Are our brains becoming 'trash' ?

Samarjit Kambam *

Now-a-days, due to rapid growth in information technology, we are suffering from information overload and multitasking. Google has become a giant entity from and embryonic stage within an unbelievably short duration after it first made its debut as a 'search engine' software developer company.

Now, it has many futuristic designs be it hardware or software up its sleeve. Presently, 60 per cent of the world's population rely on Google for facts and figures. For the students it has become kinda 'virtual parent' and this company is growing at an exponential rate with many of its branches spreading its tentacles throughout the nooks and corners of the world by employing thousands and thousands of people. This company is not stopping at anything and there's no looking back.

Google has plan for public use of Google's driverless cars by 2020. Among its various aims and objectives, they are on their way to build a model city from scratch, firstly on the shores of Lake Ontaria, Toronto with approval from Canadian government.

This city will not be a typical one but will be like the ones which we watch in Hollywood science fiction movies where there is no pollution, where driverless electric cars communicate each others, where solar energy is derived from the sun by using transparent glasses which can fit in cars and window panes of houses.

After a few years from now, manual driving may become history. With driverless cars, we won't be using our brains during the conveyance which means less co-ordination with the brain and our limbs as the passenger behind the wheel will be in a relaxed mode.

Mark Zukerberg has revolutionised the digital world with two-thirds of the world occupied by Facebook, the social media platform along with Whatsapp, one of the most handy software for e-multimedia chatting. With advancement in technology, the gate to information technology is getting wider and wider with information of all kinds and hues available at the tip of our fingers.

The main populace who are negatively encouraged are the students and youngsters for they rely heavily on Google and other search engines. Whenever any kind of competition crop up be it Debate, Group Discussion, Lecturette, Essay Writing etc., the students simply go to Google search and download everything related with the ibid topic with Wikipedia and other information platforms as the main source of information.

For facts and figures, it's OK. But the students of nowadays use the same wordings from websites containing various sources of information. This leads to an unpalatable situation where they hardly use their brain at all.

The thought process has been reduced considerably. The languages they use are mostly jargons. As a result, the students of nowadays find it hard to compose a beautiful paragraph on any topic in his/her own capacity.

In scientific and logical thinking, the newer generations will be far more advanced. But creativity and logic are two different arenas occupying different zones of the brain. In terms of creativity, we are using less and less of the part of the brain responsible for creative thinking, however we are using more and more of the part of the brain where logical thinking is carried out.

A solid example is that in the present era, we are producing less and less of the likes of Shakespeare, Socrates, Leonadorda Vinci, Beethoveen, and Picasso. But in the near future more number Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs will crop up. This is where the chasm between Arts & Literature will widen with Science in the years to come. The future will be filled with technological marvels.

There will be clean sources of energy. There may not be a third extinction of the biomass of the earth if the struggle for clean and renewable energy continues unabated. Solar energy and wind energy generation, hybrid and electric cars are the pioneers for a pollution free earth leading to less Green House Effect. Motorola is on the verge of commercialising hologram smartphones for the public use.

A few decades from now, flying cars are on the card. Big multinational companies will have their own vast array of armies. The next world war will not be war among nations but war amongst multinational mammoth companies.

In this trend, human values comprising of compassion, patience, tolerance, kindness will be kept at the backburner. Everyone will be walking and working like robots as though programmed by the very companies they are working with a blunt and cold expression wearing on their faces. Laughter will become an alien term. The companies will derive maximum benefits out of their employees who will look more like deadites.

The growing up kids are the most vulnerable as they are exposed to motion sensing TVs, PCs, Laptops, Smartphones etc and they are drowned in their own virtual world which has become their 'perfect world'. It's a pity that the real world doesn't seem to exist for them.

Decades back, parents pull their children inside the home for playing too much outdoors. Now-a-days, parents are pulling out their reluctant kids from inside the room to outdoor to play and mingle with mother nature. See the difference which is happening within a few years. A century or so from now, many will be couch potatoes with less and less physical work and more and more sedentary works.

Obesity will be the most widespread phenomenon. With technological marvels surrounding them, the children of now-a-days possess little to nil basic courtesy towards their elders also, the price of technology we are paying.

Another predicament of the virtual world overshadowing the real world is the conflict between the need to belong to a group and the need to be seen as an individual which is the dominant struggle of adolescence. Since adolescence is a turning point in a person's life, they often suffer from identity crisis because of complexities faced during the transition from childhood to teenage as they walk towards the virtual path in their journey of life.

They crave for a sense of freedom but usually don't realise the responsibility that comes along with it. This is the time when children of this age group usually get confused when real world society doesn't seem to exist to them.

The bonding between mankind and nature seems non existent where the law of nature is not followed. Compassion, kindness, humaneness, taking care of each other has become history. This is where holistic education will comes to the rescue where moral and human values are inculcated since a young age.

Our brains should not only become a store house of knowledge. Our brains must be used for creativity, philosophical thinking followed with recreation and relaxation.

Otherwise we are heading towards an uncertain world, a world of no camaraderie, a world devoid of laughter, a world sans real happiness.