One of the morning radio shows that's on during my drive to work was talking about a study that was recently performed that backed up the above article. Basically, we're losing the ability to perform what were once routine tasks because of technology - GPS, the internet, etc. While we know ways to find the information we seek, we put ourselves increasingly at the mercy of technology to perform simple tasks we should be doing on our own.SALT LAKE CITY — If you're like me and you have ever had the unfortunate experience of dropping your cellphone in the Jordan River, you know what it's like to suddenly lose all of the phone numbers for virtually every person you know.
I used to memorize the phone numbers of the people or businesses I'd call the most. But once my "smart phone" started keeping track of those for me, I forgot how to remember.
Mrs. G. commented, while discovering the many options in her new car, that it did everything for you. For example, when you put it in reverse, the backup camera kicks on automatically - no more having to check when something (or someone) is behind your vehicle; the camera checks for you. It even has an audible alarm should you get too close to an object. The headlights come on automatically thanks to a sensor that distinguishes light levels. I'm surprised there aren't sensors in the windshield that turn on the wipers if it gets wet.
This new technology is both a blessing and a curse. With our smartphones and PDAs, we no longer have to cram our mental Rolodexes with every phone number we've ever gotten - the phone remembers forever. Of course, you have to have a backup in case something happens to the phone - and, naturally, there are online resources where you can set up your smartphone to sync periodically so that you never lose your contacts/pictures/apps/games/etc.
On the other hand, simple tools like calculators leave everyone under the age of 30 unable to perform even the simplest of mathematical operations. Check my tire pressure? Why? My car tells me when the tire is low. Check my oil? Why? The car has a sensor that tracks the life of the car's oil. We become more and more reliant on the technology to do things we really should be doing ourselves, forgetting all the while that this magical technology is programmed by the same people that can't remember three phone numbers or when to get an oil change...
GPS is another example of technology supplanting a physical skill. Who needs to be able to read a map when you can type your destination into a handheld computer and have it spit out the precise directions for you? Remember the days before GPS and Mapquest? You'd have to use a physical map to find your way close to your destination, and then get directions from someone local to the area. Sounds like drilling holes in the skull to let evil spirits out nowadays, doesn't it?
Speaking as someone who can't navigate his way out of a wet paper bag, though, I'll take my GPS, thanks...
Folks concerned with survival and rougher times are right to be worried about this newfound reliance on technology. In far too short a period of time we've gone from growing our own food and preparing everything by hand to driving to a store and hand-picking what we want to eat - there's no thought given to "what happens if the supply truck doesn't come today" or even "what if the food supply was interrupted for a week/month/year"? Those that think of these things are called paranoid or worse; those that don't think of these things will be called soylent green.
What tasks do you find yourself more and more reliant on technology for?
That is all.
25 comments:
"Idiocracy" was a documentary.
By the way, it makes me feel much better to hear someone I consider pretty smart to have the same directional disorder I have. I have gotten lost going around the block....
We bought a GPS last year.
Since I can't stand the snooty female voice telling me, "Stay on the current road" every 10 minutes we generally turn it on to get back on the highway, or at the end of our trips.
I have been writing on computers for years, but still take a pencil and paper along when I interview someone.
Don't own any combat tupperware yet, either.
A little piece of advice on those automatic headlights, don't depend on them.
I just got off a jury where we found the plaintiff partially negligent due to his dependence on them. He said it wasn't dark because his headlights had not come on yet. The other driver took pictures immediately after the accident (with him in them) that showed other drivers with their headlights on and the lights for the signs on stores on.
Your headlights aren't just for you to see. They are also for other people to see you. The automatic headlights often won't come on when you are driving through a shadowed area (like under a bridge or coming down a heavily shaded street just before sunrise or sunset). This makes it very hard for people to see you.
Jay you inspired a large brain dump on my reliance on technology that I ended up commenting with a post.
Reliance on Technology
To sum it all up "If technology were ripped from my life I would probably starve to death. I definitely would have no clue where I was going or when I needed to be there. "
I also mention the early days of Mapping GPS's.
@Tim brings a thought.
We have all this great technology in our cars to turn stuff on and off but it can't tell us if the darn tail lights are out.
I was behind a car this morning that had both rear tail lights out. I could only see the reflection from my headlights. His lights were on because his headlights worked.
Why can't the darn car tell us to replace the tail lights if it can turn them on for us and tell us our tire pressure is low?
