Having a supercomputer with you at all times offers astonishing advantages.
It’s not hard to appear as the smartest person in the room when you’re allowed to use your phone.
That small device can show you anything you want to know.
It takes literally seconds to unlock your phone, open an app, and enter a query.
Do you think you have a silly question? Guess what, there is already someone out there who wondered that very same thing and asked Google already!
You can find an answer to any question, literally any question.
How beautiful that may sound, this can also be a trap.
If this supercomputer is 24/7 eager to do all the exploring, contemplating, and thinking for you, why on earth would you do it yourself?
Unfortunately, the consequence is that people don’t bother to remember anymore.
If your device can be used in mere seconds, why taking the time to remember stuff?
That’s the trap of technology.
Although technology is facilitating our lives in ways we never imagined before, we feel the unconscious tendency to invest less in our own power and capabilities.
Imagine your leg is replaced by a robotic leg.
With this robotic leg, you can run faster and jump higher.
An amazing experience and advantage you would say!
Nevertheless, you simultaneously stop relying on your own human leg.
No effort is required anymore, your robot leg says I got this.
When you take off the robotic leg, your human leg will be undoubtedly very weak.
You haven’t used it.
That is what happens when we rely on tech too much.
We outsource our own brains and power to technology.
We become less self-reliant and more dependent.
This phenomenon where you have the tendency to forget information is called the Google effect.
Other names are digital amnesia and digital dementia, which basically mean a decline in cognition and short-term memory loss.
We human beings are creative. We need time and space to reflect, contemplate, and brainstorm.
These powers should not be taken over by any form of tech.
Technology definitely enhances our lives, but it shouldn’t bluntly take over our vital cognition-related tasks.
Technology has the power to distract us, to lure us in, to program us, to tempt us, to make us think it sincerely cares for us.
It doesn’t.
If it was up to tech, you will use your every precious minute utilizing it in one way or another.
Don’t underestimate your brain. Don’t forget that it’s a supercomputer too!
Remain cognizant that if you don’t utilize this supercomputer of yours….its power declines.
When you don’t use technology for a while, nothing happens in most cases.
It’s no big deal. It can wait for years to show off all the tricks it is capable of when you turn it on again.
Your brain is another story though.
Neural connections relating to any challenge need strengthening, neurons wire together fire together.
Those neural pathways that are used when facing a challenge need to get more rigid so it becomes easier to do the task (which hopefully benefits you!).
Train your brain to get better, because if you don’t, it’s going to excel at just being average.
Use tech yes, use all its benefits yes, but don’t go for your phone instantly when you need to know something.
Contemplate. Remember. Pause and think. Let that brain motor operate on full power. Trust your own supercomputer.
It can benefit your own life in ways any external supercomputer will never can.