Steven Pinker Mind Over Mass Media Summary

In the essay “Mind Over Mass Media” by Steven Pinker. He explains how the media disseminates misleading information about how technology is lowering our intelligence. Despite these claims, I think that technology aids us in sharpening our skills and has no effect on decreasing or increasing our intelligence. It is a tool that helps us manage our time, additionally makes us more efficient.
The mass media provide examples of PowerPoints and Twitter to foster a sense of skimming information instead of reading in depth. These accusations are the foundation of the Media’s hypothesis as to why our attention spans are shrinking. Pinker debunks these assertions by using science as an example. Science requires a high level of intelligence which clearly has provided monumental benchmark discoveries. Science is strictly about facts and a lot of technology is used in the process of these discoveries. Paper is almost never touched by scientists, they primarily use email and PowerPoint. If technology was dumbing us down we would not have a rapid rate of new discoveries. …show more content…
The media basis their stories on what is currently trending or what they would deem will be popular. Producing scientifically correct news is not a pre-requisite for media outlets. Occasionally they have partial scientific backing behind their claims to make it appear as a fact. The author’s counter arguments to the Media’s statements seem to be logically explained and permit examples where scientific data can be found on these subjects providing a solid factual standing. For instance, many people believe listening to music will improve your understanding of math or that brain training will make you smarter. This is not the case, any skill that is practiced will consistently improve. Nonetheless throughout the article there was not any cited information to authenticate any of Pinker’s