I’m always fascinated by unintended consequences. You know how all those labour-saving devices haven’t seemed to free up any more time for us in our busy lives, yet have contributed to us being in worse shape and maybe even a search for meaning in our lives.
Ahem.
Well, so too have new communication devices multiplied our ability to talk to each other (although I would argue the level of communication is limited due to the constraints of the texting and tweeting and....), while at the same time seemingly taking a toll on our intelligence quotient.
Let me explain.
I’m arguing that as we rely more and more on our devices to communicate 24/7 our brains seem to be regressing. I’m not a mathematician but it’s something like for every advanced step in communication technology, there’s one giant leap backwards for our craniums.
Partly it’s because we think that if we don’t know something, all’s OK cause we can just Google it after all. So why learn it in the first place?
Then there’s the Internet where we learn stuff from so many ‘reputable’ sources (and reject ‘mainstream’ sources as compromised) that many of us believe in a plethora of conspiracy theories that include (but definitely not limited to) modern medicine is secretly out to kill us, 9/11 was an inside job, Obama was born in Africa and Donald Trump is the best thing to hit America, well, since the debut of The Apprentice.
In some ways we’re back to being overly influenced by snake oil salesmen and fear of the unknown, while revelling in our ignorance. Talk about your lowest common denominators and shades of the wild, wild west. Gee, that might lead to a few problems don’t you think?
Anyway, all that scary stuff aside I’m talking about more basic day-to-day stuff.
You know like I can’t remember my kids’ cell phone numbers to save my life. And that may be literally true one day. Ahem.
The other day I picked up our home phone (also now known as a landline and apparently their days are numbered as the only people who call it are grandma and grandpa and telemarketers) and tried to call our kids for some reason.
That, in itself is weird because usually I would just text to see if they’re actually coming home for dinner but my cell phone was temporarily AWOL and their numbers weren’t programmed into the landline so I needed to reach into the dark recesses of my brain and try to remember their actual phone numbers and, well......nothing.
OK, maybe a prefix and the general gist of the numbers but not in the right order by any means.
Talk about frustrating. Not to mention embarrassing.
“The little brats can starve for all I care,” I say under my breath as I react to the futility of it all.
If I remember correctly one of the first things you learn as a child is your own address and phone number in case of emergency.
OK, I do know my own phone number, landline that is, but put under hot lights I would struggle to come up with my own cell number (never call it) and even my postal code trips me up on occasion if the truth be told.
So, at 56, I just failed the first day of kindergarten, so to speak.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are numerous positives to all these newfangled communication devices and they are truly transforming our world, in some cases even for the better.
And I’m not just a cranky old senior crying about “why do they have to go changing everything all the time?”
OK, mostly I am but not 100 per cent.
However, I’m also concerned that most of us can no longer go to the grocery store to pick up three things without at least one text home proclaiming “what kind of salad dressing was that again?”