13 September 2007

Technology is making us stupid

By Jim Pinto

People exercise rigorously to stay healthy. How about brain exercise?

It is amusing to see someone who cannot give change from $2 for a $1.22 item without bringing out a calculator. I have seen one person who brought out a calculator for an easy two-digit addition or subtraction. Technology is often used not as a tool but as a crutch, to avoid thinking. This year, people will spend nearly $49 billion on memory items, just to store birthdays, anniversaries, and other simple days.

With PDAs, smart phones, notebooks, and computers, people now have gadgets that serve as their memory. This kind of computerization gives people the illusion of being smarter than they really are. Today, many people do not even remember their own phone numbers, and some cannot recall more than a couple of birthdays of immediate family. They are losing their brain power.

Cell phones can store numbers—but many people now use them to store many other things rather than keeping track of the information in their heads. Want to remember birthdays? Just enter the dates in Outlook, which will then sync in with your phone. You will be alerted, with reminders in case you forget.

On the other hand, the increased use of the Internet for online banking, travel reservations, and shopping, forces people to stretch their memories beyond normal. The average person has to remember passwords, pin numbers, license plates, security ID numbers and bank ATM numbers just to get through daily life. Six out of 10 people admit to “information overload.” Most people admit to using the same password for all their accounts, a severe security risk.

Since the availability of auto-dial phones, some people’s memory is starting to atrophy. The less you use your memory, the worse it gets. Perhaps it is significant that older people have better memory. Why? They’ve kept training their brains to remember.

The good news is you can exercise your brain without memorizing numbers. Crossword puzzles and games like Sudoku provide mental stimulation that can keep your memory sharp.

I train my brain by doing these weekly Pinto’s Points and responding to all the feedback I receive. Try me.

Related links:

• Is Technology making people stupid?
  http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11183-0.html?forumID=9&threadID=184955
• Mobile Phones Are Making Us Stupid:
  http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/35057
• Can TV Make Us Stupid?
  http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/4908/can_tv_make_us_stupid.html

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his book, Pinto’s Points, at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.