Are Smartphones Making Us Less Smart?

According to a recent survey, 81 percent of Americans own a smartphone. Another survey found that 69 percent of kids ages 8 to 18 have one of their own by age 12.

We carry our phones everywhere, using them for everything from keeping in touch with friends to shopping, watching movies, and even attending remote classes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many people say phones have made our lives easier by giving us instant access to the latest news and information. With just the tap of a finger, we can discover new music, check a fact, or look up sports stats.

But is this nonstop reliance on our phones such a good thing? Some people say that the way we use our devices is making us more preoccupied with ourselves and less aware of the world around us.

Are smartphones having a negative effect on our intelligence? Two technology experts weigh in.

The idea that our phones are making us less smart might, at first, sound a little crazy. After all, that iPhone 11 or Samsung Galaxy in your pocket is actually an incredibly sophisticated computer and camera with the power to immediately connect you with anyone in the world. You could write a novel, edit a movie, or solve a complex math problem on this magical device.

But most of us aren’t writing novels, editing movies, or solving complex math problems with our phones. Instead, we’re using our incredibly sophisticated pocket computers to tweet about what we just ate, watch videos on TikTok, and post Snapchat photos. And every day, worldwide, people are using their phones to take tens of millions of selfies!

So rather than turning us into a best-selling author like Jason Reynolds or a scientific genius like Albert Einstein, our phones make us more wrapped up in ourselves. We’re left absorbed in our own lives and less knowledge­able about the world around us. And that, I’m afraid, is why our phones are making us less smart.

Technology is only as good as how we use it. Our phones could make us smarter if we used them smartly. But most of us don’t, because we’re locked in our own lives. Our culture lends itself to instant gratification and narcissism (an unhealthy excessive interest in oneself).

Smartphones are both a cause and a consequence of our selfie-obsessed culture. Unfortunately, they are, indeed, making us dumber and dumber.

—Andrew Keen
author of The Internet Is Not the Answer

Thirty years ago, before everyone knew about the internet, if someone had advertised a “universal answers machine” that fits in your pocket, it would have been seen as a miracle. If that machine also let you listen to music, take photos, get directions, keep up with the news, and stay in touch with friends, it would have been hailed as ushering in a new age of intelligence.

Now, of course, we take all that—and more—for granted. But we shouldn’t.

Never in history have we had so much access to ideas, information, and creativity. Because our phones are always with us, we can find the answer to any question at any time. We can follow the news as it’s unfolding. We can explore any topic by finding related articles, videos, or podcasts.

And thanks to built-in GPS, our devices can give us key information about our location. This is convenient if we’re looking for a pizza place or coffee shop. But our phones can also lead us to places we otherwise would have missed, such as a nearby museum or historical site.

While many of us use our phones primarily to keep in touch with our friends, even that can feed our brains: Social networking is often how people share the ideas that matter most to them. When we read the articles and watch the videos our friends and family members post, we learn more about the world.

Greater access to more information, ideas, and opportunities for discussions? That sounds like a recipe for smartness, if you ask me.

—David Weinberger
author of Everyday Chaos