“Won’t that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop.”
— Dr. Walter Gibbs, Tron(1982)
When I was little, adults used to say that I shouldn’t watch TV because it would “rot my brain.” Apparently, my brain managed to withstand decomposition from the boob tube, and I don’t know that I’m really much dumber than I would have been had I not watched TV.
But things may be changing.
I just read a CNet article reporting on a study called “The Digital Family” that was done by Nickelodeon. The study looked at usage of television, digital video recorders, video on demand, the Net, cell phones, video games and MP3 players. (Nickelodeon apparently copped to the fact that their rationale for the study was to see if all these new devices are cutting into TV time.)
Among other things, they learned:
- 25 percent of parents think it’s no longer necessary to spell well, reference printed dictionaries, or read the newspaper.
- 20 percent of parents said they don’t need to know how to read a geographic map.
- 50 percent of kids and parent say they don’t need to remember phone numbers.
- One third of kids say it’s no longer necessary to make casual conversation with others or listen to the radio, thanks to MP3 players.
- 25% of kids and 16% of parents say that because of mobile phones, they don’t need to plan ahead.
The spokesperson from Nickelodeon called the family unit the “smartest generation ever.” They have got to be kidding.
To me it sounds like we’re turning into a bunch of illiterate, rude people, who get lost a lot. I mean it’s easy to imagine these people driving around aimlessly late for an appointment (that they didn’t plan), out of cell phone and GPS range, and stuck with only a paper map to guide them. What are these poor slobs going to do?
They certainly aren’t going to ask for directions, since that would involve making small talk with the guy at the gas station in West Podunk. And since they wouldn’t think to pick up the newspaper, they wouldn’t know that Greater West Podunk is actually the site of a big nuclear waste dump. (“Gosh, it’s oddly warm here; what’s that glow over there?”)
Then the cell phone they’ve been caressing hopefully waiting for “just a couple bars” finally runs out of battery power. The slobs can’t call from a pay phone because they don’t know anyone’s phone number. And they don’t know how to look up numbers in a phone book because it has no search bar. What’s a person in the digital age to do?
Anyway, it’s studies like this that make me glad that the only thing I had to worry about when I was growing up were the perils of lounging in front of the TV eating ice cream. It all seems so tame by comparison.
Oh and by the way, my phone number in 1973 was 320-5236, thank you very much.