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Comment by snapcaster | Hacker News Reader

Why would this be? I see the reference in article to social media but the Flynn effect didn't seem to be impacted by TV or other changes like that. Is smartphone use/social media really that uniquely bad? Is it just nutrition and pollution? I don't know what impact physical health has on IQ but I struggle to believe it's positive

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No prior media, before the "smartphone", allowed continuous consumption.

You had to be in front of the TV, or even the computer for the internet, before the arm attached computer.

The effect is proportional to the percentage of waking hours spent in the activity.

And let's face it, as vacuous as broadcast TV was, there was never the ability of so many people to spread so much patently false info for self benefit as there is now, and people are "influenced" by this mis-information. Especially because it's fashionable to be so...

One aspect could be overall lower attention attention span, where people start zoning out in the middle of the test and don't try that hard.

Nutrition, pollution, exercise, and education are strong factors. Beyond them, I wish I could ascribe it to low-IQ immigration, but I can't because it seems to be down across the board. I blame it on grifter culture whereby most jobs don't require a demonstration of actual competence, either because they're bs jobs or because they're for bs companies or because they have no enforced obligation to perform reasonably. Grifter jobs lead to a web of grift which will end only when the currency collapses, and can no longer pay such individuals or organizations that don't bring sufficient real value to offset their paycheck.

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