IS ALL THIS TECHNOLOGY MAKING US DUMBER…

“To be everywhere is to be nowhere.” -- Seneca

Dumbing Down

Is all this technology actually making us dumber… Could all this ground breaking innovation, that has become a part of our daily lives (our whole lives) -- that smartphone, iPad, laptop.., be to our own detriment. Thinking for ourselves and exercising our brain.., is a crucial part of life.

Don't get me wrong...

Im a fan of technology. I don't have a problem with it… It's a little over-kill when you see a 11 - 12 year little girl having a nervous break down because her mother took her smartphone away… I saw this on the street yesterday, right by the TCKTS booth in Times Square. And when the mother told the little girl she couldn't have her smartphone back for a whole week -- I thought she started to hyper-ventilate.

With all this access to information (anything) right at our finger tips 24/7 we are certainly better off… Are you lost? Not for long. Need cheap tickets, no problem. Need a place to crash, you got it. You have it all, right in the palm of your hand.., and yes, it has for damn sure benefited all of us…

And on one level as made us even smarter… You heard me -- smarter. If you transported the average child of today back to the 1950's, he would be considered beyond gifted. And a child from the 1950's in todays world would be severely handicapped. Part of our intellect has had to evolve to keep up with the complex world we live in, today. Lets just say.., the 1950's were a simpler time…

“If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet...
maybe we could understand something.” ― Federico Fellini

REALLY...

• 90 per cent of us are suffering from digital amnesia.
• 70 per cent of people don't know their children's phone numbers by heart
• 49 per cent have not memorised their partner's number
• And the FAA is even saying that over-automation is making pilots less capable
  

We have adapted (our intellect has) to the explosion of technology.., and are able to acquire and process much more information, than ever before and we can do it faster and more efficiently.., that would be our -- Fluid Intellect. All the complexities of our world, are just part of our daily lives… From the gazillion different things bombarding you as you walk through Times Square. To a subway in Tokyo -- it's just part of everyday life.

But how much of this information actually gets absorbed… How much of it actually becomes -- knowledge. Crystalized Intellect.., the stuff that sticks in your head and becomes part of you -- have we outsourced knowledge, to be faster and more efficient… Have we sped up and dumbed down… I mean, one of the biggest problems people can have today -- is there smartphone dying, running out of juice.

We have all been there -- "FUCK, my phone is dead! We've all seen grown people freak-out because they can't find a place to charge their smartphone… What I should have said is -- finding a place to plug-in is one of the biggest problems we face today. That's really all we need to store in our brain.., everything else is right in our hand -- as long as there's a connection.

"The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation
rather than upon mere survival." -- Aristotle
Technology will no doubt continue to progress.., making things (information) even more accessible than it already is -- giving us even less of a reason to actually retain any of this information -- gain any knowledge. The lack of willingness to even solve any sort of complex problem with our own knowledge.., is being chipped away.

Concentration and contemplation are becoming things of the past… We crave stimulation, we are hungry for it… With all this information, we really only have time for quick hits of information -- and then on to the next -- are focus is going the way of the dinosaur, too. We are trading surfing and searching for -- engagement. Engagement is too slow.., we need to tweet, update, instagram -- whatever… And yes, why our skill to process all these "new" things has been honed and will most likely continue to flourish…

It's our thoughts, that are at risk… Losing our thoughts -- having them replaced with the latest gadget. With our ability to focus decreasing, making it harder and harder to concentrate -- we are losing out on the richness of our own thoughts. They are becoming weak and disjointed. Only by paying close attention can we absorb the details of our lives… Creating and relating memories, that help us define who we are…

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
-- Albert Einstein
With the amount of distraction continuing to grow.., we are setting the stage for a very real problem, in the not so distant future -- the death of the intellect. Are we on our way to becoming empty shells, only accessing information at the exact time we need it -- never retaining the knowledge that contributes to our very existence -- our experience on this earth…

There's nothing wrong with technology -- but I guess, what bothers me about it is --our dependency on it. That lightly skimming information is becoming our dominant mode of thought, instead of contemplation or reflection. We are robbing ourselves of the richness, the details only made your own with the finest of thought. Besides all that.., in the next decade or so, kids will have no sense of direction, at all -- why should they, there is GPS everywhere (kinda sad)! The loss of our intellect, is not only a loss to ourselves -- but a detriment to society. All this for what -- another iPhone…


REFERENCE:

http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/01/how-teens-do-research-in-the-digital-world/
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/07/13/science.1207745
http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/smart-technology-making-us-dumb


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