When Smartphones Get Smarter, Do We Get Dumber?

As Mohamed  Elmasry, emeritus professor of computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, watched his 11 and 10-year-old grandchildren tapping away on their smartphones, he posed a simple question: “What’s one-third of nine?”

Instead of taking a moment to think, they immediately opened their calculator apps, he writes in his book “iMind Artificial and Real Intelligence.”

Later, fresh from a family vacation in Cuba, he asked them to name the island’s capital. Once again, their fingers flew to their devices, “Googling” the answer rather than recalling their recent experience.

However, everything comes at a cost. Cognitive outsourcing, which involves relying on external systems to collect or process information, may increase one’s risk of cognitive decline.

Experts emphasize cultivating and prioritizing innate human skills that technology cannot replicate.

Neglected Real Intelligence

Referring to his grandkids and their overreliance on technology, Elmasry explains that they are far from “stupid.”

The problem is they are not using their real intelligence.

They, and the rest of their generation, have grown accustomed to using apps and digital devices—unconsciously defaulting to internet search engines such as Google rather than thinking it through.

Just as physical muscles atrophy without use, so too do our cognitive abilities weaken when we let technology think for us.

Betsy Sparrow and colleagues at Columbia found that individuals tend to easily forget information that is readily available on the Internet.

Their findings showed that people are more likely to remember things they think are not available online. They are also better at recalling where to find information on the Internet than recalling the information itself.

The study also showed that Googlers often had higher confidence that they had “mastered” the study material, indicating an overestimation in learning and ignorance of their learning deficit. Their overconfidence might be the result of having an “illusion of knowledge” bias—accessing information through search engines creates a false sense of personal expertise and diminishes people’s effort to learn.

Dr. Jason Liu, a medical doctor who also has a doctorate in neuroscience, is a research scientist and founding president of the Mind-Body Science Institute International. Liu told The Epoch Times he is particularly concerned about children’s use of digital media.

He said he has observed irregularities in his young patients who spend excessive time in the digital world—noticing their mechanical speech, lack of emotional expression, poor eye contact, and difficulty forming genuine human connections. Many exhibit ADHD symptoms, responding with detachment and struggling with emotional fragility.

“We should not let technology replace our human nature,” said Liu.

Observing 73 households during their first years online, researchers noted that increased Internet use was associated with reduced communication with family members, smaller social circles, and heightened depression and loneliness.

Manuel Garcia-Garcia, global lead of neuroscience at Ipsos, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, told The Epoch Times that human-to-human connections are vital for building deeper connections, while digital communication tools facilitate connectivity, they can lead to superficial interactions and impede social cues.

While the most advanced technologies, including AI, may appear sophisticated, they are incommensurate with the human mind.

“AI is very smart, but not really,” Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, professor of psychology at Temple University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Epoch Times. “It’s a machine algorithm that’s really good at predicting the next word. Full stop.”

Human learning thrives on meaning, emotion, and social interaction. Hirsh-Pasek notes that computer systems like AI are indifferent to these elements. Machines only “learn” with the data they are fed, optimizing for the best possible output.

A cornerstone of human intelligence is the ability to learn through our senses, said Jessica Russo, a clinical psychologist, in an interview with The Epoch Times. When we interact with our environment, we process a large amount of data from what we see, hear, taste, and touch.

AI systems cannot go beyond the information they have been given, and they, therefore, cannot truly produce anything new, Hirsh-Pasek said.

“[AI] is an exquisitely good synthesizer. It’s not an exquisitely good thinker,” she said.

Humans, however, can.

AI lacks the intuitive capabilities of humans to truly understand the depth and authenticity of emotions, Dr. Sai Zuo, a psychiatrist in medical anthropology and social medicine, told The Epoch Times.

He said that certain aspects of human intelligence transcend scientists’ current understanding, suggesting that concepts like inspiration originate from “a higher level of the universe.”

Many eureka moments, spontaneous inspiration with no apparent source, have served as breakthroughs for science development. While taking a bath, the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes realized that the volume of an object could be determined by the water it displaces, leading him to shout “Eureka!”—a discovery that established the principle of buoyancy. While taking a break, Albert Einstein imagined a thought experiment of two lightning bolts, which led to the theory of special relativity.

Even setting reasonable limits can mitigate the adverse effects.

Russo pointed out, “There’s really not much room to be spiritual when we’re so busy doing.” She added that this culture is saddled with distractions—incessant emails, notifications, and news alerts. This causes our bodies to drown in dopamine.

Spirituality, Russo said, is about rediscovering the meaning of “spirit”—derived from spiritus, the Latin word for “breath.” It’s about slowing down, taking a deep breath, and being fully present in each moment.

Technology can grant huge benefits, and in the future, “there will be many, many wonderful things,” said Hirsh-Pasek. However, she adds that “the human species [has] a social brain—that is who we are. The more we chip away at that social nature of humanity, the more we chip away at our possibilities as a species.”

Liu warns against placing blind faith in digital technology, including AI.

“We only know part of the universe’s unlimited intelligence,” he said, and an overreliance on digital technology risks limiting our pursuit of more profound, unexplainable, and inspired knowledge.

Humans possess a unique spirit, soul, morality, and heart that connect us to the divine. Overdependence on technology threatens to atrophy these aspects of our being, he said.

Moreover, Liu noted that if human morals are lost, we will inadvertently teach AI to do bad things and use technology for wrongdoing.

“Above all, the most important thing is for human beings to focus on their own cultivation—the improvement of [their] human nature.” This includes cultivating “human love, compassion, understanding of each other, and forgiveness.”

He believes these values are humanity’s true strength and the keys to unlocking a future where technology serves, rather than controls, our destiny. The choice, as always, is ours.