Five skills that we could unlearn in the future

Today, we outsource many decisions by leaving them to our smartphones, for example when choosing a restaurant or taking a walk in a foreign city. The excessive use of technology and mobile devices that are packed with increasingly intelligent software and are always online can not only disempower us, but also make us dependent and, to a certain extent, digitally demented.

The smartphone shows us the way. Not only that. It also tells us where we can find a pizzeria nearby and how it has been rated, and what my "friends" think of it. We trust our "external brains" more and more, because we assume that this gigantic machine in the cloud is not wrong and is always right. The "wisdom of crowds" reinforces this belief. As a result, our smartphones are increasingly becoming "extensions of ourselves". Studies show that many people are so dependent on these little helpers that they react to their absence with physical and psychological discomfort.

In doing so, we are subjecting ourselves to a kind of digital feudalism in which we all end up serving the technology giants. As a result, we no longer really think for ourselves, we leave decisions to the omnipresent technology. In the process, we are slowly but surely forgetting, suppressing and even unlearning many everyday things that were unconscious standards before the mobile computer revolution. Not only that: our brain is plastic - when parts of it are no longer needed, their capabilities shrink.

Five skills we could soon lose

1. learning foreign languages

With the Skype Translate software or the Say Hi app, we can already talk to foreign speakers in our native language. What we say is translated in real time and reaches the recipient in their own language. In the future, we will be able to let our cell phones do the talking when we are on a date or in a restaurant, for example.

2. orient ourselves in the room

In the past, you had to orient yourself on a printed map. Buildings or points on the horizon were helpful. This gave us a sense of where we were. Many people now find it difficult to find their way around a city, for example, or to understand a non-digital street map. This is because they have become accustomed to GPS (satellite positioning) and interactive Internet maps on their cell phones. They are in danger of losing their sense of direction.

3. traveling as an explorer

People used to just set off once and then see how far they got and where they ended up on their journey. Tempi passati: modern people leave almost nothing to chance and rely on YouTube, Tripadvisor, Google Maps, Waze and Facebook. Apps and maps provide us with suggestions for places of interest, hotels and restaurants and their ratings by other travelers. The result: an often misleading microcosm built from social media and their algorithms - data triumphs over intuition.

4. happen to read something interesting

We used to flick through a newspaper or a magazine - today, for people under 30 (the "digital natives"), their Facebook newsfeed is more important than any other medium, and only the news of my friends and my likes - and their sponsors - appear there.

5. be able to write beautifully

Receiving a handwritten letter used to be considered normal. We will soon have to say goodbye to this, as we are heading towards a visual and oral society. We no longer need to write anything by hand; the computer listens to us and follows our verbal instructions. And then there are the gestures we use to control our devices. Why learn to write if you don't need it anyway?

About Gerd Leonhard

Basel-based Gerd Leonhard is one of the world's leading future consultants, futurists, strategy consultants and keynote speakers. In 2006, The Wall Street Journal described the 53-year-old as "one of the world's leading media futurists". Gerd Leonhard is known for his provocative and inspiring presentations and analysis of complex challenges facing companies and executives. His services include strategy consulting for technology, marketing and advertising, telecommunications, culture, tourism, banking, retail and sustainability as well as the future of media and its business models. He also works as a sparring partner and coach for CEOs and as a futurist in residence.