Why is critical thinking dramatically decreasing?

My Quora Question Discussion about whether critical thinking is decreasing or not.

The following text is from my discussion on Quora with Barbara Dautrich: Lifelong psychologist, educator, and professor which took place through my profile Matt Hutson M.Ed: Helping you organize your knowledge, create ideas, and act.

Question: Why is critical thinking dramatically decreasing?

A (Barbara): I am not convinced that critical thinking is dramatically decreasing, certainly not in the human capacity for reasoning and critical thinking. We may be making the false and age-old assumption that new technologies will destroy our mental discipline and cognitive predominance.

Interestingly, the ancients rejected early written communication and primitive books because they would create lazy minds that would rely on a written text rather than committing verbal teachings to memory. Similar fears loomed about radio and then television.

Yes, most people today are notoriously distracted by the relentless flow of social media and electronic communication. Moreover, they have been bombarded with concerns and resultant anxiety regarding basic safety and survival. This must certainly impinge on the amount and quality of cognitive time spent on exploring, discovering, examining, comparing, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, and creating. Plus, the ease of finding all the ‘answers’ online presumably hinders the natural curiosity and motivation for independent thinking and learning.

Or does it? We may be rushing to judgments no more valid than those made by our ancestors about early books ruining young minds. Only time will tell, but history suggests that while some people may be content with the mindless use of technology, there will be legions more who springboard from the amazing possibilities offered through modern technology.

R (Matt): I agree that we are making the false and age-old assumptions that new technologies will destroy our mental discipline and cognitive predominance. Technology is a tool and if used correctly, just like books, then it can help people to free their minds by using a ‘second brain’ to think critically just as we always have if not better.

Your second point about the ease of finding all the ‘answers’ online presumably hinders the natural curiosity and motivation for independent thinking and learning. I would partially agree with this as before the internet the majority of people who had the determination to find the answers would either search for the answers in books at the library or do experiments to test their ideas in the real world. This took a lot more work, time, and attention.

Attention is such an important factor when it comes to thinking critically and if people’s attention, who are aimlessly using technology, is decreasing, this could potentially mean that their critical thinking skills may not be as sharp as before.

I don’t think people have lost the capability to think critically, it’s just that they have relied heavily on instant gratification and instant answer-seeking. There are positives and negatives with each new technology, but I believe the positives outweigh the negatives in this case.

What do you think?

Through this discussion, you may have picked up a few pointers as to whether our critical thinking is decreasing or not, but now I’m curious to hear from you.

What are your thoughts about this topic?