Why technology might not make children stupid, after all

[David Morris]

http://boingboing.net/2012/09/07/why-technology-might-not-make.html

All this newfangled technology is going to make young people stupid.

This is a very old argument, dating back (at least) to 370-ish BC,
when Plato wrote the The Phaedrus. Like the better-known Republic,
Phaedrus is written as a conversation between the character of
Socrates and other people. At one point, Socrates tells a legend of an
Egyptian god who invents writing and tries to give the gift of the
written word to a wise king. The king is ... less than enthused:

"For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those
who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory.
Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no
part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within
them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and
you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for
they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem
to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard
to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise."