Is Technology Making Us Dumber?

The advance of technology holds different opinions to different people. Technology has allowed us to do so many things that our ancestors would have never dreamed of. Things like landing on the moon, sailing around the world, and the invention of the world wide web have improved our society and connected us as a whole. In light of those accomplishments, many people still think technology is simply making us dumber. Technology allows us to rely on things that we usually wouldn’t.

In the book Born to Run, Christopher McDougall talks about the evil of modern day running shoes. While many people switch out their running shoes after running x amount of miles, McDougall explains how the excessive padding in these shoes actually hurts our bodies. The padding acts as a buffer, inhibiting the pain we may feel due to poor running form. This restricts us from running the way we are supposed to and leaves us with ailments, injuries, and future surgeries. Without the padding, we are able to run the natural way. When our bodies are hurting and need to stop, we feel it, therefore reducing the risk of injury.

GTS, or ‘Google that shit’, is a common term known throughout society. Instead of remembering things like we used to, today we rely on Google to remember for us. Not only do we have computers, the world wide web, and Google at our disposal…we carry them around in our pockets making any search that much easier, therefore decreasing our need to rely on our memory.

Even good old directions are becoming uncommon. Even my dad is relying on Google maps these days. The same man who used to give me crap for using a map. “Where is your sense of direction?” he would always say to me.

Technology is great for things you cannot do on your own. Next time think twice about reaching for your iPhone to respond to a simple question like, “how many continents are there?”.