The biggest change in human race history
Back in 2007 when Steve Jobs presented the first smartphone, the iPhone, no one knew for sure just how much it would change the way we communicate. Now it's clear this pocket-sized device has an enormous impact on the world. Its rapid takeover of our everyday lives has been astonishing. Most of us understood that the iPhone was going to be an important project but I don't think anybody understood how revolutionary it was going to be. iPhone not only has changed how we entertain ourselves and how we communicate but it's also in the process of changing a significant number of industries. All these have huge implications for our workforce and society at large. Just think about how much of your day is dependent on that device! The entire world is connected! By 2020 we'll sell between three and three and a half billion smartphones worldwide, getting close to two thirds of the planet.
We have never had a technology that we use for so many different things. At this point, we are just starting to understand how this dependency is affecting our lives.
In the past, early humans survaival depend on knowing everything that was going on in the environment. For that reason, taking all in it's human nature. Although things have change ever since, that behaviour still with us (as stated before, it's part of our nature) and it represents a huge problem in our days. With the smartphone, we have access to so much information that we keep our brains in a constant state of overload, distracted.
There used to be times when we were out, hanging out with friends, talking to each other face to face, having fun without the smartphone been involved. There were times when we were just alone with our thoughts. Unfortunately it has become much harder to do this in our days. The instant satisfaction, that dopamine relase almost on demand that our smartphone produce is highly adictive! For some of us it's
probably too late to peel ourselves away from our screens. Unfortunately, deep thinking and behaving the way we used to before the smartphone is key for learning, becoming smart, intelillent, etc.
On the other hand, having such a powerfull device in our pocket allow us to have instant access to all the information we need. This means more room in our brains. Another important thing to consider at this point is that is much easier to keep in touch with the people in our social circles. Usually, the people most frequently you maintain the contact with using your smatphone are the people you see the most frequently in person.
The alone time mentioned before is not only important for the attentive types of thinking — contemplative thought, reflective thought, introspective thought-. It is also very important to determine how we interact and connect with people. The constant feed of information (it could even be considered distractions) means that we never worry about being bore(even when we think we are, our brain is processing information we’ve taken in), we are never alone and we can always be heard. This is all good but the problem is that if you can't be alone with your own thoughts you won't develop a strong sense of self. Without a strong sense of self, you'll always be seeking approval and support. In other words, you won't really hear what others have to say because you need them to support your fragile sense of self. Last but not least, these distractions also prevent the deep feeling that lets us connect emotionally with others.
All these changes means we're no longer using certain parts of our brain the way we have so far. It is not clear the implications that all this will have on humans in the long run. Smartphones have turned people into zombies, at least to some extend! Environmental factors are always changing us and the way we think, but this is the first time advances in tech are outpacing our understanding of things.
Do you think advances in technology are harming our intelligence and creativity?
images: https://unsplash.com/
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