At first glance, the idea that technology is making us dumber seems absurd. How could something that enabled humanity to reach the Moon possibly be bad for us? And no, I’m not going to push the tired argument that saving phone numbers in our smartphones has made us incapable of memorizing them. Stick with me for a moment—I want to show you something deeper.
As my high school sociology teacher used to say, technology is anything that helps a living being accomplish a task. Cars assist us with transportation, phones enhance communication, and computers boost productivity. However, every technological advancement comes with a hidden trade-off: it transforms slow, time-consuming processes into instant, effortless ones. While this efficiency allows us to achieve more complex feats, we rarely stop to ask—were we designed to operate at this speed?
Consider this: the first Homo sapiens appeared around 300,000 years ago, but the earliest evidence of human creativity—art, trade, ornaments, and burial rites—only dates back about 30,000 years. Before even the invention of agriculture, daily life was simple. People spent time guarding their communities, walking long distances for food, and gathering firewood. The same brain that once handled these basic activities is now tasked with processing abstract concepts like algorithms and marketing strategies. Yet, human evolution never accounted for this sudden shift. Our brains were shaped in an environment where we had ample time to think, plan, and reflect.
In the past, the necessity of performing repetitive, slow tasks naturally created idle time. This downtime was crucial for considering options, envisioning the future, and generating ideas. As technology removes these monotonous activities from our daily lives, it also strips away the unstructured time our minds need to wander and reflect. Today, boredom has become a rare experience. Many people unknowingly seek refuge in the stillness of religious gatherings—not necessarily for faith alone, but because it might be the only hour of boredom they experience all week. The rest of their time is consumed by video calls, social media, and entertainment, leaving little room for deep contemplation.
Somewhere along the way, we lost the understanding that doing nothing—or engaging in slow, repetitive tasks—can actually be beneficial. These moments allow us to process life on a broader scale, fostering a sense of control and clarity. Yet, in a world where we can be stimulated at all times, the only chance we get to reflect is perhaps during a Sunday mass or while washing dishes. But how does a modern human, conditioned to constant engagement, even recognize that they might need seven hours of stillness—just like their ancestors had while farming the land?
Without this mental breathing room, I believe we’re witnessing a rise in psychological issues, driven by a lack of confidence and the inability to engage in meaningful long-term thinking. We’ve known this since WALL-E warned us about it, yet few people actually take the time to unplug and let their minds wander. Instead, we remain trapped in an endless cycle of short-term decisions, never allowing ourselves the space to truly think things through.
Technology has given us incredible advantages, but it has also stolen something fundamental: the ability to simply be with our own thoughts. And if we don’t start reclaiming that time, we might wake up one day to realize that, despite all our progress, we’ve forgotten how to truly think.
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