People are getting stupider?

www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329831-300-it-would-be-stupid-to-ignore-a-drop-in-human-intellect/

Not the same article but perhaps a less contentious source

I read about those reports too.
As one writer pointed out, IQ tests in themselves may not be reliable, or valid for our times.
Most of those currently used include questions/practical tests based on topics of earlier times.
They were standardised by giving these tests to a large number of people of different ages then fixing the mean etc according to the the number of people answering correctly at the various levels.

I thought this was to do with that clip of the girl on Love Island who thought she had learned some geography, because she knew there were continents, countries (struggled with that and county) and towns. When asked what Wales was she said a town, second guess continent!

Oh yes trisher Love Island. I don't watch it myself but there was a clip from it on another programme. A young girl was asked by another: 'What do you think of Brexit?' Reply: 'What's that then?' Other girl: 'You know, coming out of the European Union?' Reply: 'Does that mean we won't have any more trees?' Another voice piped up 'No more cheese?' Reply: 'No trees'. Another voice: 'Does that mean we won't be able to go on holiday? I love my holidays.'

I don't watch it either KatyK but maybe I will have to start. It seems to be producing some gems of comedy no-one could have made up! I do wonder about the education system and if we can consider it value for money if these are the results.

KatyK - that's hilarious.

Bear in mind you need to be pretty vacant minded to want to be on a program like Love Island. What bothered me was that some of the participants with minds that empty claimed to have A levels and yet were so ignorant (based on what I have read in the papers and online).

A levels are not what they were, M0nica.

Maybe not Grandma but they’re not that bad!

I can’t see how basic IQ levels could go down because of screentime Maw I think it would need many more studies to prove that was actually the case surely.Interesting though.

I guess it depends how IQ is tested. Most online tests are based on recognising series of shapes or numbers which is testing a particular kind of puzzled solving.

What I do detect nowadays is a lack of general knowledge, awareness or interest in what is going on in the world.

I wonder whether the world had become such a complex place with unsolvable problems that people are simply switching off, ceasing to engage, choosing the trivial over the important.

I spent years commuting to London. People, especially in the morning, would be reading newspapers, many choosing quality broadsheets. Nowadays, people are immersed in their devices playing games, scrolling through their social media. Those that are looking at news are getting it in short bites. I rarely see anyone reading a newspaper or a book on public transport anymore.

IQ tests rest your ability to do IQ tests. Not sure that they test anything useful!!

They certainly don’t test important things like creativity.

I worry about my bright 9-year-old grandson who has just discovered playing games in his father’s phone - when he can get it, which thankfully isn’t often. He clearly finds it addictive. He’s still a great reader and full of natural curiosity, but how long will it last when he gets his own phone? These games seem such a mindless occupation.

On the subject of continents and countries, I saw a snippet of a programme featuring someone called Joey Essex who had previously entered my consciousness on a section of I'm a C'leb. In that he was wearing a £70,000 Rolex but confessed to fellow contestant who was admiring it, that he couldn't actually tell the time . Going back to the aforementioned snippet, in this he'd been flown to Africa, because I believe he had no idea where it is. In the clip, A Ugandan man was explaining (they were in Uganda) and it was one of many countries that made up the continent of Africa, JE then said something like "so where am I now I thought I was in Africa" the man replied "Uganda" having already explained fully where that is, to which JE then said so "where's Africa" and so it went on .

I don't watch "Love Island" but saw the extract of the conversation in print where one of the women asked "what's Brexit" Where the hell was she in 2016 on another planet???Even more worrying, allegedly she has A levels and had at least started university. The mind boggles

I was shopping in a supermarket recently, loaded my goods on the conveyor belt, all going well until the assistant (young man) stopped registering the items and said whats that? I told him it was a cauliflower, and he said oh I have often wondered. Make what you will of that, possibly another contender for Love Island.

Online tests are not typical of the kind of IQ test that would be administered by an educational psychologist or similar. These tests are both more intensive and extensive.

I think there is a distinction to be made here between ignorance and lack of intelligence! I have noticed from when my own children were young in the 1990’s that the education system focused them on learning very specific topics with a view to GCSE and A’level results! The end point of this is that many young people passed exams and went on to take degrees but have an appalling lack of general knowledge. My eldest daughter who has a Bsc and an excellent job says that she has really noticed the gaps in her general knowledge compared to her German colleague who received a much more rounded education.
All 3 of my children are wide readers yet I believe they did not receive a good basic education from their “outstanding” ofsted secondary school this is something they have had to work on as adults and they often envy their father and I our private educations ?

I find it very odd indeed that willful ignorance is a cause for celebration. In that respect, society is pedalling backwards at an alarming rate.

Young people still have an appalling lack of general knowledge, probably because they don’t read and popular culture is entirely entertainment.
The age group who read broadsheet papers and listen to Radio 4 is mostly 50+ If someone gets all their information from The Sun and television they are bound to be pig-ignorant.

“stupider” or “more stupid”?

I have never thought IQ tests were particularly valuable or important. Ones view on intelligence tests is very personal. If you have scored well on one you are more likely to value them than someone like me who has not!
Those who are judging the education system based on Love Island contestants probably need to reflect on their own IQ! Just think of who wants to be on such a programme..a small demographic surely?
Watermeadow whilst I tend to agree with your last statement I dsagree with your first! It is mssing "Some" from the beginning!

British Society as a whole has never valued intellectual attainment 'too clever by half', 'two brains', 'clever clogs'. If your child is a brilliant footballer you boast about. If they are intellectually clever you keep it quiet.

Look how people dismiss IQ tests suggest they are not good measures. Yet the cleverest children are still those who get the highest scores in these flawed tests. Others dismiss IQ tests because they do not measure Emotional maturity or creativity. Why should they? They were not drawn up to measure those aspects of personality, any more than tests to measure creativity measure intellectual ability.

In this country we feel very uncomfortable if we think someone is brighter than average and do all we can to put them down.

IQ tests are definitely not an accurate test of well rounded intelligence. I do think some aspects of today's education system are not as good as it was when I was in school. I do think if you are able to afford it a better education is to be had in independent schools. We were not rich by any means when our children were in school but did without certain expensive items to pay for private education. If you were privately educated yourself I would think you would be even more convinced of its worth for your own children

Just over 2 years ago, I was at the hairdressers, and the girl doing my hair asked, as they do, where I was going on holiday. I said we were going on a cruise to the Norwegian fjords. She said "Oh, where`s that then?"