I want to take a moment to make you “think”. After all, that is what these blogs are for. To make each individual taking the time to read my blogs to make their own decision and form their own “uninfluenced” opinion on each subject. We encourage you to comment on your opinions and none will be filtered or left out. Not the positive, the negative and the “Oh-so-popular” personal attacking comments! All are encouraged!!
With that being said, is our dependency or addiction to technology and computers making us “stupid”? There seems to have been an alarming number of tragic accidents in the past decade that possibly could have been avoided by the people responsible for certain specific situations. Out of respect for the lives lost in these certain situations I won’t name them specifically. So lets talk generally. Ask yourself this, 20 years ago, would two pilots have been joking in the cockpit while approaching a snow filled runway only to not even notice that their airspeed had drastically reduced to the point that the plane stalled and crashed, killing ALL on board? 30 years ago, would a Captain of a ferry trust technology so much that he leaves the bridge to go to his cabin, all while leaving his 3rd mate in charge to navigate through some of the trickiest waterways in the world? And 25 years ago, would this very same 3rd mate be navigating these tricky waterways at the ships highest rate of speed? Even 15 years ago, would a pilot approaching San Francisco not react QUICK ENOUGH to correct an auto throttle system issue? And ask yourself this, why can’t a UPS pilot land a plane without full instrumental help? When asked to do this because of runway maintenance the pilots flew the plane into a hillside. After the investigation it was discovered that UPS pilots are only asked to land a plane on their own skill level twice a year on average. Now think how many times a UPS pilot lands his plane each year. Only TWO of those times are his own doing.
If it wasn’t for our technology we wouldn’t be able to take the steps to advance as a civilization , but you have to ask yourself if we are ignoring the fact that our dependency, trust and even “addiction” to this very same technology is leading us down a dangerous and deadly road. Do we need more intense training that focuses strictly on the human side of technology? Would this training increase REACTION TIME when a problem comes up? Would focusing on the human side of technology heighten our overall AWARENESS while we are in control of these certain situations. These subjects and situations are all debatable. Now think about this, in yesterday’s blog, we stated the fact that the young toddlers who seem to be developing a dependency and possible addiction to iPads and technological games are having trouble with the simple task of using Building Blocks. Could this be an early sign that our dependency on technology could be making us “stupid”?
