"...Basically, I think all I'm asking is, is society really dumbing down? Or are we simply confronted with it more?..." It doesn't matter whether it's the less

"...Basically, I think all I'm asking is, is society really dumbing down? Or are we simply confronted with it more?..." It doesn't matter whether it's the lesser of the two, what matters is the overall effect on society as a whole. For example, If people are generally more ignorant, would that be a benign thing 'overall' to society? Or non-benign?