An article that appeared in the latest New Scientist. You have to subscribe to read this but you can also read here Technology may be getting smarter, but humans are getting dumber, scientists have warned.
I am not in the least surprised! Off the top of my head I would agree but be careful not to appear discriminatory or politically incorrect.Have you noticed how people write, what they read, the level of their general knowledge? And this is also passed onto their children. Every child has a smart phone with language that I do not understand really. Shortcut! Everything has to save time , more time to be bored!
The Daily Mail writes An IQ test used to determine whether Danish men are fit to serve in the military has revealed scores have fallen by 1.5 points since 1998.
Between the 1930s and 1980s, the average IQ score in the US rose by three points and in post-war Japan and Denmark, test scores also increased significantly – a trend known as the ‘Flynn effect’.
This increase in intelligence was due to improved nutrition and living conditions – as well as better education – says James Flynn of the University of Otago, after whom the effect is named.
Now some experts believe we are starting to see the end of the Flynn effect in developed countries – and that IQ scores are not just levelling out, but declining.
Westerns have lost 14 IQ points on average since the Victorian age, according to a study published by the University of Amsterdam last year.
Jan te Nijenhuis thinks this could be because intelligent women tend to have less children than women who are not as clever, The Huffington Post reported.
The perceived link between IQ and fertility is a very contentious one.
Dr Nijenhuis studied the results of 14 intelligence studies conducted between 1884 and 2004 to come to his conclusion.
Each study measured peoples’ reaction times – how long they took to press a button after being prompted.
It is claimed that reaction time mirrors mental processing speed – so it reflects intelligence.
They found that visual reaction times averaged 194 milliseconds in the late 19th Century, but in 2004, they had increased to 275 milliseconds.
This would suggest that people have become less intelligent, they said.
But unfortunately the older generation who are supposed to be ‘more intelligent ‘ are now bocoming too lazy to think. A lot are not even computer literate, they have to ask their children. Too lazy to figure it out!!!!!
Just Fletcher 
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