Does Technology Make us Smarter or Dumber?

Life today is about as dependent on technology as it is oxygen. The idea of technology, and someone who is technologically capable immediately carries a connotation of being intelligent; but on further consideration of the topic, I am led to play devil’s advocate, and to point out why I think technology may be both destructive and essentially “dumbing us down” individually while making society as a whole, “smarter.”

Merriam Webster online dictionary defines technology as such: “The practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area.” Now, there is no shortage of smarts for those who develop technological advancements, but for the large variety of those who are consuming the technology, often less independent brain power is required. Someone else, or something else, is always there to come up with the answers for you. Let’s look at three different branches of technology:

1. Internet Dating
2. Automotive electrical systems
3. Communications

Internet dating sites have become a major pop culture icon. Many sites brag that they will “do the work for you” and they set one up to create a virtual you that you advertise. In advertising, we buy what we like. You create your best self advertisement and see who will “buy”. This can be effective in some cases, many a true love has wound up happily ever after, sure, but it’s also a landmine filled with false advertising. Becoming reliant on using the internet to secure mates runs the risk of losing real time socialization skills where a person can find a mate relying on factual, first impression encounters. I read an interesting article in Reuters titled “Technology Overload Can Ruin Relationships”.

“John O'Neill, the director of addictions services at the Menninger
Clinic in Houston, Texas refers to it as "technology overload" when he sees addiction-like behavior in his patients using cell phones or emails.
"I think they share some of the same components as people who become addicted to alcohol and drugs in that we start to see that someone cannot really put it down and cannot stop the use of it even when there are some consequences," he said in a telephone interview”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2221996620080123

We were born with innate abilities to draw in mates, just like in the wild. There are certain breeding characteristics that dominate our desires to procreate. Sometimes maybe we lessen our abilities to think logically and to draw on those instincts when we bypass the primal functions.

Automobiles used to be reliable old metal hunks of nuts, bolts, wires, and an engine. Today they are convoluted instrument panels ran by an internal system that requires a degree just to understand the owner’s manual. Any average guy used to be able to fix his own truck, now some guys are lucky to be able to get their door open if the keys get locked in. People rarely even bother trying to fix their own cars anymore because of the difficulty in facing the technological advancements. Though convenient, cool, touted as the next new must have, it seems like a de-evoloution of independent capability to me.

Communications is the most widely pop culture technological advancement I see today. Every category of person, every soicioeconomic society, and every age set of consumers is demanding that they deserve the next best thing. Self worth is widely determined here. To be a third grader without the latest texting, tweeting hand held electrical gadget is a sure sign of a technologically malnourished human. I’m sure they must live far away on a long cold dark road in a hut with no running water! What do you do when the neighbors 8 year old has a better phone than you do? Perhaps it’s the biggest most effective advertising campaign of the century! And the communication that is taking place with the advancements of these electrical devices? Sure, we have been connected to the world in a plethora of different ways, some good, some bad, but the current pop culture communication fads seem to be reverting to some sort of cave man speak! LOL. LMAO. IDK. BRB. WTF? So easy a caveman could do it indeed! WebMD.com has some interesting ideas in an article about technology addiction where 24/7 reliance on PDA’s, cell phones. Computers, email can cause destructive behaviors in ones life. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/when-technology-addiction-takes-over-your-life

There are some amazing advances that have been brought forth with the rapid growth of technology. Medical technology has saved billions of lives, will only continue to save more. We have developed many more ecologically friendly products from paper to houses. Transit has become more stable than ever, with ever lessening effects on the environment. I don’t know about you, but I want to be able to appreciate the usage of technology when I need it, but I don’t want to rely on it or be subservient to it. I want to remain in control of what I do, buy, say, and need. Some areas of technology have progressed our world incomparably, but in other ways it has become an addiction, a crutch, an artificial sense of self. I want to be smarter, wiser, more conscious of what I do, what I take part in. I want to do my own thinking, reach my own conclusions, and have reasons as to why I make those decisions. I won’t be “dumbed down” by technology, but I want to grow with it.