Which is It, Then?

   In my last post I said this blog was for fans, but in my second post I said this blog was for friends. I was watching the A-Team at the time I posted my last post there, so you can forgive me if I contradicted myself. (That Murdoch guy, is he crazy or what?) Whatever. Maybe there was just a shift in the theme of the blog. Even though there wasn't. Maybe I was just wrong the first time. Or the second. Whichever. Anyway, here's a thought I had today:

   People have been generally growing more intelligent since they invented a way to measure intelligence, in a process known as the Flynn effect (named after, of course, Kevin Flynn, Jeff Bridge's character in Tron. Or IQ expert Professor James Robert Flynn, PhD. Whichever.) The IQ median remains fixed at 100 no matter what, meaning that they have to keep revising the tests. An averagely intelligent man of the 1930s would have an IQ of 80 today, for example, and that is scary. Let me take a moment to explain what this means. Even if the world were full of entirely geniuses, the average IQ would still be 100. One IQ point for them would just be worth a lot more than one IQ point for us. This world-of-geniuses, implausible as it may seem, with the Flynn effect would seem to be where the world is heading. If the Flynn effect isn't going to slow down or anything. Depends on the exact mechanisms of the Flynn effect, which are unknown and highly debated. But.

   If people are getting smarter, why are they getting dumber? The standard for intelligence in entertainment seems to have dropped. These kids these days, what with their not knowing that the Titanic was real, or who the veep of the United States is. How about this: it is only through modern tech that their ignorance has been revealed to the masses. Maybe people were always this uninformed? Alright, that seems a bit of a stretch. The idea really sounded much better in my head. Alternative ideas:

   Maybe the gap is just splitting wider? Not really supported by any data, though. The Flynn effect could be just because kids these days are more primed to take tests, but that wouldn't explain the gradual upward slope in the past. Better nutrition is kind of a lame one, in a way that makes sense, but it really can't answer how dramatic the effect is. A combination of factors? Perhaps. I guess I should have done more research before setting out to write this post. Okay, maybe not, as this post isn't really about the mechanics of the Flynn effect so much as, if it exists, then why our children are still so apparently uneducated.

   I really thought I was onto something, with the kids-were-always-this-dumb-but-now-we've-got-cameraphones-to-prove-it hypothesis. Meh, blame it on the educational system. Or not so much their education as their lack of motivation to become educated. Public shaming, I guess? Kind of a mean motivation. Though it really can't be a bad thing that you're publicly expected to know the capital of your own state.