All this electronics is making us stupid

For me it started after college, over 30 years ago. The calculator was a new device, a bit pricey at first. My bride and I bought one at a Chase Manhattan Bank in Queens, NY, for $20 in 1974 dollars. We got a little ribbing from our friends — when we were in eighth grade just 10 years before we took weekly arithmetic tests: addition, subtraction, etc. Didn’t we know how to do simple arithmetic? Well, soon one of our friends asked to borrow our “computer,” as he called it, to do his income taxes. Over the years, everyone I know has done more addition and subtraction by reaching for the calculator, which became less and less expensive.

The $20 calculator that Linda and I bought in 1974 remembered how many numbers you entered. That feature is gone from the common calculator, which has become a nearly throw-away device, sort of like a pen — just as indispensible but also as expendable because you can get one for nothing or nearly nothing ($5 in today's dollars). We wouldn’t be without the calculator because we have nearly forgotten the skill learned in those eighth grade arithmetic tests. Mathematicians have long used the word “trivial” to describe the process of finishing a problem with the necessary arithmetic. We don’t bother our heads about such trivia–we reach for the calculator.
The same is happening with the global-positioning system. The GPS is going to make us all like Ozzie Osborne in the television commercial of a few years ago: the time will come that we will need a GPS to find our bedrooms too. Seriously, it is not enough to merely know a neighborhood; a GPS can tell you what’s in the neighborhood.

I was with friends a few years ago when the GPS was becoming as common as $20 calculators in 1974. We were in the Bronx, and I — a native New Yorker — was ready to direct. “Sit back, relax,” I was told. “We’re going to use our new GPS.” I protested a bit — my wife and I were proud of saying, “We override GPSs!” — but my friends were firm. And good at using their GPS. It had a Dining button. Frankly, it found a restaurant I didn’t even know existed. So much for overriding the GPS.

And so it will go. The new Kindles and iPads will make us forget where the corner newsstand is, a process begun with the computer, which already delivers a version of our favorite newspapers to a screen for nothing or next to nothing, continuing another trend. The public library is at least wired for Wi-Fi, ensuring that it will not be as yesterday as doing arithmetic problems and the road map. What started for me over 30 years ago will surely continue. All this electronics is making us stupid. I’ll bet I’m not alone in thinking that. I’d love to read your stories and comments.