Couch potato brain

I explored the idea of folksonomy in my last post. A further thought.

I will admit that I’m in love with the internet and all of the crazily ingenious sites and applications being developed these days. And the power of tagging content is a great advantage for companies with interesting things to say.

But, I am worried. I am worried about losing my ability to think on my own. I’ve already sacrificed my right-hand muscles and my ability to write properly because I do pretty much everything with a keyboard, and nothing with a pencil and paper (my grocery list is in Excel). Is brain the next muscle to go?

Two sites I’ve been using quite a bit lately have given me reason to pause and wonder this question aloud.

Allconsuming.net is a sharing site that lets you catalog books, music, movies, meals and more. Based on your pattern of likes and dislikes, others recommend new books, music, movies, meals and more for you to consume. I haven’t thought about what I’m going to rent from the video store or borrow from the library in months.

Last.fm is an online radio station that picks up on your loves and hates (by banning or skipping songs that you don’t like) and plays music that it predicts you’ll enjoy. With it playing in the background almost constantly at home, I’ve lost touch with whom I’m actually listening to. Artists, song titles and record compilations are no longer important and I’m beginning to recognize songs by rhythm and tone alone. I’ve been caught bouncing along to what I’ve later found out was a Barry Manilow song; are my tastes showing their true colours?

I can picture the next cocktail party interaction – “What are you listening to these days?” “Uhhhhhhh…I don’t know…”. “What books can you recommend?” “Uhhhh, I don’t think about what I read, a website tells me”.