As a society, we are 'dumbing-down'. I could go on and on from clerks that can't make change without the computer/cash register telling them how. To people that don't know how to operate a gas pump. And speaking of gas, have you bought a new gas can lately? I just LOVE those 'idiot-proof' spouts.
As long as my GPS keeps working long enough to get me to the coordinates of the Sooperseekrit Range this weekend I'll be happy.
If computers and smartphones have made us dumber by remembering things for us, how much worse has paper been?
For countless years humans relied on their wit and memory to survive and then some dumb jerk invented writing and now people don't have to remember anything! They can take NOTES! Heck, with books, they can remember things that they never knew in the first place! It's a positive danger to the human race I tell you!
Soon instead of remembering how to get to Og's cave in the dark, some jerk is going to make a sign, and that critical directional sense will be lost forever! Soon, instead of learning this critical task, people will be wasting their time with things like math, science, and philosophy! And they will still get lost on the way to Og's cave because the sign got wet and the paint ran.
Or, of course, we can recognize that the human brain is mostly useful for synthesizing lots of data and making conclusions about the world, and that writing, books, and electronic devices are just larger sources of data for us to access to make better conclusions.
I could go either way on this.
Don't get me started about the idiot proof spouts. It will be a half-hour of profanity as I recount every time one has doused me with gas while trying to fill a chainsaw or weed-whacker. Funny, I never had that problem with the old ones.
Also, my kids will be learning to use a map and compass. GPS is cool, but a map and compass work just as well with a little know-how.
My TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, however, you can take from my cold, dead hands. Although, I do keep a slide-rule in my desk.
Recently I had to direct a taxi driver to pick me up by radio. He could not figure out where I was after I told him I was half a mile away. His odometer did not have tenths. Knowing that the road was limited to 30 mph, I told him to go back to where he got onto the road, and then go east (literally had to say away from the sun). I told him to count to sixty and then take the next left. Worked like a charm.
Yet, when I see what I am using today compared to what I used 20 years ago, one wonders how Civilization was able to survive through the Dark Ages of the 1990's at all.
We are definitely losing skills that should still be considered basic, and occasionally substituting modern technology for older technology that may actually be more effective.
Some "old" tech skills that I think should still be taught?
a) cursive/longhand - because knowing how to write legibly without resorting to block printing is just as important as knowing how to type!
b) shorthand - extremely useful for note-taking when students get to high school and college, and later in life. In many cases it's faster than typing, and it doesn't require a computer.
c) slide-rule - mainly for instruction, because it requires the student to actually understand what they're doing, rather than simply plugging the information into a calculator. Add calculators later on as an assist, rather than teaching students to rely on them.
Don't even get me started on people who can't figure out how to make change. Some of them can't even get the bloody cash register to tell them!
Wife and I travel with TWO Rand-McNally maps. One is the large print edition. No GPS.
Can dial only 2 or 3 from memory when I use to remember a dozen or more easily. Have a Rolodex should cell phone go walk about.
Count change in my head.
Phone books still delivered to house but look up listings via 'net. Error rate on 'net higher than in book but books don't have as many listings as it use to and far fewer than online.
When VA wanted to raise sales tax from 4.5% to 5%; "It's only one half a percent."
NO! It's an 11.1% increase!!! Dumbing down education is, indeed, a feature not a bug.
What tasks do you find yourself more and more reliant on technology for?
Spelling. If I'm not sure how to spell a word I'll Google it. If Google comes back with "did you mean...?" that's usually the correct form. (Not always though! But I can normally spot the bogus suggestions.)
What really annoys me about this kind of technology is that it takes away our choices. Sometimes you want to turn off the headlights, like at a Christmas lights display. Sometimes you want to use a misspelled word to make a point. (Any program gets to autocorrect my typing once, then that feature gets turned off - with prejudice.) Sometimes you want to take the long way home. (My GPS threw a hissy fit last Sunday because I took a side trip to buy a Mini-14 and used the freeway instead of the route it chose.)
I use GPS navigation in my phone when I'm driving and can't look at a map. However, I've been in the habit since I was a little kid of using dead-tree maps for trip planning, and I always carry a map and compass when I'm in the woods. I count change backwards, have since I worked in a grocery store. However, I haven't memorized a phone number in years. When my Blackberry ate my contact list a couple years back, I was dead in the water.
wv: ledgeres - Yeah, I learned to use em in school. Still can.
