Are computers making people dumber?

A guy at work asked me the other day to help him figure out sales tax on a calculator! He's 27 years old and can't remember how to do it!

I told him that I was a bit dumbfounded by it. He went on to say that he's been using computers all of his life and that their wasn't really a need to know how until just now. He said why bother learning something that's already taken care of. In other words he lacks fundamental knowledge of things done by hand, that in my time, were essential. He laughed about it and said he'd probably live longer then me if we were born the same day because computers do most of the thinking where I have always had to figure it out myself. He said he would exert half the energy I would into thinking to get to the same point which would have to have some benefit.

He's a unique individual as it is. Sometimes I think he's autistic. It's like he's from another planet. His thinking is so different. Is he smart in the way he sort of integrates computers in his thinking?

Are computers making people dumber?symatec

Well, I guess it depends on your persceptive of it. You can either be, like in the case you already described, where your're lazy quite frankly because of the technolgy you don't nessceary need to to think because you have computers that are smarter than most.

Or on the other hand you can use the technogly (comupters) provided to benefit yourself and grow intellecturely, farther then you could have imagined. By using the internet and online encyclodpedias and things like this (Yahoo! answers) to learn more about things you never knew. At the same time it can aquaint yourself with knowledge of world/nation events/occurences. With the internet a whole world is open and at your disposle. With the internet, with computers, with technogly i've been able to see the world and it's diverse culture from my bedroom and i've never even been outside of southern california in my entire liftime.