By Michael Cole

These days my smartphone seems to never leave my side.

But for most of us, hasn’t that been a fact of life for some time?

It is my calendar, my map, my phone. I use it to share items for my job, I make videos with it; I even wrote this article on my smart phone’s Google Drive App.

But, I think that for some, it has become too much of a crutch and they have stopped using a most important human app.

Their brains.

I was in a store that had its own app that would tell you exactly where in their store an item was located. I saw a lady with the app getting upset and finally complaining that she had been walking around the grocery side for half an hour because the app had told her that the item she was looking for was in aisle 8.

Forget the fact that the big signs hanging down from each aisle would have told her where to look.

Forget the fact that there were several people she could have asked.

I have a friend that even around our bustling metropolis feels the need to use Google Maps to find things.

He has lived here his whole life. He goes to the same places and still uses it.

He says he fears getting lost without it.

But, I think that the smartphone with all its apps and uses has taken away the need for us to use critical thinking skills and solve problems.

It is our modern crutch.

It is our security blanket.

But, unfortunately, it has replaced thinking. It has replaced our confidence in our abilities to do things.

Why try when there is an app for that?

We like shiny gadgets. We like toys. Everyone wants one cause it’s new because it can do fun things.

But we miss the point of technology.

I love the ease that my phone brings to my life. But I try and use it as a tool to help me, rather than me become a tool to carry around Cortana.

But some of us go overboard. We let technology rule our lives when it should enhance it.

Instead of taking a walk, some need to chase Pokemon to get out.

So it is only a matter of time before we use apps to decide who to date, where to get gas; I think eventually going to come a time when we use phone apps to find our cars in the parking lot and even schedule doctor’s visits…

Uh, well too late…

 

Michael Cole is a syndicated columnist that when he is not writing, he is plotting global domination. You can follow him at www.storyoveracup.com