Is our Ability to Think Deteriorating with More Technology?
By: Alex Lago
Tags: Technology, Philosophy, Society, Science, Life Lessons

Technology has changed and shaped our world. From the onset of our distant ancestors creating tools to hunt, technology has always allowed humans to get an upper-hand on other animals.

It was not our strong and able bodies or limbs, but our impressive brains that allowed us to get the edge. This meant that we used materials around us to make our lives easier and overcompensate for the fact that we weren’t as fast as the leopard or as strong as the bear.

This eventually led to us working with metals and eventually the industrial revolution. At this point, humanity was advancing at an incredible rate. This helped make life easier for everyone.

We mass-produced agriculture, printed ideas in books, and traded goods with convenience from halfway across the world.

Today we find ourselves in a new technological era. We have smartphones, laptops, and tablets. All these technologies are designed to make life easier.

But what if technology is destroying our ability to think?

Tech makes things too simple.

Now, humans can accomplish processes that took them a lot longer in the past.

We no longer have to manually till or seed farmland — we have machines. In a more pertinent example, we no longer have to do mental math at stores.

Further, if any question pops up into our heads, we can easily google it.

In the past, if there was something we didn’t know, we would think about it — often for hours. We would discuss it with family. If it bothered us so much, we could even take a trip to our public library and find the information we were looking for.

This takes away from the human experience. Rather than use logic and thought to come to a conclusion, as we have been doing since the beginning of our species, we now easily search the issue on google. It takes no intelligence, and this access to instant information takes away any incentive for free or creative thought about the issue.

The amount of misinformation we currently have on the internet also adds to the problem. If we were to truly think about something, go to our families, and then the library, we would no doubt have a better answer than one we found quickly on the internet.

Of course, it is more convenient now, but at what cost? That of practicing thinking and logic?

Tech presents a movement of society away from free thinking to structured thinking.

With the relative ease at which we receive information, people can be deceived into thinking that there is no longer a need for free thinking.

Since everything can be readily found, we don’t have to spend our time analyzing or formulating arguments.

We have seen a movement away from philosophers, scientists, and inventors to that of data analysts, engineers, and management. This is because we already believe we know enough. There is no time for seeking out new ideas, we have what we need. Our society just wants people to be practical with their time.

Paul Martin of The BBC makes the argument that we are made to believe that innovations are constantly being produced. This couldn’t be further from the truth though.

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. In 2007, Steve Jobs created the iPhone. Although a much superior improvement, this was not a new invention. Cell phones have been around since the 90s and touch screen technology was available in the 60s.

Martin makes the arguments that new tech isn’t being invented. Instead, existing inventions are being added onto and improving existing tech, and are being marketed as new inventions.

As companies grow, they don’t want people to re-invent the wheel, they want people who will be able to improve existing technologies at low costs, and market them as inventions. As a result, scientists aren’t needed as much as structured thinkers such as engineers.

This may be one of the reasons that nothing new is being invented. This could also be putting a creative hamper on humanity.

Tech creates dependency.

A lot of what led to breakthroughs in Science, Psychology, and the Arts was time to think about our world. Many discoveries were made while professionals were on a walk or relaxing.

Going out and thinking is uncomfortable. People have to face questions, actions they did, and themselves. That is why people don’t like to do this. It is like therapy in a way.

Now, smartphones offer you an easy escape from yourself. You don’t have to think about the troubles of life. You can just search for them and find other peoples’ answers. You can browse Reddit, Twitter, and other social media. You can numb your mind with YouTube.

Before people had so much time without technology that they were forced to think. Now people waste their lives away on technology.

As if it weren’t enough to give our free time to tech, worse yet, we also trade human interaction for technology. Instead of being with our families or friends, we have group chats, texts, and facetime. We remove any need for human interaction and feel lonely because of it.

Dependency on tech is only worsened by the fact that we structure our lives so that we can’t see people in real life, and our only recourse for our innate desire for social interaction is tech.

Conclusion

So is technology destroying our mental capacities?

I think so. Technology makes things easier and makes us not think — we don’t have to do mental calculations, we can ask the internet for any answer that pops into our heads.

Technology also inspires the movement of society away from free thinking to more structured thinking. It is no coincidence that there are no great philosophers, thinkers, or inventors like before.

Technology fosters Dependency. Instead of thinking about life and our world, we constantly want to distract ourselves. We trade human interaction for tech.

We must push forward and encourage theoretical thinking and inventions. Science, corporations, and government must work for the benefit of humanity — not for profit and marketing.