ARE WE STUPID?

What is stupidity? What kind of measurements do we have to brand someone as "stupid"? Is humanity getting dumber? In the age of technology, when we have machines and devices to do almost everything for us, there´s a question that is hanging in the air, challenging us, defying us:

Is all this technology making us dumber? Are future generations threatened by the progressive lack of use of our brains? There is no doubt that levels of education are lower than ever, and the number of school drop-outs keeps growing at an incredible rate. But anybody can work a computer, or any piece of technology we have created to make our lives easier, because we´ve made them user-friendly. And life keeps getting easier and easier, thus, making us think less.

Society in general, it is said, is walking backwards in what culture and knowledge is concerned. People read less books, or none at all, and anything that´s not instant, fast, easy entertainment, is regarded as boring. Culture is regarded as boring. People are more interested in the lives of the celebrities of the moment than in the treasures of a good book. The way we live will almost certainly will turn us into drug addicts for instant satisfaction, leaving aside anything that requires a minimum effort.

The media and the powers that be don´t seem very interested in changing this tendencies. On the contrary, they keep offering us more and more of that drug, avoiding to promote culture in favour of the easy, simple, visual entertainment, creating even more dependency, and pushing people away from the knowledge that can make them think for themselves, that can make them free. A stupid population is an easily manipulated population.

The following documentary shows the different ways people can become dumbed down. What is stupidity exactly?