The speed-up of computers is the slow-down of our intelligence duh May 18, 2008

Ppl; spnd? a lot of time on comps, i know that u prbibly doo, because we lve in an age of tchnlgy, were cell phons, im, and email, trump sending a lettr and tlking face to fac. we have nno need to-wrry about speling and grmmer because of technlgys such as spell-check. what i <have, to wonder is if~ as (the) computers+becom smrter will we become dumberer

If you stumbled through that jumble, then you deserve congratulations. I can barely even understand the surplus of abbreviations, absence of vowels, misused words, and incorrect grammar marks. It was very difficult to write. Not simply because the grammar and spelling was atrocious, but because spell-check would not let me type “ i .“ Every time I would type it, spell-check would instantly capitalize it the instant I hit the space bar. Spell-check ALSO would not let me begin a sentence with a lower-case letter. At the moment, my first “paragraph” (if you can even call it that) is littered with red and green lines everywhere. As the youth of our nation grow up using the new technologies of today, I begin to wonder if that technology is lowering their intelligence.

I have never met anyone THAT bad that they have a paragraph like the one above, but many times I have seen words such as “are” being spelt as “r.” That is just the beginning of the mistakes made. If spell-check always corrects your spelling, how will you ever learn the real way to spell scintillating (It means clever. Oh, the irony!). Instead of learning mistakes and adjusting, all you have to do is click the ABC check-mark button and every mistake is instantly before your eyes, just a click away from being correct. Spell-check doesn’t know everything. It cannot tell the difference between problem words such as their, there, and they’re. It is in no case a panacea.

Computers getting smarter goes beyond spell-check. On most websites, if you type in a word wrong, a suggestion usually comes up on what YOU REALLY meant. “*typing* Fast small low budget laptop*click*…Did you mean: Asus Eee PC.” Google doesn’t even add a question mark! Computers are doing our math for us, our talking, even our listening. Why do we need these things? All we need to do is talk and our phones instantly call whomever we said. Technology is building a lazier, dumber, slower human.

That’s not to say I don’t use these technologies that are put right in front of me (I love technology.) I used spell-check numerous times when writing this. I’m a terrible speller and Google is constantly telling me what I really meant. I AM usually too lazy to do multiplication/division/squaring/etc. of long numbers in my head. This is what worries me. There is no way I will be able to get through my writing if I don’t have spell-check sitting next to me guiding my hand at every little step. We are on a downward spiral to the point where computers will do everything for us and to tell you the truth I enjoy going to the bathroom, writing my own thoughts, and many other activities by myself. Stupid Talking Toilet!!!