A Tale of Two Generations: Unpacking the Intelligence Debate

The world is continually evolving through the years, and with the introduction of technological innovations such as the internet, things are even going at a faster pace, one of which is regarding access to information. Years ago we needed to study hard, reading from one book to another, or visit the library to learn about something, but nowadays, you don't need to go through such stress, because you can get information about almost anything at your fingertips within a minute, all thanks to the internet, but does the easiness of this information make people of this generation smarter than those in previous generations? In this article, I'll be stating my opinion on this.

To start with, I guess we need to applaud the persistent spirit of those in previous generations and their desire to learn, because I just can't help but imagine what they went through reading from page to page, book to book, in search of one piece of information or another; such can be tiring, and if one isn't keen on learning, one might even get bored and stop research, so kudos to them, and we can both agree that those who undergo such are nothing short of smart.

But then, in the case of those who now get information at their fingertips thanks to the introduction of the internet, we can all still agree that they themselves are smart in their own capacity. I mean, there are several people who you'll look at that are really smart, and you'll even regard as being intelligent, and yet they don't know how to navigate the usage of smartphones. That's slackness in one aspect, and someone who can operate it is smart; that's why they can navigate it.

Even though we see navigating this smart device as simple and relatable, not everyone can say the same, even though they were born in this generation, and so the ability to want to learn something and be able to find it out within a minute is one of its smartness, and we can't take it away from people of this generation.

Besides, just as the internet makes searching for information easy now, there were also similar things in libraries from years ago, and only those who are smart enough would be intelligent enough to key into such and utilise it in their quest for knowledge. Wondering what I'm talking about, it's the bookkeeping log where information about what type of books is in what side of the library is, even when you get to that part, you'll still most likely find written-down information about the kind of information that's found in each book.

My university used to have such a guide, and I used that written guide to easily find information; even books have tables of contents that'll easily lead you to what you're searching for. I understand it's still not as fast as how the Internet will show you the information, but it'll at least ease your search, and yet some people still don't know how to use it and will struggle to find information because they don't use the guide that has been written down to help them.

Even though I must say that I'm proud of this current generation and the technology they're blessed with, we must understand that it's people from the past generation that used the study from the library to make all of the devices we have today, from computers to phones, so I'll say both parties are smart; I won't be placing one above the other.

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All photos are mine.

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