Erik, I think a little bit is because of laziness too, but there is no such thing as less smart to me if you have access to a free public library. I will never buy that. I never thought about the divorce rate though and kids not having another parent there to help them, good point. Thanks.

BK, maybe lazy in the sense that we only know of one way to do something. I remember when my internet went out and I needed to check my account balance. I was stumped for a minute, then I remembered I could use the phone, (cell phone). Before I relied so much on the internet, I always used the phone to do this. I guess we get used to whatever is available to us and the generation we are born into. What happens though when we don’t have this technology, we lose our phone, spell check doesn’t work, is there a plan B or are we stuck?

Palm Springs Mazda , some technology is supposed to free up our time, make things more efficient and I agree that some of it does just that. I don’t know how much of that free time is used to learn different things or just to spend more time sitting in front of the computer. My daughter has a spelling test every week and she does very well on them, but when it comes to spelling other words, she struggles more. My spelling sucks and I was in a spelling bee competition as a kid! I looked into the whys of spelling, (thanks for throwing that out there) and I found this explanation…all very interesting. We probably don’t need to learn how to spell and as long as we have spell checker, but we probably don’t have to learn how to do a lot of things because technology does it for us…I think I personally just want to know how, at least a little. Thanks for sharing.

http://dictionary2.classic.reference.com/help/faq/language/s37.html

However, it is important to remember that writing, spelling, and reading are all inextricably linked together. Reading encourages good spelling and writing. When reading, people use their knowledge of letters, sounds, and context to work out what words say. People who work at increasing their familiarity with spelling patterns are well on their way to developing automatic word recognition. Good spelling and word recognition skills then combine to allow the skilled reader to recognize new words based on their morphemes-the smallest word element that changes a word’s meaning-which is the primary way the student expands his or her vocabulary. If the student does not work at good spelling and letter-sound correspondence skills, that student will have trouble recognizing words quickly enough to completely comprehend the text.

I can personally attest to the part you mentioned about ‘… I refuse to learn another phone number when I can just program it into my phone.‘ Many would say, “Why should we try to remember when it can be programed into the phone. We can use our brain to remember something else more important.” True and false. True, human must be ready to forget about the fault of others and to learn to forgive. False, every time I lost my phone, I lost almost all my contacts … yeah I know there is something like backing up the contact list.

Instead of making us dumber, I think technology have made us lazier? This also reminds me of a quotation that goes something like this, “Applied knowledge is power.” Thus it really depends on individual, as in how one makes use of technology.

Retry, that might be because of a lack of sleep Been there.

Steve, good point. I see both sides, and I know I have came up with some great stuff/ideas from just being lazy…but not everyone is thinking, some people are just benefiting.

Alfred, doubt it happened overnight…maybe more like a slow drift, you don’t know it’s happening. it’s progressive. i think that’s also a point of the book…maybe the author is stuck in a certain time???

Promoman, that’s right. Whatever happens or whatever is created, we should be responsible for the knowledge we put (or don’t put) into our heads. The library is free…there is much to learn.

Andrew, my spelling sucks real bad and grammar, forget it. my fault. i love to read, love books, but i have gotten lazy, over time.

if i do then it would not matter anymore. but i do agree, i rarely read and i want everything on demand