Are people from the 80's smarter then other generations?

[Dex]

No. I for one, contrary to popular belief, believe that every generation will be a tad smarter than the previous one since they benefit from the progress we make now, and intergrate it into themselves from a younger age than we did since we discovered it later in our lives.

On the other hand, i also believe that the "dumber" people of every generation have more children than the "smart" ones, pushing the average iq down a notch. I'm not saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Occasionally it ends up very far from the tree, but more often than not, it still doesn't land very far away.

[Wikiy]

My coach once told me, "I have been your age, you havent been mine". Let me ask you something, are you smarter than you were 5 years ago? If you say no, your doing it wrong

Actually, dear sir, people reach their intellectual peak during their teen years and their intelligence starts to slowly fall off after their 20s. It's experience that rises with age and experience has squat to do with intelligence or "smartness". Finally, intelligence as an average grows with every generation. IQ tests always have to be adjusted by 3 points per decade. Meaning that the average IQ of any generation compared to the one that comes after it is actually 92,5 compared to 100.

Your coach is an idiot with a superiority complex who assumes he can act like a brat because he's older (ironically). This is sort of like my 2 years older brother. Back when we were little kids, he'd assume he had the right to act like a brat because he was older than me. He had this crazy idea that there is no such thing as an older brother being arrogant towards his younger brother while the inverse was a possibility (a younger brother being arrogant towards his older brother).

This is just a silly anecdote, but my point is that it's directly analogous to what we're discussing right now. Older generations assuming they're smarter than the younger ones. Not only has it empirically been proven wrong, it's brashly arrogant, self-indulgent, heavily delusional and if you ask me, it displays behaviour that only little brats indulge in.

[Perkele]

http://moraless.com/img/2012/12/101.jpg

[kwflange]

Actually, dear sir, people reach their intellectual peak during their teen years and their intelligence starts to slowly fall off after their 20s. It's experience that rises with age and experience has squat to do with intelligence or "smartness". Finally, intelligence as an average grows with every generation. IQ tests always have to be adjusted by 3 points per decade. Meaning that the average IQ of any generation compared to the one that comes after it is actually 92,5 compared to 100.

Your coach is an idiot with a superiority complex who assumes he can act like a brat because he's older (ironically). This is sort of like my 2 years older brother. Back when we were little kids, he'd assume he had the right to act like a brat because he was older than me. He had this crazy idea that there is no such thing as an older brother being arrogant towards his younger brother while the inverse was a possibility (a younger brother being arrogant towards his older brother).

This is just a silly anecdote, but my point is that it's directly analogous to what we're discussing right now. Older generations assuming they're smarter than the younger ones. Not only has it empirically been proven wrong, it's brashly arrogant, self-indulgent, heavily delusional and if you ask me, it displays behaviour that only little brats indulge in.

Sources or go to bed kid.

Infracted.

[chrth]

No, no, you can't say "regardless" to that because it changes the argument.

Even suggesting the term "formative" is ambiguous. The fact Gen X goes up to 1983, as I previously stated in this thread, means that people are off on their timelines. Could one suggest a person's "formative" years are teen years? Yep. Same goes for the ages of like 2-10, which are extremely formative. This means that Gen Xers also experienced formative years in the 90s, depending on your opinion of what is formative.

Again, I was responding solely to someone who was implying that no Gen Xers were children of the 80s. This doesn't preclude that some Gen Xers were children of the 90s.

And in any case: Trivial Pursuit. /thread

[Shadowmelded]

Sources or go to bed kid.

Yeah, older generations really ARE more intelligent and mature(!)

[Wikiy]

Sources or go to bed kid.

The Flynn effect. By the way, yes, I am what I guess you would call a kid. I'm 17. Is that enough for you to completely stereotype me and dismiss my argument because of my age?

[Moshic]

I've talked to these 40 year olders and they all seem pretty smart or cool. Why does this time period rock so much? I want to know.

We are actually. I'm 27 by the way, and I'm from the 80's...

[chrth]

Yeah, older generations really ARE more intelligent and mature(!)

Every generation has its geniuses.
Every generation has its morons.

Don't let encounters with either of these types influence your judgement.

[Jayburner]

I made this thread last night not really thinking it thru. I meant to say is the 80's generation cooler not smarter. I was born in 1969

[Ettan]

Yes they are,
Particularly so in Europe.
And I blame the Chernobyl disaster.
One might think drinking and taking drugs during pregnancy is bad, It is harmless when compared to the effects of being born when your entire ecosystem is contaminated by zirconium-95, niobium-95, lanthanum-140 and cerium-144.
It contaminates the entire food chain, and gradually builds up the further up you get.
Eventually you end up with human fetuses getting radioactive isotopes in their system, disrupting their formation at a very early stage.
And causing an increased % of genetic mutations world wide.

[Perryn]

No. I for one, contrary to popular belief, believe that every generation will be a tad smarter than the previous one since they benefit from the progress we make now, and intergrate it into themselves from a younger age than we did since we discovered it later in our lives.

Technically speaking that is correct. There is a lot of research done on intelligence, some more popular than others of course, but one of the more established facts is that the "general" intelligence increases over time; what would be considered Mensa level intelligence today will be average at some point in the future. Can't recall the exact time period but we're talking some decades, if I don't recall incorrectly (been awhile since I read this). We're talking a fair bit more than just a decade or two for very quantifiable changes though.

