Newly awarded Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing has used her acceptance speech to tell the world that the internet makes us dumb.
According to Lessing, who was too old and ill to make the speech herself and instead had someone else read it out, the inanities of the internet have seduced a generation, and we live in a fragmenting culture where people read nothing and know nothing of the world.
It gets better, apparently if you study “computers” you lack culture as well:
We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers
Whilst Lessing’s words should be taken somewhat in context: the ditherings of an ignorant old woman, Keensian (as in Andrew Keen) anti-internet speeches grow as the cultural elite in society continue to have their previous (often born-in-to) positions eroded. The likes of Andrew Keen and Doris Lessing ignore the many benefits the internet has provided in expanding access to knowledge to many, many more people than who may otherwise have had no access before. Whilst it may be easy to mock the utterances of hundreds of millions of bloggers and social networking site users, the 21st century will be remembered as the time that communication was democratized, a time where the power of a few was replaced by the power of many. Let them eat their elitist intellectual cake, because the world is changing for the better, and there is nothing they can do to stop this.
For all those dumb people reading this who might never had read anything of substance before, may I suggest Wikipedia, it’s apparently a place where you can read interesting things, but it isn’t on paper, so it might not count. 
The Guardian has the full text of Lessing’s speech here, which I note aside from the internet comments is a great, and often inspiring read.
(image credit: Marknad)
Like any other media, the internet is what you make of it. Claiming that it makes you dumb is like saying literature makes you stupid because my grocery store sells schlocky romance novels at the checkout counter.
I’m not too sure what this post is about??? Can you, please, re-write it without using such big words?
“For all those dumb people reading this who might never had read anything of substance before, may I suggest Wikipedia.”
WTF?
The balanced, informed tech reporting I’ve come to appreciate from TechCrunch is slowly being couched with, for lack of a better phrase, immature “bloggyness.”
Josh
What she’s saying deserves some fun, obviously humor is something learnt from books as well
She probably is NOT taking about THE INTERNET…..
She probably means THE WEB
Many people confuse the two – but they are distinct.
We are currently putting together a history of The Internet and Silicon Valley
Tino (#2)
lol
Silicon Valley
I checked the speech, she definitely says internet but I take you point, she’s actually referring to the web.
agreed, josh…
something is up, first gamespot begins it’s slide into oblivion after firing a longtime employee over his truthful video game review, then the evil wikipedia empire is exposed in a leaked email…
and now techcrunch puts a rant about an old woman in what used to be in my “news” group of rss feeds…
come on, in a decade, attention shifted from art, politics, science…, to the possible release date of the iPhone v2 and the Facebook’s PR issues. And this is not just for the geeky readers like the ones like us here, but for the masses.
we know more, for sure, but do the relative quality of what we learn…
and this post is, even though supposed to be read lightly, pretty offensive. And nastily defensive.
ahh well she is part of a a dying breed which in a few decades will become extinct, the “Homo sapiens” .
We are part of the new breed the “Homo Interconectus”
Hey Duncan,
With all your defensive and offensive babble. Is this post, your blogging or Wikipedia Nobel Prize worthy to begin with?
What an appalling attack on a truly beautiful, humane and insightful speech delivered by one of the greatest writers alive.
Duncan, I must wonder if you read the entirety of her speech, and if you did, were you able to absorb the underlying premises? These were: She is conerned by the movement away from a relationship with enduring stories, towards an embrace of the instant (stories and communication are by the nature of this medium, quickly forgotten. She was also concerned with reminding us of the value that people in pre-industrial societies still place on books, which are rare in their parts of the world.
Incidently, her mention of computers was to use them as one example of an area where people concentrate their knowledge and learning. She was absolutely not stating that “if you study computers, you lack culture …”
Naturally one can disagree with her premises, conclusions, or both – but to argue your point in de-contextualized soundbites is extremely disrespectful to a woman who, if you read her amusingly unimpressed reaction to the announcement that she had won the Nobel Prize, can hardly be dismissed as “elitist.”
Wow, you guys completely missed the point. Her speech is not anti-internet. The one egregious line Techcrunch quotes was supposed to be funny.
This paragraph is the real point she makes about the internet.
>What has happened to us is an amazing invention – computers and the internet and TV. It is a revolution. This is not the first revolution the human race has dealt with. The printing revolution, which did not take place in a matter of a few decades, but took much longer, transformed our minds and ways of thinking. A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked: “What is going to happen to us now, with this invention of print?” In the same way, we never thought to ask, “How will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by the internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that, once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging etc?”
Duncan,
You should have read her whole speech before announcing to the “tech” crowd of your interpretation! Plus, she is somewhat right in her original statement whether you like it or not.
