Asklemmy

It's hard. I always knew I was different but I didn't know why until I was 14 when I took an IQ test and found out I had an IQ of 73. At first I was in denial but overtime I came to terms with my learning disabilities and started to understand what was wrong with me. It's affects you in a lot of ways. You learn slower than everyone else. Things that come easy for everyone else take you forever to get a grasp of and I get overwhelmed with information very easily.

It's held me down my whole life. It gives me a massive a inferiority complex and it limits my opportunities. I really wish I had a normal IQ like everyone else.

Depends on what you mean by "low." At a certain level low enough IQ is associated with intellectual disability, and a difficulty functioning in society. IQ is normalized so half of people have, by definition, an IQ lower than 100, and half have an IQ above 100. 15 points is a standard deviation, so about 68% of people fall between 85 and 115, and the remaining 32% fall within the "tails". I assume by "Low IQ" you would mean the ~16% of the population below 85 IQ, and probably the ~13.5% that fall in the range of 70-85, as below 70 is getting into intellectual disability territory.

Statistically, people in this band do worse in just about every metric for social success. Lower income, higher crime rates, higher rates of drug addiction, poorer health outcomes, etc. However, it is difficult to disentangle these impacts from poverty. Populations' IQs raise when they become less poor, and people regardless of income tend to be less poor if they have higher IQs. The cycle of poverty is deeply intertwined with IQ, and poverty causes a lot of the social issues associated with low IQ. There is a lot of evidence that as access to education and a more "intellectually rich" upbringing increase IQ, and such things are less available to poor people for a variety of reasons.

As for what it's like, from my understanding speaking to people I suspect are in this band the main things are a non-inquisitive world view, a sense of resignation around not understanding abstract concepts, and low self esteem associated with these perceived shortcomings. Society does not treat these people kindly as a whole, and I think that we could all stand to be kinder to one another. I also think that our economic system is geared in such a way that not only are low IQ people punished for that, but they are also made to feel that it is a personal shortcoming even though these things are defined statistically such that there is always a group of people at the bottom who are going to be left behind.

They will never get past the join lemmy page when it starts talking about federation. So there is no point asking that here.

I'm not stupid stupid, but I'm a lot less intelligent now than I was as a child. Not sure if that's standard growing-up stuff or other factors. I think I'm average now, but I used to be really quite smart.

Whatevers to blame, it sucks. I struggle to remember names of people/things/processes, or things to do today. I go through the day based on vibes. I look at a page of information, or a tedious form to fill in, and it's physically uncomfortable to slog through it. I can feel my brain groaning, there's tension and anxiety in my body. Frustration that this should be so easy and instead I'm having to actually concentrate.

It's great! You always have full confidence in yourself, your actions and your convictions.

Long Covid with ME has made me increasingly dumber. It sucks bad. I have difficulty finding words, following conversations, understanding long texts and just plain remembering things. It's devastating to be more stupid but knowing that you could do better.

Just a few minutes ago I said I couldn't play Leisure Suit Larry 7 because it's too hard. Sucks ass.

if you believe in IQ tests you're already an expert

if it gets low enough that you dont understand how bad off you are, its apparently not that bad.

Ask Trump?

What do you mean with "IQ"?

dunno

I don't know, every time I drink that much I forget.

I don't understand.

Why are you asking us? You're the expert.

nyuk nyuk nyuk

Less likely to lose sanity points when confronting the mythos