Is technology changing the shape of our brain? Should we change our education system to match?

Not long ago, I was discussing with our think tank some of the challenges with all of this new technology and all of the information known to mankind literally in the palm of the hand of every student who was lucky enough to have a parent who bought them a smartphone. When they have all this knowledge in their hands, no wonder they feel it’s a wasted effort to memorize anything, “why bother, I can look it up!” Well, they are right, even if we know that there are some things they need to know (memorize) and think to survive in this world. Let’s talk.

Yes, the digitalization of the world creates a different reality, one for which our brains and bodies did not necessarily evolve, therefore human-centric technology is the key, and we need it before we go too far. On the plus side, and it’s a big PLUS, we broaden our horizons when we become digitally connected in abundance. And technology isn’t the only problem, it’s how it’s used. That is the real digital divide. One person may use technology to send photos of “cats” to his Facebook friends, another may use it to collaborate with canine researchers across the globe to save big cats from extinction. Now the latter is much better, of course, but we must allow the freedom to choose how one wishes to use the technological gift presented to them, right?

I read an interesting article the other day; “We were promised flying cars, all we got was 140 characters” which means Twitter is worth $10 billion and for around $500 million we could have successfully perfected VTOL personal flying machines. Humans vote with their dollars, the average person wanted to have fun with distracting text messages and self-validation since they were missing something in their lives, now they want more of it, why? Because they are so busy using technology that they feel even more empty inside, but then again, their addictions to these technologies were a choice, who are we to argue with their freedom to choose? Hard to say, but yeah, I tend to agree with you. Personally, I’m not on Facebook, nor do I own a smartphone for the same reasons that most techies have considered, but couldn’t do without.

How we teach our children in the midst of all these social networks, information and technology will determine how they will use it in the future. Our entire human civilization is at stake and God forbid if all that technology ever stopped working.