That’s bad blogging or journalism. Period.
10 years ago I spent my summertime and weekends in the park competiting in basketball, soccer, chess games. I engaged in debates, arguments, discussions, etc.
In the recent years, I noticed that our parks has grown weeds, there aren’t long lines of registration in social and intellectual gatherings and stuff anymore. The kids are gone.
Visit any internet shop in any village as early as 7 am. and you would find it exploding with kids watching nonsense/funny Youtube videos, playing online games, viewing pornographic materials, etc.
Before I had a reliable internet service, I was always in the internet shop and in the times I was there I always experienced a parent who would suddenly burst inside the internet shop shouting and looking for their kid and dragging them out of the shop. The kid was being scolded for either missing classes, haven’t done their household chore or missed some simple responsibilities as he was having a time of his life with nonsense videos and beautiful girls on the net.
Doris Lessing has a point and your post shows that only educated people can understand her. Einstein, Isaac Newton and the likes didn’t need an internet for their voice to be heard for centuries and for all eternity.
Mark, Kevin, Valley Nomad:
Writing like this is the reason why such speeches come up.
Google is the living proof to the saying “Knowledge is Power”
I often find such sweeping statements ignore worthy. However, when people in positions of responsibility and people who have a say in the world, should research their ideas before uttering them.
Perhaps Mr. Lessing spends too much time on Myspace or something? :-\
Duncan. The Internet. Capitalized, please. It’s a proper noun. There is only one, and you’re writing in English. It’s much like the word English. (unless you want to be e.e. cummings and capitalize nothing).
Techticles
please: you’re writing from the same book she is: cultural elitism.
Kevin
she dissed the internet, but I take you point that the speech, in particular in relation to Zimbabwe was a good one…it was just ruined by the “internet is bad” sentiment. Are you seriously suggesting that the world is a worse place for the internet, or that indeed the greatest coming together of knowledge in the history of mankind is creating a generation of people who know nothing of world? The opposite is true, if anything the internet is a great enabler, a place that brings the knowledge of the world to everyones home, that gives opportunity to many who may otherwise have never had it due to race, religion, socio-economic status or geography. I reserve the right to continue to be a fanboy for the wonders of the internet, if you don’t like the net so be it, but she is still wrong. Words do not have to be written on paper to make them valid.
That is so ignorant I don’t even know where to begin.
It is patently obvious that most any new technology, if used in the wrong ways, can be destructive — even if it can also be wonderful. As a society, we should be profoundly concerned about how we use new technologies — not to is an invitation to moral, cultural and literal self-annihilation.
Nobody said get rid of the internet. She said the internet it making us dumb. Worth considering. Even if it has a lot of good things to go along with it, the question is, how do we achieve a balance with more goodness and less dumbness.
Not asking questions and walking around with your head up your ass may be fine for you — it actually may be, and we may be better off for it. But someone’s got to be thinking about what we’re doing, so it would be nice if you didn’t try to shout them down with ignorant blather.
Duncan, I’m afraid you just proved her point. How can one be so arrogant is beyond me.
You should leave your web browser for a day and learn the meaning of humility, as in humble.
Q (#18)
actually the capitalization on the i in internet dropped from use a couple of years back. Some people still capitalize it, many media outlets don’t, I’ve always subscribed to the lower case i although I do sometimes regress
Thanks for calling this to our attention, Duncan. If it hadn’t been for your story, I never would have been turned onto this woman’s wonderful Nobel acceptance speech.
Eric
no probs, the rest of the speech was actually quite amazing…brilliant speech actually but spoiled in part by the ignorance directed towards the internet.
Mozartfan (#21)
so you’re saying that the internet is making us dumb and we should be reading more books? Hey, I know, lets revisit my youth where it cost $10,000 to buy an encyclopedia and knowledge was mostly the domain of the wealthy and well connected, that will make us all smart again!
Again: I reserve the right to defend the internet and all that is good about it, and I couldn’t give a rats that she has a Nobel Prize; if anything someone with that level of knowledge and that audience shouldn’t be bad mouthing the net, if anything she should be encouraging net access in the Africa she feels so strongly for.
Duncan, you know, you kind of just proved Lessing’s point with that deeply ignorant little dummy-spit.
And so Techcrunch loses at least one reader.
What nonsense. I thought I learnt a lot from the Internet than from my professors who however smart they were could not teach the nitty gritties of engineering that well. Internet has definitely been a boon to people like me at least.
Duncan,
Stop being a prick. Show some respect… she’s your grandmom’s age.
