Ignorance is Bliss

Having an "external brain" in the form of a smartphone appears to be making us stupider:

"Scientists have begun exploring that question — and what they’re discovering is both fascinating and troubling. Not only do our phones shape our thoughts in deep and complicated ways, but the effects persist even when we aren’t using the devices. As the brain grows dependent on the technology, the research suggests, the intellect weakens." - Nicholas Carr

At the same time, having an "external brain" in any form appears make us calmer and less overwhelmed.

"Because the number of items we can attend to is limited, we need to get things out of our head into the external world, so we can allow our brains to think clearly. The brain evolved exquisite place memory and mechanisms for reminding us of things. And that reminding mechanism ends up today as a bunch of chatter in your head. If you write it down, your brain knows that you've written it down, and it can stop reminding you." - Daniel Levitin, Professor of Psychology, Cognitive Scientist, and author of The Organized Mind

Ignorance is bliss?