Mentioned in a larger article I found via Language Log:
“The act of texting automatically removes 10 I.Q. points,” said Paul Saffo, a technology trend forecaster in Silicon Valley.
I'm not questioning that it's distracting. It's way distracting to me. I stop texting when crossing streets, stepping on and off trains and escalators etc. because if I don't I'll fall or crash into something or get hit by a car. But is that really IQ? Are people with higher IQs really better at not getting hit by cars? And, conversely, do people with lower IQs get hit by cars more?
And if it is IQ, it's way more than 10 points. There's no way the average person is as stupid as I am when texting (and I test significantly more than 10 points higher than average - I know it's obscenely gauche to mention this but I don't know how to make my point without this factoid). If that were true, society couldn't function. Everyone would be tripping and falling and crashing into each other.
Also, if it is IQ, does it lower everyone by the same number of points? Or does it lower everyone to the same number of points? Maybe, instead of knocking X points off everyone's score, maybe it makes everyone act like they have an IQ of 80 or something. This would make more sense. If it just knocked 10 points off your IQ, then MENSA members should still be allowed to text while driving.
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