As an author, publisher and adjunct professor, I can sometimes end up working on my computer for up to eight hours a day. I spend my time writing lesson plans, paying bills, checking email (work and personal), writing posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, and most importantly, researching a wide variety of subjects online. I love to learn new things, and modern technology has made a treasure trove of knowledge readily available to us as never before.

In one of my online searches, though, I recently came across an article written by Peggy DeKay, who is a speaker, author and book coach. Her article discussed a new software application called the Quill. Among its many functions, the program boasts, “What takes a team of researchers or writers weeks of man-hours to assemble, correlate, and compose – Quill can do in seconds!” Come again? Hours of research completed in seconds! At your command, the program can even put a positive or negative spin on the data it interprets. “Quill analyzes the numbers, scans the internet for supporting data, adds the word-frame around the data… Quill can spit out a nifty ten-to-fifteen page article.” Apparently, there are already two other programs called Hemingway and AutoCrit that will do the same thing. What’s to come next?

I enjoy researching. That’s how I learn about interesting things like the Quill. But I’m also convinced that, although the trend is to rely increasingly on artificial intelligence programs, nothing is a true substitute for personal inquiry and research. Encourage your children to engage in research and to expand on their current areas of research. Urge them to go down some “bunny trails.” Some facts are important to learn; others are just interesting. Did you know that Google’s original name was BackRub? Imagine saying the phrase, “Let’s BackRub it.” Thank goodness we ended up with the moniker, “Let’s Google it.” It sounds so much better!

Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Proverbs 1:5 tells us, “A wise man will hear and will increase learning….” Help your children learn to become life-long researchers and writers.

In this fast-paced, artificial-intelligence-minded world, we are losing the human touch and the “feel” of things. Remember when people wrote letters, ones composed in cursive handwriting? The shape of the cursive letters could almost let us see into the soul of the person holding the pen. A smooth, flowing letter might indicate a personality that was meek and mild. Maybe the cursive letters were a bit jagged, suggesting a person hurriedly rushing to pen their letter.

It saddens me that this art form is losing its battle and becoming extinct. CBS recently published a news article that is essentially an obituary to cursive handwriting: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-cursive-writing-dead/ I can still hardly believe it. Will my grandchildren even be able to read the letters I wrote them every year about their parents’ lives from 1 to 21 years of age?

Writing is proven to help brain function. It also helps children retain what they learn faster and easier. If you have time, take a look at this article on the benefits of writing by hand: http://mentalfloss.com/article/33508/4-benefits-writing-hand

Computers are researching, writing and thinking for us. What’s next? I’m afraid to ask.