Stupid Phone, Smart Man

Evolution. Millions of years ago before a man could identify his intelligence,he originated from our ape-like ancestors to the homo-sapiens of today. Then sprang 'necessity', that eventually led to invention. The golden age of the Renaissance, the flourishing period of 'the industrial revolution' followed by today's era of the expanding information technology is all existing evidence of man's intelligence. The use of smartphones in the 21st century has been abundant, which raises the existential question; is man smarter than his smartphone? or is it the other way around?

Man has played a crucial role in the fight against illiteracy through technology. We were the inventors of telephones, cars, machines, and smartphones. Therefore, it is highly improbable that a man's technology proceeds his intelligence.

The 21st-century tales

Change is inevitable. Technology is constantly evolving, today its the impact of smartphones that are in question, tomorrow it may be dependence on Artificial Intelligence. It is a renown fact that our smartphones influence the way we think and act. Nicholas Carr once said, “As the brain grows dependent on the technology, the research suggests our intellect weakens.” But the question arises, is man's technology the real issue? or his dependence on technology?

Smartphone VS Man

All smartphones work based on the design of man. The smartphone is merely an accessory to a man's intellect. It is true that phones have inbuilt processors that can calculate logic much quicker than humans, that being said they also fall back in storage space and lack in creativity respectively. For example: If I want to calculate the product and sum of two numbers, I must first compute this function into the phone for the phone to do so.

Having easy access to quick internet search only saves us time, it does not obstruct our knowledge. Machine intelligence is pretty naive. The smartphone would not know what to do during a crisis. It’s far too early for a man to wave the white flag.

Another known fact is that technology can only 'match patterns'. Our smartphones are only better than us at matching processed patterns. Humans beings are optimized for learning several unlimited patterns, after selecting the patterns we require and applying them in our situation of need.

Smartphones do not possess emotions or feelings e.g. love, fear, anger etc. The combination of emotions such as creativity and ambition fuels our civilization These feelings innately permit humans to benefit from the collective intelligence of mankind rather than an individual. This is where smartphones lag behind. They cannot comprehend the impact or gravity of any decision.

Is our smartphone making us stupid?

Although debatable, man has not become dumb in comparison to his smartphone. Even though the future smartphones will imitate more aspects of the human brain in the distant future, smartphones will never be able to substitute human intelligence. To answer the question, ' Is our smartphone making us stupid?' The answer is No. It is only making us more dependable.