On our robot overlords

So last night I was watching the documentary Spellbound which is about the annual national spelling bee competition in the United States. I had no idea this thing was such a big deal. These kids are incredibly stressed (well except for this one kid who I felt could have used a nice dose of Ritalin) and there's actually a feeling of celebrity and importance around the winner. Now the documentary is 10 years old but I imagine not much has changed since then in regards to the spelling bee industry. However I couldn't help thinking, does it fucking matter anymore?

We live in an age of technology where a lot of people carry a device around connected to a limitless source of information. Want to know the difference between ignorant and arrogant? Bam, there it is. Writing a long e-mail to the law enforcement explaining the strange sounds coming from your basement and need to know how to properly spell onomatopoeia? Your computer does it for you. Trying to figure out why in your sex life the female orgasm is as mythical as unicorns? There are a million sites willing to let you know (hint: you're doing it wrong).

Every day we seem to be getting closer to lending our memory of what was once common knowledge to Google and Wikipedia. 20% of Americans believe their president (who was criticized for his church's pastor's comments during the elections) is a Muslim and a staggering 50% of Canadian 9th graders think that there is a known cure for HIV/AIDS. (note: can't find a site online with that stat, I got it from an AIDS prevention poster)

As a culture we have more access to information than at any other point in history but our general ignorance seems to have actually increased. Or maybe it's just we're using our memory for things that don't even matter. More people can tell you that Krypton is the home of Superman than Iqaluit is the capital of the largest territory in the country.

Possibly the most concerning part of all of this is we don't even know how all this amazing technology works, we just know that it does and we trust it. It comforts us knowing that if we really wanted to know about any specific topic we can look it up in 5 seconds. But do we ever learn anything this way?

Or maybe I'm out of line and misinformed about the general public. I really don't know anymore and Google doesn't seem to have the answer.