Are Smartphones Making Us Stupid?

• Author: Keen, Andrew
• Position: Debate

Eighty-one percent of Americans own a smartphone, according to a recent survey. Among young people the percentage is even higher: 96 percent. We carry our phones everywhere and are rarely untethered from them. We scroll through social media, get directions, watch movies, and look up just about anything on our little screens. Some people say this constant connectivity and easy access to dizzying amounts of information isn't without drawbacks. Two technology experts face off on the effect these ubiquitous devices are having on our brains.

YES

The idea that smartphones are making us stupid might, at first, sound a little absurd. After all, that iPhone 11 or Samsung Galaxy S20 in your pocket is actually an incredibly sophisticated networked computer and camera with the power to immediately connect with anyone around the world. You could write a novel, edit a movie, or solve a complex math problem on this magical device.

But, of course, you aren't writing novels, editing movies, or solving complex math problems with your smartphone. Instead, you're using your incredibly sophisticated pocket computer to Tweet the details of what you just ate, watch videos on TikTok, and post your disappearing Snapchat photos from last night's school dance. Then there are all those WhatsApp instant messages you so need to send each hour to your girlfriend or boyfriend and all those selfies that you--as a dedicated member of the Selfie Generation--post daily on Instagram.

So rather than transforming us into Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, or Toni Morrison, our smartphones are actually making us more wrapped up in ourselves. In the end, all we are left with is more and more intimacy with our own lives and less and less knowledge of the wider world around us.

And that, I'm afraid, is why smartphones are making us stupid.

You see, technology doesn't exist in a vacuum, independent of the world; technology is only as good as how we use it. Smartphones could, of course, make us smarter if we use them smartly. But most of us don't, because we are locked in the minutiae of our own lives. Our culture lends itself to instant gratification, the trivialization of serious subjects, and, above all, what psychologists call "narcissism"--unhealthily excessive interest in oneself. Smartphones are both a cause and a consequence of our selfie-obsessed culture. Unfortunately, they are, indeed, making us dumber and dumber.

--ANDREW KEEN Author, The Internet Is Not the Answer

NO

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