CMV: The worst effect of social media is that it causes people to substitute "wit" for actual intelligence.

In many online communities, it seems like "quotability" and having a good "comeback" is seen as a huge virtue, and being able to whip out a witty remark in response to a question or a statement is seen as the height of intelligence. The same things that are traditionally seen as whorish when people do it in public. "Oh, you're so clever." Is LITERALLY the thing that people say to show they're impressed with someone's intelligence but in reality, you could have easily thought of that same witty remark after 30 seconds of thought, and being able to whip out a funny quip without any forethought at all is actually a sign that you have a poorly functioning prefrontal cortex. It's not a virtue, it's a flaw.<br><br>To be fair, I've seen plenty of examples of this in real life too. Say you're at a party and someone says something that's slightly controversial. The person who says something like "Well, you know what they say... a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" always seems to get a lot of props, social status, and praise for their wit and intelligence, even if it's just something they heard from someone else that they thought sounded cool. Everybody likes the person who always seems to have the wittiest remark ready to go when necessary. But people with *actual* intelligence (not the person with a million comebacks memorized) are the people who can have real discussions with you, who are clever in their own ways and can give thoughtful responses (as opposed to the witty remark that, even if they came up with it on the spot, doesn't really show a great deal of forethought since the response was so obvious), and who are able to do more than simply throw a witty remark out there and then sink back into the crowd.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>EDIT: Well, this blew up. I went ahead and added a TL;DR: The "witty remark" that is genuinely thought of on the spot in under a second is not actually witty. It's mundane and obvious but because it was thought of so quickly it's praised as clever and witty when in reality it's anything but an actual sign of intelligence.