Every Math Teacher We Had Growing Up Who Didn't Let Us Use Calculators Because "You Won't Be Able To Carry One In Your Pocket" Just Got Stuffed Into A Locker By Apple

Is this good for society? Probably not. In retrospect I can somewhat appreciate the idea of learning math and figuring out how to solve problems and equations. Whenever I asked why we needed to learn that bullshit, the best answer I was ever given was "it teaches you how to learn". Which made sense to me. They didn't try to bullshit me by saying one day I'll need to know how to use the trigonometric functions, but told me instead just to use my brain and learn it as a challenge. Fair enough.

But now...check mate teachers. If you're a math teacher, you are all out of excuses. Growing up they told us we wouldn't be able to carry a calculator in our pockets. Then the iPhone was invented and put an end to that. But for that advanced math shit the iPhone was of no use, so math teachers still had some sort of leverage. Now though, they are fucked. 

I have long been on the side of "we are making our brains dumber and dumber by the day". TikTok, endless doom scrolling, replacing newspapers with Twitter, and now getting rid of the need to basically learn how to do basic math. My generation, the one that did not grow up with cell phones, social media, or instant gratification might be the last generation that has brain cells after the age of 21. These kids these days that grow up on the iPad have no attention span at all and it's only getting worse. 

Maybe we don't actually need to make life so much simpler. Maybe all this new technology is a mistake. Don't even get me started on AI. Yeah it's great for making cartoons of animals performing lewd acts, but it's also going to rot our brains at warped speed and leave us worse off for it. 

Right now...it's a calculator. But who knows what is next.