tell the truth’. Patriots of Facebook however are totally trustworthy. She’s a case study in how easy it is to brainwash someone with very little brains. She’s actually quite proud of not wasting her time thinking.

I think it's more than the internet exposes those who have not engaged properly with the education offered to them.

Back in the 1980s, when I started my first full-time job, I had to deal with enquiries from members of the public. I was astounded by how incapable people were of finding out the smallest bit of information for themselves. This was in the days when most towns had a decent library and a paid librarian who could help them find out about anything.

Nowadays, of course, most (though not all) people have access to the internet but very few seem to use their brains to filter the information that is on the screen in front of them. For a start, a lot of people rely on AI, which is inaccurate nonsense for the most part. They also believe whatever they read on social media without stopping to wonder who has posted it and why. The number of times I see tabloid newspapers quoted here as reliable sources of information is depressing. I do wonder what many people were doing while they were sitting in classrooms, supposedly learning how to use their brains!

After my time is often used as an excuse though by older people on these programmes. Some people live in the past.

Stupider is the correct word.

Is this about low income and migrant families being more likely to have large families? A bit stuck up if so.

We are in a post literate society now where people just do not read much and consume the information they do get through videos on Social Media and short texts.

A lot of people choose not to listen to the news at all as it's all too depressing and have very little idea about what is going on in the world. I spoke with someone the other day who didn't know Andy Burnham was PM.

The level of rank stupidity people display on a daily basis is incredible.

Thank you for that, I thought the same. I went to state primary school in the sixties, state comprehensive school in the early seventies but I sometimes feel like the brain of Britain when I meet todays Uni students that lack basic grammar or general knowledge. Latest question that had them baffled " what's blotting paper?" Bejeez !!

True in music - not sure that applies to general knowledge though? We see the news etc throughout our lives.
But yeah, music for sure, am totally stuck in the stuff I listened to back in my younger days, most stuff sounds rubbish now! Grins.

It is actually happening. For the first time in history global intelligence has declined with this generation of young adults (Gen z) compared with the previous generation (millennials). Previous to this every generation was more intelligent than the last.

that may not be the whole truth, google "regression to the mean"

Can we be friends?

well yeah but that's kind of like not knowing what a pounce pot is. I bet loads of people don"t know that without googling.

I seen a repeat of bullseye from 1970s

Ah well.

When I initially read the title, my first thought was You're asking in the right place!