Are we getting dumber while evolving as the smartest species?

Did you know that human brains have shrunk by at least 10% in the past 40,000 years? This was a part of our evolution.

You'd be shocked by the reason behind it. Thanks to the tools that are taking the burden off our thinking ability.

Yes! The tool that we developed to make our lives easy is making us dumber.

We're in a smartphone generation. I remember how I used to remember hundreds of contact numbers back in the day when a smartphone wasn't' a part of my life. The tools that were supposed to help us are actually paralyzing us.

Being a Digital Marketer, I come across a ton of tools for even minutest of tasks.

For keyword research, for the competitor research, for generating headlines, for generating 'text', yes, there are tools for generating text for you.

From being someone who relied on existing content for ideas to creating 100% original content, I've realized that if the content doesn't resonate, it's gonna die pretty soon.

There's nothing wrong with using the tools, it's here to make the task easier. However, I find it offending how people are using it.

A tool that's meant to help you with competitor research, is finding people using it to spy on the competitors. The whole point of that tool was to inspire you, not let you imitate. To some extent, the tools are intentionally paralyzing the user by serving the data on a silver platter.

I mean, when I compare the time when unable to think was clear evidence of early death and the time when the same is seen as an effect of the abundance of information & distraction. I mean there was literally a time when we humans had to 'think' for our survival.

Is our evolution going in wrong direction?

I don't want to get into the science of how the brain works & coming back to the point I want to make.

The tools that are making marketing a business easier, is also taking away the human touch from the content that's created to market the business.

In times when automation is becoming the synonym of the internet, I won't be assumed to see automation tools for marketing a business. But maybe I would be too old to give a damn about that.

The crux of marketing is reaching the right people, let alone at the right time.

Now imagine, a marketing campaign which is, what I call, plastic beauty (I use this term to describe a human face behind a ton of makeup, basically artificial), stuffed with element plucked from a lot of tools.

Tools that are nothing but a process, your brain can readily do. All you need is a little focus & a lot of patience.

Again, I'm not targeting tools that can lift wooden planks weighing a ton in a blink of an eye or a vehicle that can take you a mile in a matter of minutes.

I'm specifically talking about the tools that are taking away your creativity. You'd have a couple of names by now. I can't creatively come up with a piece of statistic that can help me decide better. But I can definitely come up with a killer headline that will instantly resonate with my audience.

It comes with practice, & to practice you need help, to begin with. And 'that' help is the tools I mentioned as a creativity killer. As you grow, learn to not use it & use the tool that's shrinking with time.

I noticed this flaw in me when I couldn't remember the spelling of 'white' & 'discipline', thanks to auto-correction, I carelessly typing my mind out without worrying about the mistakes I make in the process.

Now I don't have to worry about the mistakes, (which I make a lot) & hence never get a chance to correct myself.

As digital content creators, let's not fall into the trap of such tools. I don't mean to completely detox from it, but not being reliant on such tools too much.

For example, I'm not good at grammar, I'm pathetic. So, I use relevant tools for that. However, for spellings, I ensure I don't go wrong on the go.

I don't want to serve the content that's fabricated by a lot of tools to the people I want to have a long relationship with.

To conclude, I'd say tools are great when used as tools. You lose an ounce of your creativity every time you use it as a filler in your content.

Don't lose it.