Media making us smarter?

I personally believe that popular culture media is making us smarter. The reason i believe this is that things seem to be getting more technological. With items going this way it requires people to experience change, and learn new ways on doing things. For example many companies are going green, so they have an option of paying online. As for me an example is that my work place has changed the way you get your pay stubs. They have a website that shows you your whole pay stub and everyone that you get with that so that all of them are in the same place and viewable. This way they are no longer having to send them in the mail saving them money and saving trees. By doing the pay stubs on line it requires people to know how to get to the website, meaning they have to learn how to work computers, and with our day and age a computer is something that seems to be making its way up in the world. Beings it's probably going to be something people will need to eventually know( Even my 85 year old grandpa knows how to work a computer). Though technology has many positive effects i believe that it can also have a negative affect. The negative affect that i am talking about is stupider, and meaner. The reason i think it makes people stupid is that people do not get to experience the face to face/ person to person interactions. Thus making people more quiet and shy if they have to do things in a "real" way. When i say "real" i mean that they have to do it in person. Examples of this happening is aim, msn messenger, and other chat like ways. When i think of people becoming mean because of culture media i believe that it is this way because of things like xbox live, where people can talk crap to everyone and anyone. They can be any type person they want to be when they can not actually see the person. This can also lead to bullying.