We live in a world totally encompassed by technology. Our lives are extremely dependent on several aspects of technology and it has come to a point where we cannot imagine a day without it. While there are many advantages of having such advanced technology at our service, it also needs to be taken into account that there are some alarming disadvantages. There is enough scientific evidence to suggest that technology makes us dumber in some ways. In this article we will bring to your attention such little details of technology making you stupid. It is high time that we started a responsible use of technology to prevent such effects on our brains.
Some ways that technology is actually making you stupid
- A poor memory: We live in a world where the importance of memory has steadily reduced. For instance the search engines are ready to churn out any information that you might need. With such wide range and quantity of information available our memory pattern and setup too has undergone a change. Now for instance the part of our brain is more efficient in remembering how to access the information that we seek or where it can be found readily. But the skill to remember the actual information has actually taken a hit. This surely is a crucial example of how technology is steadily but surely making you stupid.
- Poor driving quality: Remember the times when there were no Google maps to guide you during your journey. All your focus had to be on the roads and the driving was always more attentive in nature. Nowadays with the dependence on using such maps, the driving skills are on the wane. Basically it is very difficult for the human brain to comprehend two different things at the same time and thus it is problem when a part of it is focused on deciphering the map. With lesser attention we see horrid and funny outcomes of such poor driving skills and such effects have been scientifically proven.
- Poor English and grammar skills: Someone once pointed out that necessity is the mother of invention. It is also true when it comes to acquiring knowledge and thus when you have an autocorrect readily available the skills of English and grammar are not the same level as before. For instance, studies have shown that there is a clear effect on intelligence due to which people learn to make sense of abbreviations and wrong spellings. This reflects when it comes to more important and serious work where you may have to identify typing errors or spelling mistakes and these habits make your task extremely difficult.
- Eavesdropping and its effects: Technology is not just making you stupid in many ways; it is also affecting your attention levels. There are times when you can overhear a telephone conversation and eavesdrop on it. However our brains are so wired that when we hear one side of the conversation there is a natural urge to fill up the puzzle and try to imagine the other side of the conversation as well. Naturally, it takes a serious toll on the attention levels of an individual and affects the work quality and outputs.
- The ill effect of e-reading: Reading on kindle is eco friendly and is extremely convenient and we do not doubt the usefulness and goodness of it. However you have to also take into account some ill effects that are associated with such reading. In this case how technology makes us dumber is by reducing the abilities to remember what you read. Studies have shown that an individual tends to remember a lot better when he has some physical cues that help him remember like maybe a page number or a particular mark in that page. Due to the absence of such cues the remembering of things read in kindle is not as good as the ones read in a book.
- Replacing the valuable habit of reading by video games: This is a huge cause of concern and is counted as one of the major ways by which technology is making you stupid. Reading as a habit is good as gold and creates genuine and learned humans. With the advent of addictive video games people have shifted their hobbies from a good read to mindless hours of video games some of which are full of violence and obscenity. Instead of the enriching effect on your brain you actually face decay and the productivity is significantly reduced for an individual with such habits.
- Believers in fake news: Fake news is a serious cause of concern in the world that we live in. Fake news circulates faster than wildfire and has some disastrous impacts on societies and countries. Due to an abnormal increase in online activities the instances of fake news too are increasing. It is very easy to circulate fake news and dangerous propaganda among the masses and has dangerous consequences.
- Poor at reading emotions: Apart from making you stupid it turns out that even the emotional intelligence has gone for a toss due to the increasing obsessive attraction towards technology. In fact the studies show that the kids who have an unhealthy addiction towards technology are poor at reading other’s emotions and understanding something that is not clearly stated.
- Delay in speech: This is affecting infants of this era and the reason is the exposure to too much of technology in the form of mobile phones and televisions. This is a major cause of concern as the studies have shown how directly affected the abilities of the infants are due to such exposure.
Final words
Now that you know about these things we hope that you would put your knowledge to good use and fish out a way that works the best for you. Since all of these effects have been scientifically proven there is no scope of ignoring such alarming findings. The ill effect on intelligence is fairly evident and it is high time that you were made aware of such a thing so that you can work on reducing the ill effects.