How Did We Get So Dumb?

a brief treatise on big tech

Photo by CHOSS on Unsplash

In the last two decades, an explosion of technological change in Western society has left us utterly submerged in technology. 

We are the proverbial fish, oblivious to the water we swim in. 

A more apt analogy may be that we are like lobsters in a pot of water that’s gradually coming to a boil, enjoying the jacuzzi and failing to notice our impending doom. 

I am just as immersed as everyone else.

Instead of pretending I can adjust to the heat, I want to get out.

The pace of change and the advent of technological advances like the internet, smartphones, and AI are radically transforming the landscape of our lives. Research has proven that it is also changing our brains. Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, has talked about how humans haven’t been able to evolve fast enough to keep up with the pace of the evolution of technology. 

As a member of Gen X, I’m not old, but I’m not young.

In my youth, I had to memorize phone numbers, use a landline, and manually dial the number. 

Back in the day, I had to remember facts, or go to a library and look them up in an Encyclopedia. Amazingly, we used to have whole shelves full of books, because computers were not ubiquitous, and the internet had not been invented yet.

In school, we even had to write our own term papers - there was no Chat GPT to write them for us.

Now, we have been reduced to the role of smartphone operators.

We don’t even know our family and friends’ phone numbers, as we have no need to. 

We have trouble discerning fact from opinion because we are swamped with information coming from every angle. 

Whatever the almighty algorithms deem pertinent is what we are presented with, whether it’s information, misinformation or disinformation. We are force fed opinions, brainwashed about what to think - politically, economically, socially, every which way.

Our society is dominated by computers. We like to think we are still real people living in the real world, but increasingly, we have offloaded our lives into a virtual space, and spend the bulk of our time there, interacting via an avatar and words and emojis on a screen.

We spend gobs of time on our phones, and mere scraps with people. No longer the product of the people we spend the most time with, we are the product of whatever apps and sites we frequent.

Without a screen separating us, we feel socially awkward. We are losing the ability to look people in the eye, carry on a polite conversation, and interact on an emotional level. We feel much safer at a keyboard, able to say whatever we want, seemingly without consequence. This lack of tact is starting to seep out into the external world. The way we speak to each other, the way we drive, the way we treat customer service staff all belies the burgeoning absence of basic manners.

Our attention spans have shrunk to microscopic proportions. We are so easily distracted and scatterbrained, by the time we reach for our phone, we forget what we meant to do, so we mindlessly scroll through social media, searching for the next dopamine hit.

We have devolved from reading books to barely making it through a thirty second reel. My attention span is so defective that reading an entire book in a month is a struggle, and I used to knock off a couple of books per week.

Relics of the olden days. Photo by Elisa Calvet B. on Unsplash

Not to pick on Gen Z, but I’m curious if they read entire articles, or even text-heavy Instagram posts.  Video is the way to reach a younger audience. Maybe one day we will lose the ability to communicate via text. We have already lost handwriting as a skill - my kids’ generation was not even taught how to handwrite in school.

Most of us spend upwards of six hours a day on our devices, and for Gen Z, it’s more like 12+ hours. 

As much as I detest feeling ruled by my phone, it’s an indispensable tool that allows access to everything I “need”. There’s no denying the convenience of having the world at my fingertips. The great irony is that I’m complicit by choosing to use it, even though it feels less and less like a choice.

Even my 80-year-old dad buckled and bought a smartphone because without one, he was excluded from much of modern life. 

We are culturally conditioned to be constantly attached to our devices, which keeps us numb, compliant, and consuming. After all, it’s our duty as citizens to go to work, earn money, and spend it on stuff.

If we aren’t able to concentrate, how will we create anything worth creating? Maybe that’s the point - we are a society meant to consume, not create. We are not meant to be individuals with our own thoughts, but merely automatons. For capitalism’s sake.

If we don’t all wear the same clothes, drive the same vehicle, eat the same food, then we will be “othered” and excluded. Nobody wants to be kicked out of the tribe. And how do we all get twigged on to the latest must-have car or sweater or thermos or what have you? That handy little portal that we peer into at least 600 times a day is certainly an efficient (and diabolical) delivery system. 

I resent that I have to do what everyone else does or I’ll be left behind. And I resent that a select few gigantic corporations dictate how we spend our money and time. But most of all, I resent becoming dumber.

I’m no Mensa member, but I am an intelligent person. I can no longer memorize or learn things like I used to - because I don’t have to. Everything is available by asking Alexa or Siri or Google or (insert moniker of the moment). I don’t have to know much of anything, apart from how to operate my phone, and my brain has complied. 

So we know that we are dumb, how we got dumb, how we will stay dumb and, in fact, get dumber. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

This is not how I want to live. I’m climbing out of this pot of boiling water, before it’s too late.

I want to be outdoors, I want to be active, I want to be surrounded by nature and animals (or at least my dog). I want to be able to spend time with other humans who don’t want to be tethered to a phone. I want to be able to read a book, and then discuss the ideas I learned. I want to follow my curiosity without being bombarded by advertisements. I want my powers of discernment back, and the ability to formulate my own thoughts. I want to have real relationships, not shallow social media fakeness. I want to make things with my own hands, cook and enjoy meals with my loved ones, and have deep conversations, without a screen in sight. 

I want to slow the pace of information being fed to me at every turn. 

I want space. I want to be able to breathe. I want my brain back.

I’m done with being commandeered by this computer in my pocket.

If anyone wants to join me in the real world, I’ll be out playing with my dog, walking in the park, reading a book in my yard, doing anything to get away from a screen. 

I hope I’m not the only one out there.

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