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Discussion » Questions » Science and Technology » Is our reliance on technology making us lazy and stupid? What are your thoughts?

Is our reliance on technology making us lazy and stupid? What are your thoughts?

I spoke to a lady yesterday who said that she has had to teach her Granddaughter how to tell the time by a clock, since the school no longer teaches this due to the digital age.  I have also found that many young people cannot read a map nor care to learn,  since there reliance is on their smart phones or navigation systems.  It appears that people do not have to learn or think for themselves anymore they can just "Google it or ask Alexa."  What could be the outcome to this reliance on technology?

Posted - December 6, 2018

Responses


  • The best "a picture is worth a thousand words" example is the movie "WALL-E."




      December 6, 2018 1:04 PM MST
    6

  • 1305
    My idea of hell.
      December 6, 2018 4:23 PM MST
    2

  • True, but you know as well as I ... you can't stop progress!
      December 6, 2018 4:38 PM MST
    1

  • 1305
    Progress or degeneration, at least for the human brain?
      December 6, 2018 5:42 PM MST
    2

  • I'm on your side!  Progress is what they are calling it!
      December 6, 2018 8:03 PM MST
    0

  • 2658
    My AARP phone (very seldom used) is not a smart one...
      December 6, 2018 1:55 PM MST
    6

  • 22891
    i think thats true
      December 6, 2018 2:33 PM MST
    4

  • 44229
    Those folks will become slaves of those who sell them that crap. Or perhaps they already are. Blow up all the cell towers and watch the riots and suicides begin. When the dust settles, the rest of us can take over.
      December 6, 2018 3:51 PM MST
    6

  • 1305
    I like your thinking.
      December 6, 2018 4:25 PM MST
    4

  • 5391
    Hard to argue it isn’t.
    The inspired and exceptional among us will endeavor to use technology to advance; the inherently lazy and undisciplined will live under it’s spell. I fear the latter group will outpopulate the former. 
      December 6, 2018 4:48 PM MST
    6

  • 13257
    Maybe lazy, but smart people are smart in any era.
      December 6, 2018 5:13 PM MST
    5

  • 628
    Hello KJames
    I believe so, and I see it all time.
    I am in the building industry, specifically Architectural design, which I always hand draw. 
    I frequently have to use the services of civil engineers, who always use CAD programs. 
    More often than not there will be mistakes in the representations of structural conditions. This usually happens because the wrong button was pushed. I recently had to have an engineer revise their plans because  the structural details all showed framing members running the wrong way. An obvious mistake they did not catch before presenting their plans...
    Or the times where I have gone into a store and couldnt make a purchase because their system was down...
    We have substituted our brain power for the power of the computer. What do you think would happen if we were hit with a massive EMP attack, society would not be able to function. 
      December 6, 2018 7:37 PM MST
    4

  • 13257
    Actually, it's vice versa - we have substituted the power of the computer for our brain power. But you made a very valid point.
      December 6, 2018 11:14 PM MST
    1

  • 22907

    technology
    may be
    only a symptom
    of the
    impossibility
    of people
    to deal with
    one to one
    relationships

     -- Steven Van Der Beck (1927 - 1984)
    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at December 7, 2018 7:20 AM MST
      December 6, 2018 8:12 PM MST
    4

  • 17398
    Dumbing down America was orchestrated and been in action for years now.  It is working.  The book by that name was published in the 90s. 
    https://www.amazon.com/Deliberate-Dumbing-Down-America-Chronological/dp/0945019734/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544158962&sr=1-6&keywords=dumbing+down+america
      December 6, 2018 10:06 PM MST
    1

  • 19942
    Common sense has all but been bred out of people with the advent of technology that will tell them what to do and when rather than thinking for themselves.  People who fall into the Grand Canyon or off tall buildings taking selfies, kids who eat Tide Pods are examples of no common sense.  

    As for reading a map, I couldn't do it before GPS and I can't do it now.  I have no idea where I am spatially in the universe.  If I'm going forward, I must be going north.  The only thing I remember is that moss grows on the north side of a tree.  Hopefully, when I spot the moss, I'll be wanting to go north.  If someone gives me directions by saying, "When you get off at the exit, go south" - you can bet I'll get lost.  You have to tell me to make a left or a right.  
      December 6, 2018 10:29 PM MST
    2