Before I entered grade school, I knew something about computers. That may be ordinary today but unusual for someone born in the 1950’s. However, my father worked for General Electric in Louisville, Kentucky which housed one of the first non-government computers in use. At that time a mainframe computer was a bit intimidating, filling an entire room with rows of cabinets containing tapes for storage. It used vacuum tubes for circuits that had less power and speed than today’s hand-held devices. Add a few blinking lights and monotone voice and you have the image of a malevolent, super-intelligent machine with a human tendency towards egomania that the general public liked to frighten themselves with in movies.
As an adolescent I viewed movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Colossus: The Forbin Project, without any fear about being endangered by a powerful computer that decided to foist its desires on humanity. Computers really didn’t have the desire to rule humanity, or autonomous thought to produce work of their own volition. Half a century later I find myself surrounded by much smaller and more sophisticated computers. People imagine a world devoid of these devices as a new dark age. We are tempted to try AI (Artificial Intelligence previously known as machine learning) to lighten our own cognitive load while producing art, writing, music and programming code to impress others. Computers have not taken control of humanity–we have handed it to them.
We have become dependent on constant internet access to find our way when driving, to entertain our children during the long drive, etc. We typically pay for these with cold, hard credit cards or a wealth of information that will provide companies with the data to target us with custom ads. Because of the easy access to information, there is less need to remember what used to fill our heads or notebooks. We just need to general knowledge about a topic or the name of the current expert. Details can be found online, neatly condensed for use by AI, which occasionally provides realistic facts that aren’t true, such as best-selling classic books that never existed.
What do we give in exchange for this convenience? Have you seen reports about student’s decreasing ability to comprehend difficult text or even read for an extended period? This did not begin with schools being shut down for COVID 19. According to author Nicholas Carr there is evidence that our thinking has been changed by the shallow nature of reading as we flit from site to site. We skim text and then dart off in another direction through enhanced text. The residual effect is greater tendency to be distracted and lower tolerance for reading for an extended period.1
The same thing is true of videos. “Psychologists say that the average human sustained attention span is 20 minutes.” But a full minute video online tends to tax our patience.2 With so much short material produced for the internet, attracting viewer attention requires additional flash. This distraction has another effect. According to Elizabeth Lorch children increasingly fail to understand causes such as “Why did an event happen, why did a character do this?” More exposure to electronic media correlates with greater numbers of children with ADHD3.
The correlation of time spent on computer with increase in asocial behavior has been well documented. In 2004, The Annual Review of Psychology published research that indicated “greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in participants’ communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness.”4
We need time to practice how to stay connected like humans.
Of course, I am not advocating that we return to the pre-computer dark ages. Rather we need to realize the problems that occur when our lives are constantly immersed in electronic media. We all need large chunks of electronic free time, when we sharpen old skills like non-interactive reading, writing by hand and talking face to face. Time free from electronics is needed for everyday life because we need time to practice how to stay connected like humans.
Write about what? 
It’s a fine line between a benefit and a detriment. Unfortunately, many have been unable to differentiate.