Convenience in carrying out daily activities has become a fundamental necessity rather than an option for modern humans. In an era marked by the acceleration of information flows and digital transformation, technology emerges as a solution that meets demands for speed, precision, and efficiency. Smart devices, seamless connectivity, and increasingly adaptive algorithms have transformed the way humans work, think, and interact. Ironically, this very convenience has gradually fostered a profound dependence, a civilizational paradox that now demands serious attention from thinkers, educators, and policymakers alike.
Scholars have long observed this phenomenon. In his book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), Nicholas Carr asserts that intensive use of digital technology has fundamentally altered human cognitive structures. Carr argues that the internet, rather than expanding our capacity for thought, trains the brain to shift focus rapidly and superficially, what he calls shallow thinking. This finding is supported by neuroscience research showing that dependence on technological devices strongly correlates with diminished long-term concentration and weakened critical thinking abilities.
The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has further deepened this dynamic. With its ability to process data in seconds and automate various forms of cognitive work, AI has become an almost indispensable partner across nearly every sector of life. This has even given rise to a new workplace phenomenon known as overemployment, where individuals simultaneously hold two or more full-time positions by leveraging AI assistance. The Wall Street Journal (2023) reported that thousands of professionals in the United States secretly manage multiple jobs at once, while platforms like Overemployed.com have grown into online communities uniting those who practice it. This phenomenon reveals how far AI has pushed the boundaries of productivity and human capacity.
Amid this technological euphoria, a collective awareness is emerging: Rehumanize. This concept refers to both individual and institutional efforts to restore the primacy of distinctly human capabilities within an increasingly automated work and life ecosystem. Rehumanize is not a rejection of technology, but a call to ensure that core human strengths—such as empathy, deep creativity, ethical reasoning, and critical thinking—regain their central place, rather than being ceded to algorithmic systems that operate without conscience or human context.
This idea has received strong support from leading global academics. Professor Luciano Floridi, Professor of Philosophy and Information Ethics at the Oxford Internet Institute and now at the University of Bologna, Italy, states that one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is how humans can maintain human agency, the ability to act independently and meaningfully amid the dominance of artificial intelligence. In his work The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, 2023), Floridi emphasizes the importance of redesigning human-technology relations by positioning AI not as a replacement, but as an extension of human capability that remains under full human control. He calls this paradigm human-centric AI, an approach perfectly aligned with Rehumanize: technology that serves to elevate, rather than supplant, human capacities.
Rehumanize deserves widespread adoption, because technology is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it enables humans to complete tasks at unprecedented speeds. On the other, excessive dependence on AI can systematically and unconsciously erode cognitive capacity. When machines take over the functions of thinking, planning, and deciding, the human brain loses the exercise it needs to continue developing. This is what neuroscientists term cognitive offloading, the transfer of cognitive load to external devices which, if left unchecked, will structurally weaken the brain.
Global data increasingly confirms these concerns. The OECD’s Education at a Glance 2023 report notes a significant decline in literacy and numeracy scores among students in various developed countries, correlating with rising dependence on AI-based applications. In Norway, research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research (2023) found that students who rely heavily on digital devices demonstrate lower reading comprehension than those who learn through conventional methods. In South Korea, the government has imposed smartphone restrictions in elementary schools since 2023 in response to rising attention disorders among children. The UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2023) has also documented a strong correlation between high digital content consumption and increased anxiety symptoms alongside reduced focus among school-aged teenagers.
Indonesia is not exempt from these challenges. Microsoft’s Digital Civility Index survey (2022) ranked Indonesia among the countries with the lowest digital civility levels in Southeast Asia, reflecting that massive technology adoption has not been matched by adequate digital literacy. Data from the Indonesian Commission for Child Protection (KPAI) in 2023 reveals that children aged 10–15 spend an average of more than seven hours daily in front of screens, exceeding the global average. Research from Universitas Indonesia (2022) indicates signs of declining concentration and short-term memory among junior high school students who intensively use AI-based platforms in their learning process a clear early warning that national education stakeholders cannot afford to ignore.
These facts should serve as a collective alarm. When technology becomes an addiction, its absence leaves individuals feeling powerless and causes productivity to plummet. Indonesia’s future rests in the hands of its young generation. Government flagship programs from Merdeka Belajar to the Indonesia Emas 2045 vision aim to cultivate a superior, competitive, and character-driven generation. However, conventional programs alone are insufficient to anticipate the evolving anomalies of technology. What is now required is the early internalization of a Rehumanize culture: accustoming children and youth to think independently, solve problems creatively, and treat technology as a tool rather than a master that dictates every aspect of life.
French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time (Stanford University Press, 1998), reminds us that technology and humanity have never been truly separate; they have mutually shaped each other throughout the history of civilization. Yet Stiegler issues a stern warning: without sustained critical awareness, humans risk being reduced to mere functions within the technical systems they themselves have created. In the era of generative AI, this warning feels increasingly urgent and real. It is time to reassert the proper hierarchy: humans as subjects, technology as instruments. Rehumanize is not nostalgia for the past, but a visionary civilizational strategy. In a world growing ever more automated, it ensures we do not lose the one thing no machine can ever replicate our humanity.