The Negative Impact of the Internet on Intelligence
During the First World War, the Chicago tribune wrote an article about the world famous industrialist Henry Ford. In the article, Ford was referred to as ignorant amongst other scathing remarks attacking his intelligence. Ford, obviously, didn’t take kindly to this and filed a lawsuit against the paper for libel. The lawyers for the Tribune were so confident, that they put Mr. Ford on the witness stand, and asked him a long series of questions in an effort to show his lack of intelligence. Eventually Mr. Ford became irritated and lashed out with words that have gone on to live in infamy. Essentially he stated that he has buttons in his office that summon different people, and that when he had questions, he only needed to know which button to hit, to summon the specific expert to assist with his concern. He went to explain that he need not fill his mind with useless information, because those experts had the information for him. (Ford) Ford was a revolutionary man. He was a successful man. He was also a very rich man. His track record argued for him that his time was better spent on other ventures than learning …show more content…
The first of which is the fact that people are so dependent on the internet, as it is the top source that people turn to now for their information. The second aspect to consider is that people heavily rely on unreliable sources for their information, noting that only around 1% of Reddit users turned to the original report for their news. That same report found that around 40% of people turn to blogs and around 31% of them turned to non-news sites. (Clemmitt) Even when seeking information for yourself, it is hard to know a trustworthy source. Separate studies attempted to locate information about healthy diets. At best the results were inconsistent, and at their worst one reported only 3 of 50 sites checked had reliable advice. (Dunning,
During the First World War, the Chicago tribune wrote an article about the world famous industrialist Henry Ford. In the article, Ford was referred to as ignorant amongst other scathing remarks attacking his intelligence. Ford, obviously, didn’t take kindly to this and filed a lawsuit against the paper for libel. The lawyers for the Tribune were so confident, that they put Mr. Ford on the witness stand, and asked him a long series of questions in an effort to show his lack of intelligence. Eventually Mr. Ford became irritated and lashed out with words that have gone on to live in infamy. Essentially he stated that he has buttons in his office that summon different people, and that when he had questions, he only needed to know which button to hit, to summon the specific expert to assist with his concern. He went to explain that he need not fill his mind with useless information, because those experts had the information for him. (Ford) Ford was a revolutionary man. He was a successful man. He was also a very rich man. His track record argued for him that his time was better spent on other ventures than learning …show more content…
The first of which is the fact that people are so dependent on the internet, as it is the top source that people turn to now for their information. The second aspect to consider is that people heavily rely on unreliable sources for their information, noting that only around 1% of Reddit users turned to the original report for their news. That same report found that around 40% of people turn to blogs and around 31% of them turned to non-news sites. (Clemmitt) Even when seeking information for yourself, it is hard to know a trustworthy source. Separate studies attempted to locate information about healthy diets. At best the results were inconsistent, and at their worst one reported only 3 of 50 sites checked had reliable advice. (Dunning,