Luigi Falasconi

TOPIC: As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate. The hi-tech revolution is taking path day after day and now this new world that surrounds us become quite terrific. Humans are digitalizing their lives and slowly becoming robots. So relying on technology to solve life problems, expand your knowledge or get in touch with people will deteriorate our ability to think for ourselves. The Millennial generation is losing is ability to unravel difficult situations without the aid of a smartphone: for instance, when losing our path during a sightseeing tour around the city we usually decide to use Google Maps to find back our way while we could easily ask for information. Putting our brain in the hands of an electronic device prevents us from having a conversation with local people or even stimulates our orienteering sense. Moreover, the web is an outstanding resource in order to search for all kinds of information we need. However, according to the Brain Health Statistics Report 2016, it has been studied that reading on books fuel our minds much more than looking at a desktop: one young in three prefer the latter option and it has been forecasted that, once aged, he will have terrible sight problems, too. Finally, living face to face with a machine will decrease our capacity to interconnect and communicate with other people. Kids are so absorbed by their smartphones that they can’t even notice what it is happening around them, forgetting about their friends and family. On the other side, it is necessary to highlight that taking the fair advantage from technology depends on our behaviour: exploiting tech accessories with wisdom could certainly ameliorate our lives but we should be careful not making their usage an addiction. In this sense, it is crucial to educate the new generations on the dangers coming from this new sector, making them develop critical sense with respect to it. In conclusion, following the traditional ways of disentangling hitches and complications of our everyday life will definitely boost our problem solving and communication skills. Our brains are like engines, if we don’t oil them they will rust.