Are we becoming ‘fat sheep with fingers’?

As always, something or someone inspires me to write a new post in my blog. This time it is an article in ‘THE HINDU’ dated Nov 17, 2006. This was an article reproduced from the ‘Guardian( newspaper)’. It was about computers taking over our brainwork. I particularly liked the line just below the headline that read – ‘if computers keep taking over our brainwork, soon we will be nothing more than fat sheep with fingers’. Now you know where the blog title came from!

The article is a must read for anyone who has thought, “Oh my God!!! Could I still write an impressive article or piece of text without MS Word?” I personally have thought about it a few times. And my husband told me that he has thought that way too. The writer struck a chord with this article because he drew a parallel of computers taking over our brainwork to how labour saving devices have given the medical fraternity ‘lifestyle diseases’ to deal with. He mentioned about how we hardly lift a finger to do any task and how software is killing music.

I was always proud about my convent education, which I believe has given me the English skills that I possess today. However, I must admit my English has deteriorated in the last few years to a level, which I am not very comfortable with. I think the downward journey has quite a bit to do with computers and also due to the fact that mediocre English is being accepted as a norm instead of an exception. I am sure the latter reason, may not be stomached very well by many people, but I had to say it (as always, speaking my mind!). But this post is more about the former reason. So, coming back to the point. I have many a times thought about how it is a shame that I have to rely on MS Word’s synonyms to get the right word that would express my thoughts. I have been caught between deciding if ‘labour’ and ‘favourite’ should be spelt with or the without the ‘u’. Sometimes, the more challenging task seems to be, deciding between re-writing a sentence according to MS Word’s suggestion or to leave it the way I think is the best way to express my thoughts with the flair and flamboyancy a complex sentence has. Now, that was almost like listing the evils of eating junk food!!!

Having said all that, I must admit that a PC and word processor are very much part of my life as my washing machine or my car. It is so true that human beings always look to make life simpler at the cost of losing sight of one’s direction in one’s life. And then there is the host of ‘side effects’ of such a kind of living. But, think a little deeper and you might end up concluding ‘What’s life without discovering new things, having fun, taking risks and savouring the journey?!’
But of course, we have to be mindful of the impending perils as the writer of the ‘Guardian’ article concluded saying ‘A mental obesity epidemic threatens’. Because, I am sure we don’t want to be contemplating between something like an Atkins diet for a better ‘brain’ or a ‘mindmill’ (similar to treadmill) to get our brain back in thinking shape!