Are My Smart Devices Smarter Than Me?

First selfie with my new phone

My son recently observed that we seem to be slowly upgrading our lives. After over a year of saving we managed to buy a newer minivan this spring. Then we got a smart TV with plans to get a better DVR with our dish provider eventually. And finally after over 10 years of faithful service our cell phone's microphone went out on it so our old Nokia phone had to be replaced with a newer model. We got a smarter phone.

My mom refuses to replace her cell with a sleeker, smarter model. She's afraid a smart phone might be smarter than her. I have to say I'm a little concerned about this myself.

As I navigate through the menu on my smart TV I realize that the booklet that came with it only tells me what the buttons on my remote do. I actually have to do an online search to figure out how to actually use some of those buttons. And as for all the apps. I have no idea what most of them are or why I even need them. So my husband and I deleted some of them.

On my new phone, the best features so far are the easier texting, the camera, (which I've had fun playing with) and the fact I can play clumsy ninja on it. But just the other day my husband had to turn on the voice activated search engine figure out how to do something with it, I've already forgotten what.

1st pic with new phone of my hubby

We normally keep that voice activated stuff turned off on my phone because the idea my phone might be listening to me creeps me out.

Anyway, I can't help wondering if all this newer technology is really upgrading my life or just making me into a drone. I don't want to become one of those people who isn't engaged with others when I go out and about. I wait in restaurants to be seated sometimes and look around to find most everybody is looking at their phones and none of the people around me are talking to each other. But I'm fairly confident that I haven't fallen into that trap yet. Last night when my family and I all went to run an errand my husband asked me if he thought we needed to bring our cell phone. I told him nope. We'd both forgotten to pick it up before heading out the door.

My children are more in danger I think of becoming tech addicts than I am. Which is why neither of them have TVs in their rooms or their own cell phones yet. The phones can wait until they're in high school.

At the end of the day, I don't know if my smart devices are smarter than me. I hope they aren't. But if they are, I hope we figure that out before they do...