Do People Need Technology To Be Considered Part Of The Norm?

Technology has always been a controversial subject between conservative people and innovators. Some people believe that it is a great tool to connect cultures and improve education and innovation in our society today, but others view it as a menace in our lives. “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle and “George Orwell...Meet Mark Zuckerberg” by Lori Andrews both view technology as a dangerous tool. They believe in the many drawbacks of technology and the harm it can do to our lives with no explanation of the positive effects it has had on our society. “Our Future Selves” by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen plays the role of a positive look at technology and its role in our lives today. It gives examples of how advancing technology helps us and improves so many peoples’s lives. We can use Schmidt and Cohen’s essay as a lens to view the other two texts and gain a different understanding of what they are writing about.

In Nicholas Carr’s essay “All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machine’s” he brings up the ethical problem of technology. Technology is all around today, but people are starting to wonder if this surplus of technology is starting to make the world less smart. Carr’s primary argument is as technology becomes more prevalent, people are losing knowledge to do certain tasks. Carr claims this is bad because people are putting their lives at risk and dying due to this lack of knowledge. People are starting to get lazier because of technology. They start to care less and think they are gaining something extra by using the technology, when, in fact it is the exact opposite. Carr states, “most of us want to believe that automation frees us to spend our time on higher pursuits but doesn’t otherwise alter the way we behave or think. That view is a fallacy” (5). This fallacy is affecting how people think and how current children are being taught in schools. Children as young as preschoolers are now starting to use tablets and computers for learning instead of having a teacher doing their job fully and actually teaching them. Instead of adding something to a task or helping to get it accomplished technology, “alters the character of the entire task, including the roles, attitudes, and skills of the people taking part” (5). Throughout his entire essay, Carr argues mostly why he believes too much technology could be harmful in the long run, but also states

Clive Thompson’s “Smarter Than You Think” reflects upon the idea that technology is her to help us more than we think, rather than the popular belief that technology is ruining the way we think. Thompson believes that the pair between human and technology is making us smarter. Along with that, our minds are slowly adapting to the use of technology, advancing our thinking. Lastly, the relationship between technology and human, has brought humanity closer than ever with the ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Clive Thomason believes the stronger the bond between humans and technology, the smarter we can become; I also alongside with Thompson believe this is true, and if so us as humans need to embrace the use of

The different methods of communication cause our society to adapt to the incorrect environment, which will eventually cause us to be dumber. Not only is technology making us lazy and less motivated, but it’s also lowering our IQs. According to TNS research, studies have shown that the IQ of the average person living in the United States is lowering because of technology. Technology distractions are everywhere. Even Isla Campbell, who is a researcher of technology trends, agrees. In "Are We Getting Dumber As Technology Gets Smarter?” Campbell says that “society is getting dumber as technology gets smarter” (Campbell). The movie Idiocracy is an example of what the society could possibly look like if we rely on technology too much. In this movie, the main plot involved how technology has been advancing throughout the years, but yet the people seem to be less intelligent than ever before. This movie is entirely fictional, but from how the society acts upon technology these days,

Imagine a world without unlimited access to technology; we as a species have grown way beyond than what anyone could have predicted. Now I ask this question to you reader, what has technology done for you. Everywhere you turn it will be there so why stop the age of expansion when we can expand even more and continue deepening our perception of life. That is why I think the use of technology should be limited in some ways but not fully because we pay less attention to things that actually require our attention, we have become more anti social when we are physically talking to people compared to when we are behind our screen, and it is a “pocket university(Doc 6)” technology ushers a new era of intelligence, and technology can very much so bring back reading

People of all ages suffer from the negative effects of long-term exposure to technology. As technology continues to evolve, the human brain struggles to keep up, and ultimately loses a multitude of once valued abilities, such as the ability to focus, and deep intellectual thinking. People grow severely attached to these new artificial intelligence, that they forget there are other real people whom they can communicate with and share thoughts with. As Fahrenheit 451 has illustrated, our society has evolved to interact with technology on a more personal level, change the way humans interact with one-another, shift the way political subjects are dealt with, and change what the roles of certain people in a community are and how those communities function.

America nowadays is known as one of the most “techie” countries in the world. But, is that a positive note to have in the United States? According to Mark Bauerlein, an English professor and researcher, no. That is, not a great note because “knowledge and skills haven’t kept pace,” compared to what our ancestors (source 1). But that is their criteria. What if we would test them on our criteria? Would it be the same as if we tested on theirs?Technology does make life easier, but it is our choice to do what we want to do with the technology, we can obtain more knowledge or just simply screw around; honestly speaking: We are not the Dumbest Generation.

