One would have thought that the introduction of the World Wide Web, where information is virtually immediately available, would have led to an extremely cognizant population. That people would not accept what they found slightly unusual without verification. And verification is as simple as a Google.
One would not have expected that most people would use the Internet to play mindless games, engage in pointless conversation with people they don't know, (in fact they don't even know the sex/age/race/nationality/intentions) of their 'friends'), and be so easily fooled by false claims and stories.
Perhaps, if the Internet arrived in 1960, during the Cold War, when children were pushed to academic excellence, today would not be full of mindless zombies who are owned and operated by their smart phones.
It is remarkable to be in public in 2018 and see the majority of people communicating with persons who are not there, ignoring those who are.
Far from making people more intelligent and aware, the Internet has stepped up the dumbing down so that people can post all sorts of false scientific/medical claims, and have them believed, invent stories about other people and events and have them networked and accepted, especially when the same 'tool' in which these fabrications exist can be used to disprove them, instantly.
Here we are, with all the knowledge at our finger tips, and dumber than those who 
lived in the pre-cyber age.