Basic Instincts

I’ve been reading a book set during the first and second world wars and it has highlighted to me just how little information people had in those days. They survived in horrible conditions using the most basic of survival tools, human instinct. Today we have access to so much information I can’t help but wonder whether or not human instinct is becoming dulled by mountains of, often conflicting, advice.

Take the ‘experts’ for example. I have already admitted to having shelves full of self help books all designed to make my life easier, make me a better mother, teach me to be more organised or how to win at online poker. Millions of people around the world put their faith in these experts, me included, but most if not all, of these things should be a matter of instinct surely? And of those that aren’t, how many are teachable?

Why would these people know any better than us what’s right for us or indeed our children? Now that we have access to so much information maybe we don’t need experts, everything need is right at our fingertips.

These days we can learn anything from the internet (not necessarily from trustworthy sources admittedly) so technically we could all be our own doctor, lawyer, parenting guru. I know I Google at least ten times a day to find answers to random questions; what is this rash on my child’s arm, how old is Lady Gaga, and recipes for random meals. Even when my mum asks me to help with her crossword, my netbook is never far away (is that cheating? Maybe).

How often have you Googled your symptoms before rolling up to the doctor armed with the latest research into one disease or another? Does it mean we listen to the doctor less and can we trust them if they have never heard of a drug we are requesting?

I recently had to renew our household insurance. A task that pre-internet would have taken a matter of minutes, took literally hours while I scoured the comparison sites, weighing up the pro’s and con’s of each company, before eventually settling, amid an all consuming paranoia that I could have got a far better deal elsewhere. The same with mobile phone contracts, buying cars… we now have so much information and are so well informed that it has not only taken the mystery out of life but also, in some cases, an element of common sense.

Have our instincts become so skewed by knowing so much, having access to so much information, that we wouldn’t be able to survive without it?

Sometimes I worry what would happen to me if I was stuck on a dessert island without access to all these answers, would my survival instinct kick in or would I perish without it? I wouldn’t miss my iPod, or telly, but I would miss my beloved Google.

I know I couldn’t live without Google. I rely on it far too heavily. But it’s my thirst for knowledge that drives it, not necessarily a lack of instinct.

We often have no choice but to put a lot of trust into people we believe know more than us, doctors, politicians, lawyers. All these people tell us what is right for us, what is best for us, how to keep ourselves healthy, safe, protect our assets. But we now have the potential power to check and even question the knowledge of these people we put so much faith in. Are they doing the right thing by us? I wonder whether all this information is giving us a better or worse quality of life. In the book I’m reading the people face a huge amount of hardship, but they seem, more often than not, happy; far happier than we seem to be today as a more knowledgeable, less trusting society.

I have a feeling that that happiness came from an inner trust in their own instincts, something that we have come to question in later years. We have so many people telling us we don’t know how to do things right, that maybe we are starting to believe them. Knowledge is power but sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I realise I am an extreme case. I am a complete info-aholic. I absolutely love knowing things, not because I don’t trust my own instincts just because learning is my passion. I’m not a know all by any stretch, and would never ever profess to know any more than any other person about a particular subject. In fact, rather inconveniently, I don’t tend to remember what I’ve learned, but for one or two delicious seconds I actually do have a level of knowledge, before it unfortunately slips away within hours.

Sometimes I long for the innocence and simplicity of the days before Google, when the only choice of recipes were either kept in memory or a single dog-eared copy of Delia Smith, insurance renewal meant a quick call to your local friendly broker, and if you didn’t know the answer to a question on a crossword you either gave up or waited for the answers next week (none of this hazy “is it cheating” nonsense).

Now, what to do today while the man is off work? The simple answer would be the park. But I have my trusty Google to ensure we squeeze as much fun out of this day of freedom as possible. I just have to choose between 10 different days out, which will take me a few hours, and by the time we actually get anywhere I will be exhausted. Maybe the park would be a better option.