Im sure she has formed an unfavorable opinion of the Internet after an encounter with a smart alec like you.
Besides, she is entitled to her opinion even though she may be wrong. Heck, when we tolerate your dumb views, why not a Noble Prize winners?
In a way she is right , by 2025 there will a group of people ( who hate techonolgy), and that group will be a major percentage within the living population.
Nick (#26)
so I’m ignorant in saying that the internet isn’t dumb…isn’t it then ironic that you’re leaving comments on a blog; as an internet user doesn’t this make you dumb as well…oh wait, you might read stuff on paper, that’s the magical ingredient that keeps civilized society civil
duncan ur right, only the rich had encyclopedias, and kora- that will never happen unless you live in africa. Internet has helped us in so many ways, it’s not even funny. she is retarted an who knows the way technology is advancing someday we’ll be able to bring her back to life once she dies and we’ll laugh at her speech, she couldn’t even read.
Avinash, CAR
thx. I’m glad there’s some ppl who don’t look at this from a anglo white American upper-middle class construct.
Sid Justice
I’ll show her respect when she respects the internet. The fact that she’s old and female should not bar her rather insane view of the world to be argued against, indeed in a politically correct world her age and sex are irrelevant, because we are all equal in a colorfree humanist society.
I think what she means is “The Internet makes HER feel dumb”. She’s clearly from a generation that still can’t set the clock on her betamax, and every peice of equipment in her house is constantly flashing 12:00.
Duncan, with this post and the humorous twitch you are giving it, I feel you are really missing the whole point. I do’nt mind if you try to humor an old lady, don’t even mind if you downplay her message as “the ditherings of an ignorant old woman”.
But it seems to me that it is her, not you, that seems to understanding the impact that the Internet (or web whichever you want) has had on our lives. Yes, it has provided us access to knowledge, to people, that communication has been democratised (in some ways).
But has your or my blogging inspired millions of people? Have we made a difference in places where whole generations have been struggling with the simple things in life like food, work, education, things we are taking for granted here. Has your Facebook profile enriched your life as a human being (whcih happens when you read a great book), deepened relationships, in ways you couldn’t have before?
Yes. Democracy has reached communications making us all writers and bloggers. But let’s face it, all you need for that is to be able to read other blogs, copy their content and add a few lines and hey, we’re hot shot bloggers. Hmm, I haven’t gotten a nobel price fo that, maybe it actually needs hard work, and talent to be an excellent writer.
I think Doris Lessing understands the value of the Internet much better than we give her credit for. I’m taking a deep bow for this “grand old lady”. And when you are done feeling sorry for yourself and all those other bloggers out there (that includes me I guess) I suggest you actually read the whole thing, not just skim through it, but read and understand it. I know, it takes time, effort, energy all precious things us Internet guys don’t have time for. But hey, it will definitely enrich you life! And that is what books and text should be about.
(Oh, and I was just joking about everything I just said about us bloggers, we’re all great, don’t worry)
@34: Being a Nobel Laureate doesn’t make you infallible. They’re people too, and sometimes people say stupid things. The only reason this is an issue of contention at all is because she’s wielding that funny looking statue they get.
If this was any random person off the street giving the same speech most of you would’ve went “meh, whatever” and left it at that.
If Mike ever wanted to roll back a published story, this has to be it. Duncan its not about “anglo white American upper-middle class construct” but its about covering the whole picture and just focusing on one statement that is part of a great speech. You just missed the big picture. Thanks to you for pointing to that great speech. It was thought provoking.
Duncan you are an ass who deserves to be fired, just as everyone has been screaming since you came on board. As long are you’re still working, stick to simple reporting please. You’re too dumb to even notice the troll comments supporting you. No one cares about your opinions. They are absolutely worthless to anyone but you and possibly your mother.
Duncan,
I’m a bit pissed off with that blog post. The wisdom and insight of – as you put it – elitist intellectuals must not be underestimated. The Nobel Prize is no heirloom.
I’m not telling you to take such words for granted, but instead of striking back with common web 2.0 phrases like web democracy (like being shown every day in China or with editor wars over at Wikipedia … just to add some of your above practiced sarcasm) one should reflect why she said this and try to understand the actual message of the speech.
I agree with Valley Nomad, comment #14.
Mathias
What’s the URL of the RSS feed of TechCrunch without Duncan? We need it now more than ever.
Man, I can’t get over this shitty “reporting”… Unfuckingbelievable!
Duncan – this was a good article and your responses are fair.
The mere fact that you can read her entire speech online speaks to the power of the Interweb with all those tubes. She is of course a wonderful writer and should be heard – but agreed with that is another matter.
