dumbed down enough
I'm not sure I agree with your overall point, but I do think this is a mischaracterization. Computers have gotten easier to build, program, and use. This allows dumbing down, but it's not dumbing down in itself.
Example:
Back in engineering school, we actually had to build a microcomputer from scratch and write a simple monitor program in assembler. When I say "from scratch," I mean "from the chip up" including putting capacitors across a 555 chip to get the internal timing correct, laying down the wiring, addressing the interface chips, polling, interrupts, the whole thing. Nowadays, I hear people talk about building their PCs and I know they mean something completely different. They buy a motherboard here, a chassis there, plunk, plunk, plunk and they're done. But the equipment is not dumbed down, per se. At about the time I was making my own microcomputer, one could purchase a Radio Shack computer called a TRS-80 running TRSDOS. It was a great computer really - very reasonably priced, but still far beyond anything I could afford. You crack open the case and it looked pretty interesting. My friends had all made mods to theirs - adding capacitors to the keyboard to reduce keybounce, jumpers all over the place for reasons I've long since forgotten, homemade "paddleboards."
When I look at the computers now, though, I'm continually amazed. The layouts are so neat, the designs (even of the mediocre boards) are clean. It's so obvious that they've got this fabrication thing down and they're using some very good software for design and control. It's like someone who's built a log cabin walking into the World Trade Center (well, when there was a WTC).
Is there a dumbing down effect? Well, in the sense that it allows people who otherwise would not have been computer users to make productive use of the computers. It adds something to their lives: entertainment, livelihood, whatever.
In some sense, I can follow the "cool" argument. Having access to computer games could be like having cell-phones. I see 8 and 9 year olds with cell phones. I have one myself (although I'm an ardent critic of the way they are misused). Even my 14 yo has one. Interesting, though, there's a kid in her school who got one and was harassing her for not having having one. (She had one, she just didn't wave it around.) There's always a group of people who think because they have the best tennis shoes or the newest DVD that they are somehow superior. Would that this were limited to adolescents. I suppose I agree with the general argument.
(OTOH, I think there's "really cool" and there's "cool for the sake of appearances." )
It's the specific comment on "dumbing down" I'm choking on. There's just this general trend in technologies - to remove possibilities for error, to make things simpler. From clocks to cars to network routers, when new technologies arise, they initially require people with modest specialized skills to look after them, but eventually the technology improves to where any bonehead can use it.
Look at it from the other way: imagine that using the net required one to make one's own computer - really make one's own computer, write your own OS, build your own modem, and so on. Could you do it? I know I'd have to do some serious review to start something like that. I've never actually written an entire OS. I've never built a modem. In any case it would be a lot of work - huge investment of time. Figure what percentage of people now on the net would remain if there were this sort of initiation rite?
Early on in my job, I used to do my own upgrades, fix my own problems - in fact, people were often asking me to fix stuff for them instead of calling the tech guys. Then I realized I was spending way too much time on this mundane stuff. First, I wasn't doing what I was get paid to do. Second, I wasn't making these other guys do what they were getting paid to do. Third, and probably most important, I was denying these guys the opportunity to learn by solving different kinds of problems. It's a REALLY hard thing not to get irritated and do things myself. Generally I've disciplined myself to call on the computer services people to do most things. This is a lot easier now that I have a certain group of people I know who are actually good at what they do. This is another thing - these really good guys have certainly benefited from the trend of technological improvement (the "dumbing down"). These guys can actually use oscilloscopes, voltmeters, etc. - correctly. They don't have a lot of need for that - BUT they also have strong logical skills and a strong experiential base. So they aren't resigned to the usual method of computer repair - replace every component, almost randomly, until the thing works. Not only can they solve problems better than the lesser techs, they can solve them 5 to 100 times faster than I can (literally).
On the other hand, there's way too much work for this elite group to do on their own. They help lay out the general plan, they take care of some of the harder problems, and they let the novices do the simple stuff like OS installs, replacing keyboards, ghosting drives, and the like.
One might argue - and I have heard people argue - that MS is a step backward. You could argue it several ways, but the initial install procedure for MS, imo, is really good. Also this PNP stuff (did they steal this idea from apple?) - I just get a memory stick and plug it in - it works with no hassle. Is it "dumbed down"? Well, yea, but it's saving me time. I don't want to spend an afternoon looking for drivers, talking to people on the phone, only to discover it doesn't work.
When I was much younger and the door-to-door religion salespeople would come to my door, I would very often talk to them for hours and hours. I don't do it any more. I just don't have that kind of time. I'm extremely grateful that technology has gotten easier to use. If that's dumbed down, I'm all for it. Give me more of it. If I gotta listen to some inconsiderate imbecile yell loudly into his cell phone while I'm trying to eat dinner or read a book, well, it's not a huge price to pay for getting back some time.
k
