Google's Not the Enemy

To say that sites like Google and Twitter are responsible for "dumbing us down" is like saying modern medicine makes us less resilient or language inhibits our nonverbal communication. It's saying that any technology that enhances our abilities as humans takes some control away from us and makes us less capable. While these fears (which have been around for generations) are quite understandable (and are true to an extent), they aren't exactly rational. The mere fact that we have such complex technologies proves that society as a whole is much better off with them than without them. While people try to point the finger at the internet for any number of problems in society (our shorter attention spans, useless distractions or being a dangerous tool for our kids), we can't blame technology for our own shortcomings as humans. Doing so completely discounts our own accountability and responsibility.

If there's one thing I remember about my 7th grade computer class (besides coding Qbasic), it was my teacher telling me that "computers only do what you tell them to do." In the same way, a technology only has as much power as you give it. Some people drive their cars every day and completely rely on them. Others walk everywhere. Just because no one goes out to hunt buffalo or wash their clothes in a river anymore here in the U.S. doesn't mean we shouldn't still be physically active. Computers are tools we can use. We can't blame technology for that. That's a cop-out.

The 2001: A Space Odyssey idea that "people have become so machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine" has been around for ages, and we're all still human, we all continue to think for ourselves and we have made advancements that have made us the most civilized nation in the history of the world. We're no closer to becoming robots than when the arrowhead was invented, and to fear technology just because it's changing the way we live our lives is borderline ignorant. Chairs aren't making us fatter, pencils aren't making us more forgetful and Google's not making us any dumber.