It’s been noted many times that with smart phones, smart cars, and smart houses, we no longer have smart people. While that isn’t completely true, there is a tendency to minimize the need to think, whether it means doing simple math, having some problem-solving skills or naming all the Kardashians. Phrases like “well, that’s what it says on the computer,” or “we do it this way because we’ve always done it this way,” are clear indicators that people do not want to attempt to solve a problem or think it through. Walt Disney once said; ”Everyone in your organization should be able to make a decision.” Today that means “ask Siri.”

While it is widely acknowledged that technology, over the past 25 to 30 years, has broadened the world in so many ways and provided numerous benefits, we also need to ask ourselves; when did we go from utilizing the tools of technology to benefit our needs, to becoming slaves to technology, no longer questioning what it tells us? In fact, technology even tries to fool us. How many of us have started talking to an automated phone call, only to realize it wasn’t a real person on the other end? How many people honestly believe it when you hear, “Please listen to all of the choices because our menu has recently changed?” Better yet, for many years there was a voice that said, “If you have a rotary phone please wait and someone will be with you in a moment,” 99.9% percent of the world did not have rotary phones, yet 50% of us “faked rotary” and waited to speak to a human being.

Today, millions of people spend half of their waking hours glued to their cell phones because it brings them the next text, and the one after that and the one after that, which validates their existence. Yes, aliens landing on this planet would report that a small hand-held object is the life source for humans. A friend of mine said that he asked his girlfriend if they could try a new sexual position. She asked what he had in mind. He replied, “One in which you put down the phone!”

The downside of our over dependence on technology, besides cyber-attacks, Cardi B songs and a deluge of cat photos, is that it limits logic, curtails cognitive thinking, prohibits problem solving, and minimizes the ability to form an opinion based on gathering what we once called facts – yes some of us still believe in fact-checking over the idea that if something is retweeted or repeated multiple times then it must be true. The scary part is that more and more people are signing off on using brainpower and letting others, through technology, think for them. They are willingly becoming the pods in the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, blindly following the lead of motivational gurus, politicians, con artists or spiritual leaders who have their own agendas. Shutting off brainpower is dangerous, yet popular.

Meanwhile, I write, and ghostwrite, books. I use technology often, I also put down my phone often. And while I fall behind on having the latest version of Word or the latest iPhone, I make up for it by communicating directly with other people and occasionally taking time to think. Sometimes it even works.

Often, I develop a good rapport with clients who enjoy the process of writing a book. Why? Because it goes back to old school thinking – they need to delve into what they know, what story or stories they want to include, how they want to brand themselves or their businesses. They talk about their expertise, not based on what the computer tells them, but on what they bring to the computer. Writing a book takes some old school brainpower and many people still like using that power. We need to re-introduce it to those who have signed off on brainpower and simply absorb sound bites, slogans, texts and propaganda. You can read the book on Kindle, but you need to flex your brainpower to write one. Why not give it a try?

Rich Mintzer