Do smartphones makes us superhuman, or super stupid? That’s one of the questions CNN is tackling in its new, monthlong “Our Mobile Society” series.

Author John D. Sutter‘s kickoff article argues that smartphones are giving us powers we never had before: ”In addition to enabling us to video [sic] events on a second’s notice, potentially altering the course of global politics, these high-tech human ‘appendages‘ increasingly have become tools for fighting corruption, buying stuff, bolstering memory, promoting politics, improving education and giving people around the world more access to health care,” he writes.

Of course, there’s a flip side. Readers immediately responded by saying smartphones not only cause more car crashes and pose a risk of cancer, but they have given way to an individualistic society obsessively glued to its screens. ”Smartphones have created a generation of narcissistic snobs who think they know everything,” wrote Chemtrailed. “Instead it’s created a bunch of Google heads who wouldn’t know how to blow their nose without ‘Googling’ how.”

Perhaps the flood of instant information has empowered us all in one way: We must make smart decisions about the data we digest. We’re now given the means to determine the fastest mapping routes, the best buys, the most efficient schemes. That power is now all at our fingertips.

Then again, it allows us to make stupid decisions, too.

What do you think?

More: TIME Poll Shows Mobility’s Profound Impact.

Image via Smarterfitter.com