Oh no, the pedometer on my phone isn’t working! How am I going to know if I’ve reached the required number? That’s when the Dylan lyric, which I consider one of the greatest lines ever written, flashed through my mind: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
Just as I don’t need some digital application to tell me that my strength, stability and vitality is increasing (as is the workload and duration my broken foot can withstand).
It seems to me that in our pursuit of convenience, we’ve been a little too lax about relinquishing our skills, tasks, abilities and knowledge, and then before you know it, we no longer possess those abilities or that knowledge — the old, “use it or lose it.”
I was already thinking along these lines when an error with the health-monitoring application occurred. As the day progressed, there were other blips with the phone, so I drove to the phone store where the young man behind the counter informed me that my device was dying and it was time to get a new one.
When he said it would take three hours for the data to transfer and that I would be without service for that long, I asked him if I could use his phone to alert my wife, and let her know I couldn’t be reached. He was reluctant to hand it over to me, but offered to punch in the numbers himself.
“Do you know her number,” he asked, and before I could say anything, he added, “you’d be surprised how many people don’t.”
We have enough numbers and passwords and dates and commitments to keep track of without having to memorize phone numbers when you can simply tap on a name from a list of contacts, and tap again to call, text or email that person. I find it disturbing to see friends and others acting like it’s beyond our human capabilities to remember all manner of things that we used to be able to recall with no problem. And I’m not talking age-related memory loss.
I know people who’ve seemingly lost the ability to grab onto and express what’s in their heart. Instead, they choose from a gallery of emojis to convey their message, but it’s not nearly as clear, or as impactful as words. Others turn to artificial intelligence to help them say what they’re trying to say for some work assignment, until eventually, they can’t figure it out without the assistance of the digital application.
Maybe they’re just trying to save time or conserve energy or be more efficient, but it appears to me to be a crutch. While crutches can help provide support and increase mobility for people with injuries, they also contribute to muscle atrophy.
That’s the concern here — the degree to which our reliance on technology contributes to the decline of human faculties or abilities.
I’m reminded of the time we were in the studio with a legendary record producer. While listening back in the control room, one of the guys noticed that the signal level on the meter was “spiking” in the red, and he asked if that would cause distortion. The producer said, “Does it sound distorted to you?” It didn’t, and the producer remarked, “So, what are you going to believe, your ears or that red light?”
My concern is not whether kids or young adults are unable to confidently decipher the position of hands on a non-digital clock or whether their reliance on Velcro and “slip-ons” has rendered them incapable of tying their shoes or any other number of lost or diminishing skills that may no longer be necessary for getting along just fine in the world.
But rather, what the consequences might be in the face of increasing automation and artificial reality, a willingness to sacrifice brain power, self-awareness and the preciousness of our own humanity.
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2023-12-11 02:00:00 , santamariatimes.com – RSS Results in news/local of type article