[Grizzly Willy]

Sources or go to bed kid.

See, this sort of flies in the face of older people being more intelligent or mature. If it were true that older people are more mature, you wouldn't have responded this way. You would have asked for a source without the "go to bed kid," which only serves to try and promote a type of superiority that you feel you may have by assuming that he's younger than you are, and that him being younger means he's less intelligent than you.

I made this thread last night not really thinking it thru. I meant to say is the 80's generation cooler not smarter. I was born in 1969

I think that would be a bit harder to prove, at least objectively.

[chrth]

I'm going to throw out an explanation with no support or evidence but it may hold some truth in it anyway for the OP.

Gen X was the last generation that grew up before cynicism went mainstream (or this could be read as the first generation to grow up alongside the rise of cynicism)

Oh sure there were cynics in the flower power generation. And sarcasm has always existed. But for a variety of reasons that may or may not include the end of the Cold War (with its clear lines of separation), the rise of David Letterman and the end of Johnny Carson, or the huge popularity of Bridges of Madison County (this is to illustrate the unknowable, no matter how much we may claim to know), cynicism appears to have gone mainstream in the 90s.

Cynicism, as an intellectual exercise, is actually kinda lazy (note: I'm not saying Skepticism is; Skepticism can be very hard). Those who grew up in a non-cynical world -- and as of yet aren't old enough that life and experience hasn't worn its own cynicism into their soul -- may appear "more intelligent" [Edit: Or "more cool"] to you because you yourself (subconsciously?) prefer their outlook.

Or I may be full of shit.

[Tomatketchup]

I'm going to throw out an explanation with no support or evidence but it may hold some truth in it anyway for the OP.

Gen X was the last generation that grew up before cynicism went mainstream (or this could be read as the first generation to grow up alongside the rise of cynicism)

Oh sure there were cynics in the flower power generation. And sarcasm has always existed. But for a variety of reasons that may or may not include the end of the Cold War (with its clear lines of separation), the rise of David Letterman and the end of Johnny Carson, or the huge popularity of Bridges of Madison County (this is to illustrate the unknowable, no matter how much we may claim to know), cynicism appears to have gone mainstream in the 90s.

Cynicism, as an intellectual exercise, is actually kinda lazy (note: I'm not saying Skepticism is; Skepticism can be very hard). Those who grew up in a non-cynical world -- and as of yet aren't old enough that life and experience hasn't worn its own cynicism into their soul -- may appear "more intelligent" to you because you yourself (subconsciously?) prefer their outlook.

Or I may be full of shit.

Yeah, cynicisim is the only thing I'm worried about my generation. How are we supposed to progress if all we're going to do is to try to act smarter than everyone else "and see the truth" (which obviously has to do with the government or the neocorporatists) and always look bitter at the future? I want spaceships in my future damn you, not resource wars and nuclear annihiliation.

[WarlockJack]

Wow. Just wow.

You might be into a lot of stuff, but you seem to be a huge douchebag to me after reading this paragraph, that might explain why teenagers like me don't wanna hang around you, you know.

How am I a douche bag exactly? It was stated that teenagers find me boring. I like a wide range of things and I often have something in common with a lot of people. I was simply explaining that if you find every single thing about me boring; I don't think you'd be interested in many things in general and would have a propensity to being boring yourself. Nobody I actually meet thinks I'm a douche bag. That being said, if you'd like to think of me as one, it doesn't bother me. The internet is full of people telling each other how much they hate the other person.

[CherryPie]

The Flynn effect. By the way, yes, I am what I guess you would call a kid. I'm 17. Is that enough for you to completely stereotype me and dismiss my argument because of my age?

But that article also suggests a possible end of that effect.

Norway: "...the increase of scores of general intelligence stopped after the mid-1990s and declined in numerical reasoning sub-tests."
UK: "...tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period. For the upper half of the results the performance was even worse. Average IQ scores declined by six points."

[Tomatketchup]

How am I a douche bag exactly? It was stated that teenagers find me boring. I like a wide range of things and I often have something in common with a lot of people. I was simply explaining that if you find every single thing about me boring; I don't think you'd be interested in many things in general and would have a propensity to being boring yourself. Nobody I actually meet thinks I'm a douche bag. That being said, if you'd like to think of me as one, it doesn't bother me. The internet is full of people telling each other how much they hate the other person.

However, If someone cannot find something about me that matches their personality / interests and they find me straight up "boring", then they are probably "boring" themselves. That's a HUUUUUUUUGE amount of things to hate. If an entire generation doesn't see that I have anything of interest to teach or share or enjoy with them as you and a couple other people suggest... then that generation is severely lacking as a whole.

Sounds like whacking off your ego at ego avenue. That someone finds you boring doesn't make someone else boring.

[Strear]

Funny stuff

[WarlockJack]

Sounds like whacking off your ego at ego avenue. That someone finds you boring doesn't make someone else boring.

First, I was not gloating. People don't know me but called me boring, so I was simply explaining the type of person I was and the range of interests I have. And even you would have to admit that my interests are very broad and probably span a majority percentage of people with average interests. I would have to conclude that if you don't like ANY of the interests I have, there would be a higher than average chance that yes... they are a boring person. And the original poster wasn't even talking about one person... he was talking about an ENTIRE GENERATION that found me completely boring. That's absurd.

On a side note, I'm sorry you think I'm an egotistical douche bag. :-)