In the previous week's prompt, I guess we wrote about something related to the topic where if students should be allowed to use phones in exam halls. I read most people's entries and saw some point of view. But one thing stood out in everyone's post which is the fact that knowledge is easier to access than ever in our current digital time.
Without leaving our homes, we can access a limitless amount of knowledge with a few taps or clicks. With the introduction of Artificial intelligence, smartphones, and the internet we have completely changed how we learn, making it quicker, simpler, and more comfortable. I am great full to AI during my project. It helped me know more about my topic and assisted with the write-ups thereby limiting the amount of times I was set back for corrections (the more the corrections, the more you spend printing).
But does having so much knowledge actually make us smarter? Compared to our ancestors who had to go great distances to libraries in order to obtain books for research and others, are we any smarter?
Now, that is the million dollar question.
As I said earlier, we have access to more information than any previous generation, on the one hand. However, our processing and application of that information may not always result in increased intelligence. This is a controversial topic but, I will try to address the question as fast as possible to do that, let's examine the advantages and disadvantages of having access to information at our fingertips.
The advantages are still the usual such as the speed it takes to process and get a piece of information, wider learning opportunities which means that we are no longer limited to the four walls of a school, and lastly, accurate information meaning that information is precise and accurate, and that remains is for you to develop such pieces of information.
With all these said, it has led us to some disadvantages and the major one is the fact that we are now relaxed. I know tat there is saying that working smart is better and more effective that working hard but what happens when given an assignment and you knowing that AI can do it for you in less than 10 seconds? Yes, it prompts laziness and causes swallow learning. More disadvantages are decrease in thinking capacity and also in retaining information knowing that you can easily access an information whereever you need it. It is just like a person preparing for exams and knows that his friend sitting beside him in the exam hall can get him answers when needed. Do you think he would like to stress his brain to read?
So, with all these said we can now answer the question of the prompt.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, intelligence is
the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
I guess that definition answers the question already but it is not that simple. We know that we have the resources compared to our ancestors but it has also prevented us from thinking outside the box and going further.
However, this does not mean we are less intelligent. Instead we can say we are evolving intelligently. Adapting to all these new technologies is a different kind of intelligence. Who teaches the parents how to use the technology of today? My mum calls me anytime there is an issue with her phone and whenever involves technology, I am always on her quick dail just using this to paint a picture. The challenge we need to fix now is to balance convenience with deep learnin. We need to learn how to stretch the brain by leaving our comfort zone (the headaches are normal) ensuring that easy access to knowledge enhances rather than reduces our intellectual reasoning.