We no longer are capable to text or email without having to use slang and reducing our words to three letters or less. Society has become so dependent on constantly checking celebrity posts, Instagram posts, Facebook updates, etc. that we no longer have time for hobbies. Technology is stealing from our interaction and socializing skills. Carr states, “But what we too often forget is that information is not knowledge, it's not intelligence, and it's certainly not wisdom. And when we spend all of our time gathering information, what gets crowded out is the time to distance yourself from distractions and interruptions and think deeply about things, think deeply about the experiences you're having, think deeply about the new facts you're learning, think deeply about the conversation you're having” (Smart Technology Is Making Us Dumb). The first humans compared to twenty first century humans were smarter because they were resourceful towards their main goal of survival. The reason society has become dumber is because we rely on technology to think and do everything for

Technology is ever becoming a more complex and integrated part of the daily lives of millions across the world. As technology advances, spreads, and changes, we need to be aware of the impact upon us as well as the rest of society at all times. It has grown to become a part of almost everything we do and has resulted in many positive as well as negative impacts. Some examples of positive impacts are increased efficiency with tasks such as building cars and access to information and some negative impacts include obesity and poor sleep habits. I agree with Clive Thompson to an extent; modernized technologies need to be understood and used wisely at all times and we can expand our intellect by working alongside them but, they don’t give the user an unlimited wealth of knowledge. I disagree with Nicholas Carr that using electronics is damaging humans’ cognitive abilities.

I understand that technology doesn 't always impact our social norms negatively, but in general it leans towards being more negative overall. Technology can even positively affect our social norms, sometimes with social media like Skype, Facebook or Snapchat. I disagree with that side of that argument though, technology most definitely affects our social norms instead. Technology can have crippling effects on our first hand in person face to face confrontations. Technology pulls us away from not only our friends, but also from family, turning dinner into lets all stare at our phone time. Not only that, but technology breaks down both our speaking and writing skills. If we keep letting tech dominate our lives, it

Technology has become a social norm in American society. There is always some form of technology wherever you may go. Technology affects almost everyone in a negative way. While technology continues to advance, school and work performance begins to diminish. Humans tend to get sidetracked when they focus on a certain thing for too long, and this can cause a person to slack off in daily activities. Isolation is also a result of technology; it consumes up valuable time that a person may have with family members, especially if they are in the same room. There are numerous things that are unethical about today’s technology. Some feel that technology is very beneficial to our society. To an extent, it is but morally humans should do things for themselves instead of always depending on some form of electronic for assistance or to satisfy a need. Professors and staff use every aspect of technology especially in classrooms to expand learning and to circulate information. Technology should be used for certain things but not for everything because in the past we did not have access to these things. In our present day, technology is seen as a necessity instead of something that is optional.

In today’s modern world, technology reigns. Millions of people all over the globe utilize technology for a multitude of purposes every day, whether it be at work, school, or even from the leisure of their home. If you were to ask most people in America if they could live without technology even for a day, the answer would most likely be no. Contrary to opinions that are popular with my fellow millennials, I think that society is too dependent on technology. I believe society relies on technology too much because we use the internet for simple tasks that we should be capable of doing ourselves, our dependence has resulted in laziness, and technology is rapidly replacing people in the workplace, thus resulting in less jobs.

Technology is a way that all six billion people in the world can communicate with each other. We can follow people from all over the world on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and many more social media sites. Technology gives us ways to communicate with celebrities, your child that you recently sent off to college or the world, and your friends and family who live in different states than you. Technology in video games allows us to play in multiplayer mode with our friends, while being at our own houses. New advantages with technology is that we can text, call, and use the internet all on one device. Also, technology plays a great role in the medical field. I do not think technology isolates us from society, I think that technology connects us with one another in a unique way.

As far back as I can remember my family and I have taken advantage of technology. The types of technology have changed over the years, along with our usage and dependence on it. Technology is a fundamental part of our lifestyle, including both work and play. What is interesting is that we also have many friends who use very little technology in their day-to-day living. This drastic difference makes one wonder how necessary the technology really is, and whether or not our dependence on it is healthy in the long run. It is really easy to just get caught up in using technology without thinking about the pros and cons.

As I sit here and recall my last nineteen long years on this planet and my various interactions with different mediums of technology, it has become very obvious to me that I, like most people where I am from, have had really no major interactions with technology compared to others in my age group. I sit in coffee joints at night and watch people become more introverted than a turtle, ducking into their little shells of technological safety. They look at you through their faux, so-call trendy DKNY knock-off glasses, dressed in their Abercrombie clothes, hiding behind nothing but the glow of a laptop or in the corner talking to someone on their cell phones which just happens to match what they are