The Dumbing Down Effect

Idiocracy, a 2006 film starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph, is about the "Dumbing Down" effect.² Wilson and Rudolph play an average Joe and a prostitute who get involved in a military cryogenics experiment. They wake up five hundred years in the future and discover that humans have gradually become dumber and dumber over time. In fact, humans have become so stupid that, in this future world, this average Joe and prostitute are actually the smartest people in the entire world. I will not say that it is a good movie; really, it is retarded. However, there is something important to be learned from it---we should always strive to educate ourselves and improve our intellectuality. It is my belief that video games, social interfaces such as texting, Facebook, and MySpace, and the publishing industry are producing some negative effects on the intelligence of upcoming generations.

The addictive nature of video games is a severe problem. When children, and even adults, get involved in a game, they lose track of time. Hours can go by and they don't even realize it. This wasted time produces no educational benefits. Video games are merely a fun pastime. The question is: Are they producing any negative effects on future society as a whole? I believe they are. If children are spending hours and hours engrossed in these games, they are not devoting much time to intellectual growth. In past generations, prior to all of the amenities we now have to entertain ourselves, children and adults spent much of their time reading and writing. Of course, they also did fun things too. Yet, they cared about having the capability to converse with fellow humans and not sound like an idiot.

The proof of this dumbing down effect lies in the subject of Proper English. With the introduction of texting, Facebook, and twitter, a new shorthand lingo is developing that may just make proper English all the more endangered. Unfortunately, OMG and LOL are replacing beautiful, eloquent writing and speech.

The Dumbing Down effect is even indirectly propagated by the publishing industry. Presently, there seems to be only one requirement for book authors---are you famous? Because the standards have been reduced, the amount of quality literature available appears to be significantly reduced as well. Publishers look at a celebrity and see dollar signs. They know that, from a marketing perspective, a book written by a well-known person is more likely to sell. I find myself highly disappointed in the publishing industry when I see people like Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt publishing a guide to being famous.³ Oh, no, I'm sure these types of books are well worth a person's time. I'm simply concerned about the bad name that celebrity authors give to authors as a whole. Expectations for literature, it seems, would gradually become less and less. I suspect that most people would choose that type of book over something like The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (which happens to be one of my favorites).⁴ If the vast majority of people choose to actually buy and read books like these, what does that say about current intellectual capacity?

So what does our future look like? It may not look as bleak as what is portrayed in Idiocracy,² but it doesn't seem bright. I foresee a society in which people become more and more disinteresting in cultivating their intellectual prowess. They will be captivated only by virtual reality. I see a population with a severely diminished vocabulary and the inability to express themselves eloquently. Perhaps, I will be wrong. Hopefully, the educational system can be revamped to once again be the success that it has been in the past. It will be no easy feat to combat the dumbing down that appears to be happening.

Sources:

¹ Mark Twain Quotes. Accessed November 17, 2009. http://thinkexist.com/quotation/it_is_better_to_keep_your_mouth_shut_and_appear/8092.html

²Idiocracy. Accessed November 17, 2009. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

³ Montag, Heidi. How to Be Famous: Our Guide to Looking the Part, Playing the Press, and Becoming a Tabloid Fixture. Accessed November 17, 2009. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/How-to-Be-Famous/Heidi-Montag/e/9780446555913/?itm=1&USRI=heidi+montag

⁴ Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo. Accessed November 17, 2009. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Count-of-Monte-Cristo/Alexandre-Dumas/e/9781593083335/?itm=1&usri=the+count+of+monte+cristo