Editor’s Note: Does the Internet Make People Stupid?

I’ve read a number of essays recently that claim that the modern information society makes people stupid. The print publication industry is in decline, so people are reading fewer printed books, magazines, and newspapers. These are replaced by the intellectual junk food of the Web and television. The people who write these pieces are passionate, articulate, refer to all kinds of studies, quote all kinds of people, and I suspect get paid well to write them. But it’s all for naught because it’s hooey.