Did you know that 168 million Google searches a month are for ‘Google’? Let’s stop for five seconds and allow this nugget to sink in and infuse our brain.

Don’t worry head. The computer will do all the thinking from now on- Homer Simpson

There are actually people who log on to Google to search for Google.

I’ll give you another five seconds.

Picture it: you forget what Google is, and to find out more about it, you Google it. What kind of mental wheels would cloud your brain with such reasoning? It’s not as if you log on to Bing and search for ‘Google’ – no, you actually Google ‘Google’.

Of course, it could be some sort of post-structuralist critique on technological hierarchy – maybe there is an underground movement of thousands of little Derridas who, to give the final death blow to the author and give birth to the reader, add another layer of interpretation to the verb ‘Google’.

It could also be the symptom of a fast-forwarded world – our curious mind is ever hungry for new information and answers, yet we insist on feeding it fast food rather than a full-on meal.

We cut and paste rather than write. We know more and more about less and less.

We do quick online searches – which are effective, but not for everything – instead of investing time in proper research.

And we don’t read much anymore – we eye-doodle and snack on tapas of useless information. Rather than find ourselves in a chapter of David Lodge’s A Man of Parts (yes, since you’re asking, that’s what I’m reading), we lose ourselves and alienate our mind by looking (let’s not call it reading) at status updates, the kind that resemble a soap opera that has gone over the budget.

When was the last time you saw someone read? I bet that when you did, everyone else was looking at the reader with suspicion in their eyes. What is he doing? Reading? I tell you, he’s up to no good.

So read. On this lazy Sunday ­morning, pull down a big chunky book and let your eyes travel between the lines. Because there are always some things you can do better than technology.

techeditor@timesofmalta.com