"The Ruination of Us All"

At the advent of personal computers someone told me that "computers [would] be the ruination of us all." I remember giggling a bit and thinking that computers made life easier.

In retrospect, I do believe that the individual that made that made that statement was correct. Mea culpa, sir, mea culpa for not seeing what you foresaw.

Computers make busy lives easier. We communicate instantly and with ease. We conduct every form of business possible via text, app, and website. We shop more, spend more, and mingle less.

Therein lies the difficulty.

By nature, humans are a herd animal. We seek visual clues from those around us and we constantly re-assess on an ongoing basis.

When something we do or say evinces a negative vibe from a member of the herd, we self-adjust and move forward with a slightly altered perspective. That slight perspective alteration is mostly a good difference.

When it is a negative, however, it grows like cancer and destroys everything and everyone in its path.

I am 52 years old and just in my lifetime I have a seen a dramatic change in personal ethics and responsibility. In fact, that change has happened in direct correlation to the rise in computers and instant access.

Where once we relied on daily interpersonal interaction to maintain our careers, families, friends, and acquaintances, we now communicate almost totally via electronics.

While one thinks that this instant communication enhances our lives, it often has the exact opposite effect.

Not only do we begin to avoid actual physical contact (How many people you know prefer to communicate via texting?). Communicating largely through electronic means causes us to lose the norms that help us to make it through life realizing that other people matter.

We are rapidly losing our empathetic capacity and with that demise comes the inevitable, "Me, me, me," fallacy. The belief that 'we' are right, 'they' are wrong.

We "hear" things unsaid (and unintended) because we have no visual clues to allow context. This leads not just to hurt feelings and discord but also to the inability to correctly read situations and fluidly adjust to societal differences.

Because we do so much less face-to-face we have begun to regress in our ability to interact with others leading to more isolation and still less interaction. A true "catch 22."

Easier does not equal better.

We have all heard or, more likely, read the stories of the cashiers who cannot do the math for themselves. Relying solely on the machine in front of them to tell them how much change to give.

It is truly rare for change to be counted back these days largely due to inability but also due to time constraints imposed by the customers absolute need for more, faster, cheaper, and with minimal contact.

The inability to count change in reverse order stems largely from a detrimental change in our education system: the introduction of calculators at an increasingly early age.

Inthe not-so-distant past, calculators were used strictly in upper level maths such as algebra and calculus, which were available in some middle schools but were not expected and/or required until high school. By which time a student had been trained to do math in their head.

My third daughter came home in second grade with a school supply list that required I provide her with a calculator. I called the school and explained I would not be buying her a calculator for 2nd grade math.

I was informed that they would assign her a school calculator at which point I explained that they would most definitely not provide one. I explained that in order to survive in the real world my daughter would need a foundation of basic skills learned not by reliance on a battery operated appliance.

I am proud to say that all of my children are more than a little proficient in math and rarely require a calculator. They can all count back change, verify change returned to them by fronting and facing bills, and in general refuse to rely soley on any version of Artificial Intelligence.

As children my kids always had access to a computer and to video games but both were considered privileges, were heavily monitored, had major time restraints, and were generally seen as rewards.

They were vigorously encouraged to spend ample time outside and in imaginative play in order to develop critical thinking skills and integrative social learning. In short, I wanted to develop their brains and their empathy not their ability to tune out of life.

They were taught that the word "can't" is not an option and that people were far more important than things. Were my kids perfect? Are they? Not by a long shot. But one thing I can promise is that if the world went dark tomorrow, they would still be able to make change and think through the difficult times ahead. 

The more integral computers become, the less people learn and do and, more importantly, the less humanity we exhibit.

The less humanity we exhibit, the less likely we are to be able to see the person behind the keyboard as a living, feeling, human being. We dehumanize those we cannot see, touch, or hear.

Yes, everything is faster and easier but we must return to developing minds and hearts and quit devoting so much attention to dumbing down our children.