WE have become a nation of airheads. Round up any cross section of our younger population and you’ll discover an IQ just a little higher than that of a council wheely bin. Who says so? Well, Melvyn Bragg, (not in so many words) in declaring Britain to be “a stupid country.”
Now, should we believe the Radio 4 presenter simply because he can leap from talking about the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire one minute to the understanding of the proton in a heartbeat? You bet. Because Bragg isn’t bragging from the vantage point of a higher intellect. He’s summing up the growing fear of a growing nation of non-thinkers.
The evidence is in our faces and Facebook pages. We used to ridicule the Santa Ponsa restaurants which put pictures of food in their windows. Now we live in a world of posing, pouting young people who take pictures of their dinner.
- Melvyn Bragg: UK is becoming a stupid country
We live in a world where 25 per cent of young Scots are classed as "extreme users of social media," which the Government's Information Commissioner is now investigating.
Meanwhile, video games are shrinking their brains. A new study by the University of California reveals the impulsive part of the brain (the amygdala-striatal system) which video games rely upon, is not only more sensitive but also smaller in excessive users.
Koko the gorilla died last week in California, and decades-long studies revealed he had an IQ of around 90, which is close to some humans. But it’s not surprising the primates are catching up when you learn one-in-five young Scots wake up during the night to check their phone.
One study by British scientists found IQs have started to fall by seven points per generation after having risen every decade since the Second World War. And technology is one of the reasons why.
Clever people are continually coming up with ways to make the rest of us dafter. The more we ask Alexis and co to play us a song, the less we have to think.
- Melvyn Bragg: UK is becoming a stupid country
Smart gadgets mean we don’t need to switch on the light, or use a map to find our way around. We can ask Google almost anything. We love Twitter because it’s brief and we even text less now. We send emojis. Pretty soon we’ll go back to communicating in sign language. But by that time, the apes will be using our iPads.
Soon we won’t need to think to drive cars. We have Fitbits to tell us how many steps we need to take to lose weight, but the truth is all we have to do is look in the mirror. (Here’s a general rule of thumb; if you have breasts, and you’re a man, pull on the trainers and T-shirt.)
Writer/historian/former editor of the New Internationalist, Graham Hancock has long argued we have devolved over the years, given less need to think on our feet. Where man once built perfectly measured pyramids with keen eye and sharp imagination, we can’t get the same results today even with a theodolite.
Devolution seems to be evidenced in our TV output and while Melvyn Bragg points out there has been some great TV this year, including Patrick Melrose (Sky) and A Very English Scandal (BBC1). (And he’s correct; populist entertainment can also be very clever. ) But he points out little else matches up. The correlation of this is the recognition of the inane predictability of drama such as Dr Foster or recent divorce series The Split. (Both insulting to women.)
- Melvyn Bragg: UK is becoming a stupid country
Lord Bragg does say he’s yet to watch Love Island but when he does view this Bikini and Budgie Smugglers Show it will indeed highlight the vacuity of the format and those who take part. Yes, it’s can be fun, and when one young lady said she didn’t know what Brexit actually meant, that was understandable given Theresa May doesn’t either. But what’s tragic is the most popular programme in the country right now mostly features the hard of thinking. And watching the show suggests we’re becoming as dim-witted as them.
Yes, there has long been a debate about what constitutes intelligence (if Einstein were so clever how come he couldn’t use a comb?) But generally IQ numbers are regarded as a measure of ability and willingness. This makes me wonder that if young people are working 70 hours a week for minimum wage on a zero hours contract, watching management earn ten times their salary, that this could indeed be a reason to switch off and switch on Love Island.
There’s also an argument we’re producing more clever young people given the huge rise in Firsts handed out by universities this year. But as Herald writer Rosemary Goring pointed out this is a deliberate strategy by universities to manipulate results to make their courses more attractive.
- Melvyn Bragg: UK is becoming a stupid country
The reality is Bragg is right. For “stupid” you can also read “frivolous” or “fatuous.” That’s why we need to encourage learning. We need to encourage discussion, and not by text or Snapchat. School children need to be given books, taken to films that may make them think and encouraged to read newspapers. We need to switch on our own lights.
Alexis, I didn’t even like you in Dynasty. I like you even less now.
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