Psychology Today | 25.09.2026 20:28
In a memorable scene in the film "Aliens," Ripley (Sigourney Weaver’s character) exasperatedly asks a room full of managers, “Did IQs just drop sharply while I’ve been away?” Perhaps in context the question is superfluous, but, in the real world, it is an important one, to which the answer seems to be a qualified "yes," with a fairly strong association with social media use. What remains to be known is whether the effect is direct, and social media is sucking the intelligence out of its users; or indirect, in that something that social media encourages people to do also reduces IQ. The evidence tends to support the second, although the first cannot be discounted.
