Has technology negatively affected mental agility?

Narj

Narj

Narj

Soldato
Joined
19 Feb 2010
Posts
13,254
Location
London
It occured to me the other day that if I lost my phone and didn't have a backup, I'd have a real headache getting hold of people. Back when I was 17/18, I must have known at least 50 phone numbers of friends and relatives off by heart. Now I reckon I only know about 3!

My mental arithmetic has also gone down the pan seeing as I've always effectively got a calculator handy. :o

Am I the only one that feels a bit more stupid these days because I rely on gadgets so much? :eek:
 
studies show visual reasoning skills are extremely developed in people who play computer games.
 
OP?

2u8cs5i.gif
 
I can't remember friends mobile numbers or even family members numbers these days but I know most of our clients of the top of my head, just habit I guess as you never have to type the numbers in just find them in your phonebook.
 
I'd say we are becoming far to reliant on technology not that it is necessarily a bad thing but it does make me a little anxious over what the future holds , especially when you take into account it's not just simple arithmetic these days it's also the way people write words and make many spelling errors without even realising what they are doing.

I know my English language skills and grammar are far from perfect but at least I try even if I fail where as today's youth just seem to not give a damn.

the younger generations facebook pages scare me
 
I was at a outdoor function a few yrs ago and ordered two cups of tea at 50p each - the lad handed them over - got calculator out and promptly said A pound please - I looked at my mate who's eyes were raised then back at lad and said "are you sure" punch punch tap tap - Yea pound please and he never even twigged I was taking the Michael out of him.

So yes it does dumb down a lot of people. - there again if lad was stupid it did him a favour. Who are we to know.

Dave
 
I'd say we just remember different things, while before you had to memorise 50 different phone numbers, now we need to learn how to use an array of different operating systems & different devices.

Instead of recalling fixed numbers, we have learned to how obtain millions of different phone numbers via a search engine.
 
Do you think, in a hundred years, there will be a TV show (or TV equivalent!) where Ray Mears' great-grandson goes through all the 'old' ways of doing things in your head, talking to people who can still remember a telephone number and how they go about doing it?!
 
Mat said:
Do you think, in a hundred years, there will be a TV show (or TV equivalent!) where Ray Mears' great-grandson goes through all the 'old' ways of doing things in your head, talking to people who can still remember a telephone number and how they go about doing it?!
Click to expand...

I'd love to live to see a day where schools study keyboard and mice as relics.

"You mean they had to actually touch things to write words?"
 
it has definitely had an impact on human interaction and such. All people do now is stare at their phones and hammer away rather than have an actual conversation. There's no doubt it will end in a bad way
 
While there may be something to the idea that there is an over-reliance on gadgets there is also an argument that it's simply adaptation and utilising your time/memory more efficiently due to the prevailing conditions of the time. I think the truth is somewhere between those arguments, in some ways we have become ever more reliant on technology but that doesn't mean life has got simpler.

I'd also note that while you probably knew more telephone numbers off by heart when you were younger it was likely to be somewhat simpler in some ways e.g. they'd almost certainly be fixed lines and quite possibly if your mates lived close the prefixes were the same so you're basically remembering four unique digits which identified their particular line and six or seven standard digits for the dialling code and local area. For comparability, how many PINs do you remember these days and how many passwords now? You might be surprised if you tot it up by the amount of information you have to remember - it's in a different form than before but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier.
 
Yeah, definitely.

This is why I segregate my tech, I use a pc at work, I have a desktop at home kept in it's own room.

Don't use tablets or laptops, I only have a smartphone for email purposes.

I refuse to let go of valuable skills, self discipline is a virtue.

Tech is often marketed as improving ones lifestyle, it's why product placement is so heavily utilised by Apple. Lets be fair cigarettes were once marketed as improving lifestyle and even health.

Now don't get me wrong, I like tech, I just believe in everything in moderation. Too much tech leads to a negative effect on ones quality of life.
 
Last edited:
pitchfork said:
Yeah, definitely.

This is why I segregate my tech, I use a pc at work, I have a desktop at home kept in it's own room.

Don't use tablets or laptops, I only have a smartphone for email purposes.

I refuse to let go of valuable skills, self discipline is a virtue.

Tech is often marketed as improving ones lifestyle, it's why product placement is so heavily utilised by Apple. Lets be fair cigarettes were once marketed as improving lifestyle and even health.

Now don't get me wrong, I like tech, I just believe in everything in moderation. Too much tech leads to a negative effect on ones quality of life.
Click to expand...

Just as a matter of interest, to which "valuable skills" are you referring?
 
Was in a meeting the other day and the entire room was absolutely astonished that when someone asked 15% of 80 I just told them it was 12 instantly, they couldnt understand how I worked it out so quickly without a calculator...

Even explaining, take 10% of 80, then half of the 10% and add them together, its a concept they just couldnt grasp... they wanted to do 80/100*15...

But yes, I think people have become lazy due to technology.
 
Last edited:
kindai said:
Even explaining, take 10% of 80, then half of the 10% and add them together, its a concept they just couldnt grasp... they wanted to do 80/100*15...

But yes, I think people have become lazy due to technology.
Click to expand...

I think it's interesting that you've used a * instead of an X (for a multiplication sign).

I know that my PC calculator uses the * symbol, but I have no idea why, and, more importantly, have never bothered to ask anyone, which is probably a sign of becoming lazy. :(
 
In most modern programming languages the multiplication operator is * as it saves confusion with single character variables named 'x'.

Also it saves mix ups when saying 5x3. Is that 5 * 3, or 5x * 3?
 
Last edited:
Spunkey said:
In most modern programming languages the multiplication operator is * as it saves confusion with single character variables named 'x'.

Also it saves mix ups when saying 5x3. Is that 5 * 3, or 5x * 3?
Click to expand...

Cheers. :cool:

I can see the logic but still think it looks odd. Too old methinks! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom