Gadgetory

we live in what should be the pinnacle of human intellectual achievement we have in our pockets a constantly updated web of information containing the complete history of human progress in scientific thought yet in spite of our smartphones and tablets and our smart TVs and internet connected everything we are turning into morons i'm donald bell and if you need convincing here are the top five signs that today's smart tech is turning you into an idiot starting off at number five you GPS everything remember when Apple ditch Google Maps and everyone freaked out it's because we can't navigate anymore to save our lives I recently had someone pull up to me in my hometown and ask for directions and I just lied then I pretended like I was visiting addresses street names landmarks it used to all be up here my brain but now I just trust that my phone will magically get me there same goes for number four phone numbers now I won't lie to you I've never that great of remembering phone numbers but they used to stick in fact that part of my brain still remember some of my best friend's phone numbers from grade school but my wife's cell phone number that she's had for seven years I still have to look that one up every time so if I ever lose my cell phone I need help I'm really hoping that Scotty's parents from grade school are still around and they know a good bailbondsman at number three the Google brain crutch you ever catch yourself asking Google questions that should be common knowledge to anyone with a GED sometimes I'm so lazy I'll even ask Google or Siri for help with basic arithmetic you'd think that having this information at our fingertips would make us smarter my kid could ask me who the 17th President of the United States is and in seconds I could hit him back with Andrew Johnson but if he asked me again tomorrow I should remember it but I don't there's something about Google of information that passes through my brain like prune juice I figured since it's always there if I actually take the time to learn anything coming in at number two your handwriting my handwriting peaked at around third-grade old Scottie and I was spend their afternoons mastering our penmanship in our cursive writing workbooks and then my school got a computer lab and my handwriting has been on a steady decline ever since not only that but I will seriously write something down no I misspelled it and then wait for an autocorrect that never arrives my best penmanship now looks like a ransom note written by dyslexic preschooler but the number-one sign that smart tech is making you dumb your attention span can you remember the last time you read something longer than a blog post what about a movie that wasn't punctuated by explosions every 15 minutes is your fear of the zombie apocalypse really just a dread that Facebook and Twitter won't be around to fill your downtime didn't you even make it to the end of this list you know what forget it next time we're doing a top ten on classics of English literature and you'll just have to deal with it it's very good so there you go five signs that the dumb pocalypse is already here so keep those smart phones charged do you ever feel that uncomfortable twinge of boredom head over top five cnet.com i'm donald bell thanks for watching