Answers
My answer is BOTH
if you look at what teenagers are doing on social media, well, the first thing you realize is that they are not curing cancer. No, many them are on social media. Tweet, snap, tag, whatever you call it, it is not very productive. So if you want to ignore everyone else who uses the internet and just focus on the ones who take it for granted, then the answer to your question is no, not because someone who uses social media is less intelligent, just that they aren't very smart for using the internet in that manner.
But that is just one view. Their are people who use the internet to learn, for example me.
I am currently learning conversational hypnosis and college trigonometry, all thanks to the internet. I heard of a girl who could dance like a professional from watching YouTube videos, and an ordinary guy learning wrestling in six months being able to take on black belts, all by using the internet.
So you have your two answers. Not everyone who uses the internet is a crazy teenager, or a child prodigy, or an extremist from ISIS, etc. Really, it all just depends on what you use the internet for.
How the Internet Makes Us Smarter?
There are many ways in which the internet is making us smarter. It is allowing us to research, find facts and learn something new.
Even if you are watching videos you can learn a lot from YouTube. The freedom of researching whatever topic interests you in a matter of seconds, make the facts a lot easier to check and access them. In that respect, you can frequently check your facts, even if you forget something. So, your knowledge is always expanding with each search for a certain fact. If you are one of those people who really like to be certain of what they are about to talk about, then checking your facts on the internet can be a great way to check up on your knowledge.
As you know we all forget facts as time goes by, so learning continually whole your life and using the internet to do so, is not such a bad idea after all.
How Is Internet Making Us Dumber?
In the same way almost, the internet is also making us dumber. The Internet is making us lazier to learn, simply because we know that we do not have to know everything, because we have the internet. Having said that, how many times have you read something online that was absolutely false? What happens when hackers change some of the facts that you are absolutely certain of and that appear even on the most trusted websites? Should you really rely on the internet alone, to provide you with information that is trustworthy? In fact, no. This is the time when you have to think with your own head and really find reliable and trustworthy information in this sea of information that is called the Internet.
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