Recently I took a little road trip and stopped by a friend's house in another city. I made it to his house before he made it home from work and just sat in the driveway and waited for him to arrive home from work.
As we were leaving his house I verified that we were heading out the same way I came in and he seemed to be shocked that I had found his house when my phone didn't have GPS, it wasn't an iPhone and I didn't have any maps loaded onto it.
I reminded him that there once was a time when all those things didn't exist and people were still able to find there way from Point A to Point B through some mysterious powers.
Although I had a little bit of fun joking with him, the comments did make me think about something. Are we significantly dumbing ourselves down as individuals by relying on gadgets and other devices to "think" for us. I realize this isn't a hugely serious problem we're talking about, but I began to think of other skills that are being lost.
Can you remember a fraction of the phone numbers you used to have memorized? I don't, all the phone numbers I need are in my Outlook contacts and synch'd to my cell phone. Is spelling and grammar being forgotten due instant messaging, peer to peer texting and email?
What other things do you think we're missing as individuals and as a population?