Grand Theft Auto (When Auto= Our Minds)

The big deal is this. I searched online “buy sky lanterns in Atlanta in store.” Thank God we don’t communicate with the same sentences we put in Google search. Anyways, the third listed item for that search was for Kayak.com with the key word “cheap” in bold, as if it was proud it found what I was searching for. First of all, cheap wasn’t even in my search, and it was the ONLY word highlighted as relevant. It would be like playing fetch with a dog, so you throw him a stick and then he brings you back a sock. And you know you did not throw that sock. And then you realized the dog is telling you, “I think you really mean you want this sock.” 

This idea frustrates me. Not because of the dog because the dog is not the enemy. In fact dogs are way more loyal than Google searches. So lets get the dog out of there. He’s on our team. The problem is Google’s search engine isn’t finding you what you want. It is telling you what you want.

Next problem. I open Safari (most of you think this in itself is mistake #1, which I understand),  and before I can type “www.” I have already forgotten what website I wanted to type in the URL bar.  The flashy Apple Store home paged popped up, and I was bombarded with a giant pink liver-colored I-Phone and images of sleek metal devices and a white man with glasses dressed in a black longsleeve. I realized in this moment that I had been hijacked. This is why I can’t think straight anymore.

Five minutes ago I forgot a word. The word was “cynical.” I sat there staring at the window for long enough to not care. If you are like me, when you forget anything and begin to concentrate you suddenly feel the urge to immediately give up and stare and pretend to concentrate. So I have been conditioned to want to not think when thinking is most important. I realized free thinking is being taken over because if I’m not careful, someone will put their thoughts into my head before I can come up with something to think about—