It is very amusing to see how hostile some people can get over a posting – but what really gets me is the language from the readers you have pissed off – I keep waiting to seem something like -”Lo! what a proof in light adversity! But ye, my birds, I swear by all your bells, Ye be my friends, and very few else”.
I would say more but we are having tea in the drawing room and my great uncle has returned from Persia with stories of mystery.
Cheers,
Eric
LMAO…
In general, I don’t think that the Internet is making me dumber. This post, however, was a different story.
I love irony.
As someone who came to the “tech” world through the Arts & Literature I was dismayed by the arrogance and ignorance of the original post. Doris Lessing wrote some of the seminal novels of the 20th Century, and has been a tireless campaigner for Human Rights and Democracy.
Your contemptuous dismissal of her speech as the “the ditherings of an ignorant old woman…” is simply contemptible. Just because you don’t understand an argument it doesn’t make it wrong.
Try harder!
@40, trying to keep it simple so Duncan can understand. All this loathing of the ‘elite’ is just so Australian. But really, the problem with the “article” is not Duncan’s misguided opinion, but his absolutely shoddy reporting hitting new highs. When he completely misunderstands the quote he includes in the article, you know something is very, very wrong. Arrington will have to take action this time.
It is human nature to take the path of least resistance in a macro view, work smarter not harder. Many times in history other forces were applied, survivability being the main one, for science/technological advancements to happen. Without feeling the survivability factor in many industrialized societies, the motivation to work hard in developing new science/technology hasn’t been present and the resources to do it have not been allocated for the most part. WWII/Cold War seems to be the last giant push and allocation of resources worldwide into developing something “new”(1940’s atomic spending, 1960’s internet(data storage defense from a nuclear attack)). The force of profit/greed in the business sector seems to be the only source of resources into science/technology currently. The internet is just a coincidence not a driving factor in our current situation.
You can bet when survivability comes back into play and major resources allocated, with the rate at which we can transfer information, some crazy science/tech stuff will be built.
Education really can not be compared from one time period/generation to the next as it is always changing. Society needs ditch diggers and they need doctors, as long as society operates, education as the sum total of a populations scientific/technological output is irrelevant.
Anyone care to look up worldwide GDP and % invested into research for say the past 100 years to validate my hypothesis?
Calling someone who’s earned a Nobel laureate an “ignorant old woman” just proves you’re an “idiotic blogger”.
I look forward to the day you stop blogging and writing your “thoughts”.
Personally I think this woman is quite right. Knowledge gained off the internet is very different from knowledge gained from a book. You can easily learn facts on the internet, but the in-depth study required to actually understand a subject can only poorly be done in any way apart from reading books.
That’s what she means – people are not yearning for idle entertainment a la Fark.com, what they want is understanding about the world. That’s what those African people want, and that’s what she wants the people in the west to want also.
That’s why she does not consider the internet equivalent to reading. I have never read a blog that moved me, taught me, or inspired me like the novels I have read.
The internet is simply a tool, infrastructure if you will. I think we all can agree that much of the information that flows across the internet is of questionable social value. Consider the recent articles about the most frequent Google and Yahoo search terms:)
I think if we adjust for the context and misuse of terminology that we would find that she is really criticizing the content.
We have all heard many times that (watching) TV makes you stupid. There is not much outrage about this comment because most of us would agree that most of the content on TV offers very little in the form of learning.
The internet is the same way. Sure there is plenty of great, educational, quality content on the web. But much of the content on the web will do little to enhance a young mind.
It is a choice, by the individual, of how to use the tool. And we must admit that the majority of internet users are not learning the majority of time.
One thing that may be interesting to examine is information retention. I think the need for the individual to retain information has lessened in the era of this unbounded always present encyclopedia.
@CAR
“unless you live in Africa”
I am guessing that you have never visited and/or know very little about Africa. Africa has internet startups, established carriers, internet cafes, and GSM mobile phones just like everywhere else. Countries in Asia like Chine have already figured this out and are building relationships. The growth rate in Africa has been, and will be better that most developed countries. You have read the world bank report? Its online:)
Courageous comments in a world where things are not going well. What happened to the freedom of people to express their views and open them for debate. Isn’t that being educated? Isn’t the schoolboy post by this blog just the opposite?
Shit gets worse on this blog every day. I need to come here less often.
She’s got a point:
As a father of two very young kids (5,3) , I’m aware of the importance of the process in which the kid seeks for the solution before finding it .
The internet has many advantages, but it makes the process of seeking almost redundant.
In addition, I find it hard to believe that Facebook makes its user more intellectual (sending a poke ? common – nothing can be more stupid than that .)