One thing that was on my mind is whether or not people are actually absorbing the same (or a higher) amount of information than in the past, but that what is being absorbed is simply the banal sports, entertainment, etc. that they're being bombarded with, leaving no room for anything more important.

Noam Chomsky once said that he believes the north american populace isn't really that dumb at all. His evidence: the sheer volume of sports knowledge that many men carry around in their head all day.