it may not just be the algorithms
If ChatGPT/Claude disappeared I would feel like my IQ dropped twenty points.
I got to my destination three minutes early yesterday and felt proud about it. Like I had accomplished something by beating the GPS estimate. Which is completely insane.
This was a route I have taken probably a hundred times. I still opened Google Maps anyway. Not because I was lost, but to know if there was traffic, how long it would really take, if I should feel good or bad about when I would arrive.
I have been noticing this everywhere. My smartwatch decides if I slept well before I even think about how I feel. With the baby waking us up constantly, I check the sleep score every morning like it is a report card. Sometimes I feel fine but the watch says "poor sleep" and I start questioning whether I am actually tired.
Almost everything I buy now happens online. Going to actual stores started feeling weirdly hard. Why deal with parking and crowds when someone can deliver whatever I need in thirty minutes?
Maybe this is not just about technology being addictive though. Someone wrote about phones and loneliness once. You were not lonely because of your phone, you were lonely and your phone filled that space.
Same thing happened with confidence. Ten years ago you wanted to buy something, you went to a store and they had three options. Now every purchase requires reading dozens of reviews, comparing prices across multiple sites, researching whether this brand is ethical. We started letting other people's data make these decisions because making them ourselves got exhausting.
I told a friend recently that if ChatGPT/Claude disappeared I would feel like my IQ dropped twenty points. We both laughed, but it is kind of true. I have got used to having this thing that can instantly research information I would have spent hours figuring out myself.
I have been trying small experiments lately. Driving places without checking Maps first. Buying groceries in person even when delivery would be faster. Just to keep practicing basic human skills, I guess.
There is something valuable about maintaining tolerance for uncertainty, for trusting your own sense of direction, even when the data says you are probably wrong.