Dumbified

Last night, we watched a little bit of "Idiocracy", which depicted a future world of stupid people. Coincidentally, the morning show today carried a report on whether people were becoming stupid because of the internet.

I think the internet doesn't make people stupid. No, not its own anyway. In fact, I learn stuff from the internet. I wouldn't understand half of complex analysis if not for Wolfram MathWorld, for instance! That was my BA at stake... And while Wiki isn't strictly research (really, it's not), it still feeds me enough information about random trivials and various health conditions, etc. And what I eat actually come from a variety of food blogs.

What does make us stupid, is the extent of our reliance on technology. Instead of doing mental sums for tips at restaurants, I resort to the convenient calculator in my phone. Instead of mastering how to cook a dish, I save the recipe to keep referring to it. Instead of remembering appointments, I rely on Google calendar and its timely reminders. Instead of reading good stuff from the library or even our filled bookshelf, I'm doing random stuff and watching movies and dramas on my Mac.

Yet, I'm still here. On my Mac. Online. Writing mundane stuff. The only benefit of what I'm doing now is keeping in contact - albeit one-sided - with my friends whom I don't hang out with anymore because we're 3,000 miles apart!! (It's actually 9,364 miles or 15,069 km, as a search reveals...)

But hey, even before I got my first smart phone, I was scheduling myself silly because I couldn't remember dates and stuff! I'll much rather have some order in my life than brains - guess I'm more OCD than smarts! So, technology, give me all you've got!

AppleInsider: Yes, ma'am. You'll have the Lion OS soon!