It’s only a matter of time.As much of life moves online, atomized into bits on apps, social networks and a variety of other web products, I’m beginning to notice more and more that I rely on these tools to supplement my brainpower.It sounds melodramatic, I realize, but go with me for a second here.Take my schedule. At work, I am glued to Outlook in an unhealthy way. Like, if I don’t have that little ding go off 15 minutes before a meeting starts, there’s no way I’m going to make it. Meetings come and go and change and happen all the time, but I don’t really pay attention to memorizing any of the details because I know I can always glance at my phone to know what I’m supposed to be doing.I hold a similar unhealthy relationship with Facebook, too. Back in the early days of Facebook I actually really enjoyed logging in every day, seeing whose birthday it was, and writing a little note of well wishes. Fast forward to present day, and I’m terrible at wishing people happy birthday, mostly because the 4–7 of my friends who have a birthday every day overwhelms me! I’m so scared of missing one or two that I neglect all of them. Having the ability to know when anyone’s special day is has put a damper on actually remembering a few of them without the aid of Facebook.Do you know anyone’s birthdays by memory any more? Or have you, like me, lost that part of your memory?In fact, if I don’t write something down with pen and paper (a practice vastly underappreciated IMHO), it feels like it might be lost forever, even if it’s just a click a way.And I’ve actually caught myself using Twitter as a partial brain aid. What was I up to last week? Oh, I’ll just scroll back and see what I was Tweeting about. Or maybe Instagram to my little online scrapbook of what I’ve been up to (or what I’ve shown the world I’m up to).I’m also quite directionally challenged, and rely on my iPhone way too much to get around (though maybe I’m just truly terrible at directions, who knows). But why would I take the time to study streets and landmarks when I’ve got a world’s worth of maps sitting in my pocket? (Side note, are we losing the art of getting lost?)And there’s nothing wrong with all that, I suppose. It’s more that I have a weird feeling maybe I’m relying on technology a little much?What prompted my ruminating on all this was a video I watched asking random couples if they knew each other’s phone numbers by heart. Spoiler: None of them did. I actually made an effort several years ago to learn my partner’s number, but if I had never consciously made that decision, I certainly wouldn’t know it now.Losing these tiny archaic practices by themselves individually doesn’t mean much, but when you add them up, it starts to feel like a bit overwhelming, doesn’t it?This cyborg vs. luddite thing has especially jumped into the spotlight with wearables finally coming to market. Google Glass has largely been seen as a flop, but it shouldn’t be taken lightly that people were literally choosing to wear a computer on their face all day.Or of course, take the Apple Watch (and other smartwatches like it). Yet another device created to fill a need that no one has, but will inevitably become an indispensable piece of hardware that we all must have until smart chips can just be implanted in our brains. One of my favorite writers, John Herrman describes it quite brilliantly:Though I’m sure I will have one within two years.Okay, so I’m not just a grumpy old technophobe either. I see value in technology. Heck, I work and therefore pretty much live online. I like gadgets as much as the next guy.In fact, I rather enjoyed a recent episode of Invisibilia (an incredibly interesting, new podcast from NPR) detailing the story of the original cyborg, a guy at MIT in the 90's who built a very early version of what is essentially Google Glass, and wore it for years. He used his face computer to recall bits of information at a moment’s notice about prior interactions he had with people, like a digital file folder on each relationship.There are of course plenty of examples of how technology augments the human experience. How it builds relationships and gives a voice to the voiceless and has opened new worlds of possibilities. I could (and often do) spend days talking about all the amazing things we can do today that we couldn’t 20 years ago.But, as I’ve argued before, there comes an inflection point where we all should think a bit more critically about the tools and toys we use and rely on. And for me, that day is here.Can you imagine a day where we’re connected to all the information in the world through smart glasses, a smartwatch, and our smartphone?Starting to sound a bit cyborg-ish to me!Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to my newsletter, Net IRL, a weekly roundup of some of the best stories about the impact technology and the Internet has on our everyday lives. I’m on Twitter @joelleeman.From a quick cheer to a standing ovation, clap to show how much you enjoyed this story.lifelong learner, connector and musician. first social, now digital strategy @thomsonreuters. into tech/media/life. 👨🏻‍💻🤷🏻‍♂️Latest News, Info and Tutorials on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Big Data and what it means for Humanity.