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More reliance on technology means lesser human thinking ability!?

To a great extent I disagree with the statement that more reliance on technology will surely deteriorate human thinking ability. I find this idea to be faulty and based on some short term focus on human behavior. In my opinion the time period talked of is increased and a broader outlook is taken, technology will more probably become an integral part of our lives. In contrast to declining the human intellect, technological aides like hearing machines and seeing glasses will complement our abilities to interact with nature and greatly enhance our experiences. 

Image © The New York Times Company

Further, the statement appears dubious when one considers even our own present day experiences. For instance, the other day I saw a live telecast of the graduation ceremony of IIT Bombay on the internet. Owning to the COVID-19 condition, this year's batch had to rely upon tele-conferencing technologies to attend the ceremony. However, as they say need is the mother of invention, the adverse conditions asked them to rise up to the challenge and this year's ceremony saw the graduation certificates being awarded to animated avatars who looked like students. Technology is this case thus opened up new horizons for imaginative and creative thinking for finding solutions to real world problems. It didn't in any way hamper the ability in any way. 

This is also true when one takes notice of the myriad of ways in which commodities like masks and sanitizers are been made these days. With one of the greatest tool at her disposal, a home maker in rural southern India can easily learn about the manufacturing of these products and sale them on online markets like the Amazon. Technology for her acts as a savior and an empowering element. It provides her with a possible route of earning when many other traditional routes have gotten closed. 

However, to say that excessive reliance on technology even for minute tasks like waking up early and going for a walk, is all good, would not be perfectly affirmative of the ways in which technology affects our lives. To rely on technology for small tasks, on problems that would better be solved in company of others, is going to impact the human thinking in a detrimental way if this is continued for a prolonged time. Technology was invented to solve problems, however it should be used as a helper to its creator's thinking ability. Technology should not be used to replace that thinking. I believe technology will soon be so integrated to our lives and our bodies that to talk of human would be to talk of some technology or other related to it. Medical technologies like pacemaker and prosthetic are already a part of a body for some of us. In the near future such reliance on technology is bound to increase due to the added advantage. In such a situation, when the human mind is partly assisted by a tiny integrated chip, how correct would it be to evaluate the human ability to think without the technology. I think, in stark contrast to the idea of this statement, the human ability to think would have increased exponentially then. 



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