Automatic wipers, you say?
http://www.miniusa.com/feature-automatic-wipers-and-headlamps.html#/learn/FACTS_FEATURES_SPECS/safety/Active_Safety_Features-m
You'll have to click a few times, but they're in there as an option. They come on when moisture is detected, and they vary their speed according to the speed of the car. Amazing little things.
I recently purchased an Android phone. I find that it's very helpful in my business, because I can make an appointment pretty much anywhere I am, whether on my phone or on the web, and it'll remind me that I need to go somewhere and what I need to do. It's only as good as the person using it, though. Doesn't do a bit of good if you don't put the appointment in the calendar.
However, I knew I was in trouble when my wife changed jobs and I still haven't learned her phone number, three and a half years later. It just won't stick.
Spent time in England n the early 80s and got a low end Volvo. Came with headlight wipers and washers. Go to an overseas auto show and see all the good stuff out there that we dont have.
At least I know what berries, mushrooms and plants are eddible in the nearby forest, and I know how to make snares, traps, etc, and there's some rather fearless waterfowl here(for example ducks, and even in winter some stay), that I could catch with a noose on a stick. I know how to fish, and I know how to make a working bow from scratch using nothing but a knife and my hands...
Also, I have a nice hardcover book with such information, and more, which I've had for about 20 years, and it's not going to run out of batteries any time soon, being made of dead tree pulp.
Not bad for a computer geek eh?
Both my truck and the Boss's car have all of that. Automatic everything.
We don't use any of it. Only bought those models for resale.
As geezers, we have a flip phone for 911, and a GPS for hunting.
I do admit to liking my range finder though.
I've noticed a number of convenience stores/gas stations are getting rid of their dead-tree maps.
My wife lost hers yesterday.
She went to the bathroom at the museum, took it out of her pocket and left it sitting on the counter. Went back within 5 minutes and it was gone.
Of course since she lost her i-brain she couldn't understand why I was so pissed that she could be that careless.
Of course since it is an "SmartPhone" it contains all kind of stuff about your life. Including Pic's of your kids that the device probably geo-tagged. Since the Wipe My Brain app wasn't installed we can't track it or erase it. Pics, Emails, Texts, Phone Numbers, Apps with ties to accounts. All lost.
Remember if you have one of these things install the Find my iPhone app or some other app that lets you find it by GPS and Remotely erase it. I want an app that bricks the phone.
I think I may get her an old Nextel phone as the replacement. Or maybe a bag phone
make change!!!???.. .
they don't even have to count out change anymore, the little machine next to the register just spits it out for them...
I HATE talking GPS!!!! give me a map any day, but I've also been blessed with a great sense of direction.
B
Teke,
I'd like to take your idea one step further: C4.
:D
Good point on the remote app, though, in all seriousness.
My flight students shudder when I reach over and flick off the GPS/distance display/moving map. "Alternator died. Now get us home." I still use an E6-B slide-rule type flight computer whenever possible. Why? No batteries to fail.
For economic and philosophical reasons, I have as little high tech equipment as I can get away with. The down side is I can't blame GoogleMap or a bad GPS when I suffer geographic embarrassment.
And Dave, try sending an e-mail in a foreign language. "No, d*&^it, don't change that!"
LittleRed1
@Jake: Feh, cursive is useless. All that wasted time in elementary school on cursive - for what? All of my middle- and high-school classes had me write in print, and even then, my handwriting was still atrocious (to the point that my English teacher actually yelled at me in class about how bad it was). I don't see the point, especially when I can write far faster by typing on a computer. I actually get frustrated outright writing notes because my brain thinks far faster than I can write, while I can type almost as fast as I can think.
Anyway, numbers get scrambled in my head, so I greatly appreciate my cell remembering it for me. I guess it's an example of tech making up for a deficiency instead of giving me one.
I don't really know of tech that makes me forget skills. My handwriting has always sucked, so being on the computer all day can hardly make it worse. We don't own a GPS (too expensive) or a fancy car with a backup camera or automatic headlights. Bah, it's a manual transmission with manual locks and doors. The only reason why I'd want a backing-up camera is because I'm short enough that I have a hard time seeing through the rear window, even when I turn my head all the way around.
I can read maps without any problem, and am good at figuring out where I am because I have a knack for remembering things I've seen.
I guess the only time my dependency on technology was highlighted was when we had no internet right after moving. Since we didn't have a TV, we had absolutely no idea what was going on in the world (our roommate had to tell us about that Christmas bomber on the plane), and I hated not having a weather forecast. We felt pretty cut-off from the rest of the world.
Post a Comment