Is Twitter making you STUPID? Social networking sites are making it hard for people to think for themselves



Twitter and Facebook could be lowering your ability to think analytically

Research from Dr Iyad Rahwan suggests prolonged use of social networks erodes our common sense

The University of Edinburgh and Masdar Institute of Science and Technology researcher asked people a series of trick questions

The study concluded that our addiction to social networks leaves us little time to work things out on our own



They have become a quick and easy way of learning about everything from world affairs to the affairs of friends.



But Twitter and Facebook may be eroding our ability to think.

Researchers believe speed, volume and ease with which information is shared through social networking sites may be making it more difficult for us to think analytically.

Is Twitter making us less intelligent? New research suggests we prefer to seek answers from the masses rather than work things out for ourselves

The warning comes from Dr Iyad Rahwan, an honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh, who said that while the popular sites may appear to be making us smarter, any improvement in intelligence is merely superficial.

The computing expert studied how being part of a network of people affects how we learn.

Dr Rahwan began by asking a group of 20 people three trick questions over and over again.

For example they were told that and bat and ball cost £1.10 in total and that the bat cost £1 more than the ball, and then they were asked to work out how much the ball costs.

The intuitive answer is 10p but the correct answer is actually 5p.

Despite being repeatedly asked the questions, people tended to stick with their original answers and only got them correct around a quarter of the time.

The study asked volunteers to work out the cost of a bat and ball if together they cost £1.10 but the bat was £1 more expensive than the ball. Dr Rahwan says social networks our destroying our ability to think analytically and answer 'taxing' questions like this

Dr Rahwan then gave the same questions to a second group of people. They first answered the questions alone but then were put in groups and able to see each other’s responses.

Given the first question, the men and women quickly realised when someone else in their social network had the right answer and changed theirs accordingly.

However, they did no better initially on the second question, or the third.

ARE WE ADDICTED TO TWITTER AND FACEBOOK? A recent study suggests nearly half of all 16 to 19-year-olds log onto Facebook every month.

26 percent of teenagers in the same age bracket use Twitter every month says market research firm GlobalWebIndex .

But 25 to 34-year-olds make up the largest share of users across all social network

According to the study Facebook and Twitter usage actually increased in 2013 .

And there seems to be no end in sight, with new social networks continuing to pull in more users.

This surprised Dr Rahwan, who said it suggests that the volunteers were copying the answers without putting any real thought into what they were doing.

By not computing that they shouldn’t rush in with their first answer but take time to think the question over, they fell into the same trap each time.

Dr Rahwan, who is based at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, said: ‘We think people are unwilling to reflect more because it takes time and effort and in daily life we don’t have the luxury of time to verify everything.’



He said that while we have long learned from others, there is a danger that the rise of information-sharing websites such as Twitter and Facebook will make us rely more and more on the opinion of others.

This could erode our ability to think critically and make us lazy because we assume that there will always be someone else who knows the answer.

And while much of the information we glean will be helpful, there is a chance we will believe dangerous advice.

‘We think people are unwilling to reflect more because it takes time and effort’



Dr Iyad Rahwan

Finally, while we may seem smarter because we have lots of information at our fingertips, any boost to intelligence is purely superficial, the Journal of the Royal Society Interface reports.

The researcher, who has a Facebook account but hasn’t used it for months, advises that we take more time to stop and think for ourselves and that we carry out detailed research on important topics.

Dr Rahwan has focused on Twitter and Facebook because, like his study, they involve information being shared through networks of people.

But previous research has blamed internet search engines such as Google for making it harder for us to remember facts.

A study published in the journal Science found that we are more likely to forget things if we think we can find them again online.