Does Technology Affect Us Negatively?

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.

Technology nowadays always use to have so much information at our fingertips, but is this a good thing? That is what Jamais Cascio’s “Get Smarter” and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” both discuss; they specifically address the effects that new technology, such as the internet, has on the way humans think. The difference is that Carr argues that this new technology is making us stupid while Cascio argues that it is making us smarter. Nicholas Carr’s article discusses the negative effects of the internet and technology like it. It specifically mentions slight changes in the way people do things because of the influence of technology and gives many historical and anecdotal examples. Jamais Cascio’s article is about the advancements of technology and how it is makes people smarter. Cascio talks about Twitter, mental enhancement drugs and AIs, focusing a lot on the benefits of the advancements.

Technology is an essential part of the American life and it's constantly changing with the newer generations. A few people view technology as a positive addition to life while others believe it is a negative thing and will take over their lives. Nicholas G. Carr a well known American, the author of The Shallows a novel about the various distractions that come with internet and how people are losing key skills. In the start of the book the negative effects of modern technology on the masses. Carr’s argument is effective and flawed for various reasons such as don't include the helpful advances have improved education, medical field and business.

In the excerpt “What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains”, Carr suggest the Internet is having an effect on

Over the years, technology has developed into something that we cannot live without. Society is constantly being dictated and reshaped by the newest technology. In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, he expounded on the uncomfortable sense that someone, or something was tinkering with his brain. He realized that he’s not thinking the way he used to. Additionally, he explains how our brains aren’t familiar with critical thinking anymore. He also introduces the idea that the Internet is doing more harm to us than good. I believe Carr’s ideas on the negative effects of the Internet are well founded. The validity surrounds us daily.

In paragraph three, he expresses himself stating: “ And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it.” (2) While his statement correlates with multiple examples from his close friends and from research programs that he provided throughout his article, can we really hold the internet accountable for our lack of concentration and our reading deficiency? Carr, does not accept the simple fact, that people that can’t concentrate and cannot critically analyze what they are reading from the Net, are those that have lost their self discipline to differentiate what’s important and what is not. People definitively, should hold themselves accountable for their own defectiveness of reading, and most importantly discontinue bashing of the internet. In addition Carr, also disregards that the internet has giving us all the opportunity to expand our minds and to elevate our creativity which will lead us to continue to embrace innovation and endless opportunities for everyone in our

The uses of technology like computers and cell phones are growing every day with new uses and forms. There are mixed feelings about if technology is making us smarter or stupider thru out day to day life. Nicolas Carr a New York Times writer wrote an article about “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and he tries to show people that computers are making our lives simpler and there for making us as humans stupid. Another writher that goes by the name Greg is a writer for digitaltonto.com, and he found the previous article and wrote “How Computers Change the Way We learn” which is about how all lot of the facts in Carr article could have been read to say anything that the author wanted, so he could make people believe.

Everyday, whether if it’s on the internet or on television, we hear big technology companies battling their way to be the best and that they have the next big great thing coming out that will utilize and change the world. Nicholas Carr, a writer that frequently writes about technology, wrote the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” which was originally the cover article in the July/August 2008 issue of the Atlantic. The author shares his personal experience with technology to support his argument that technology is slowly taking over our lives and our thinking. Nicholas Carr informs his readers about the effect of technology on people in order to bring awareness to technology addicts. The writer attempts to reach his audience, of this generation and the next, with a persuasive and argumentative tone. This essay will analyze several components of

15). This is what makes our brains so susceptible to the the negative or positive outcomes of Internet use. Whether the effects the Internet on our brain is positive or negative, in paragraph 32 Carr expresses that maybe his trepidation of the effects of the Internet is not as significant as he makes it seem. Even Socrates was afraid that when people began writing, they would lose their memorization abilities and become forgetful (Carr par. 32) By pointing out that his idea may not be correct, Carr keeps the essay from being bias for the naive reader. However he then continues his argument with more evidence and examples of how the Internet is negatively effecting us. Throughout his essay Carr always seems to relate all of his support, evidence, and examples to the idea that due to excessive use of the Internet, humans capability of analyzing and interpreting at a deep level of concentration is lacking more than ever

In Nicholas Carr’s news article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (2008), he expresses his concerns on how technology is changing the mental capacity of our minds. The author first provides anecdotal evidence by giving relevant quotes from reputable sources, then he introduces notable historical trends as examples to support his claim, and to conclude he challenges his readers to rethink their views on the internet. His purpose is to inform readers on the negative effects of using the internet. He seems to have a younger, more tech-savvy audience in his mind, as they are exposed to technology at a young age. One can agree with Carr because as technology such as the internet evolve, our minds adapt at the cost our cognitive abilities.

With the rising of technology in the modern age, lots of new inventions have come out with it and it helps our life in significantly. But that growth of technology has also raised a vast amount of concerns, and most of it due to its negative effect on our mind – the users who benefit from it. Nicholas Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” has strengthen those concerns by coming up with the idea that the advance in techonology is influencing our thoughts and behaviors to be functioned differently than the way they used to be.

According to Carr the internet has impacted the way we think, eat, and live very negatively. We have become very dependent of the internet. Throughout the text he hones in on the company Google and how they have access to pretty much all of our personal information. This isn’t the first time technology has “taken over” our lives, Carr proceeds to talk about a man named Friedrich Nietzsche who said he noticed his own writing style change when he started using the typewriter.

1. What role does technology play in US society in relation to bias, discrimination, and power? What specific examples of discrimination related to race, ethnicity, gender, and disability can you see in our society that has been enabled or exacerbated by technology?

What effect does modern digital technology have on individuals who rely on it heavily in their everyday lives? Innovations such as video games, internet search engines, and online databases receive great praise as well as great criticism depending on who answers this question. Nicholas Carr and Steven Johnson have both written pieces stating their opinions on technology’s effect on the human brain. Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” explains how accessing information quickly and easily through search engines like Google negatively alters the way people seek and read information and think. Johnson’s book “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter” covers the positive attributes of digital technology, video games in particular. He explains how video games are intellectually stimulating and help develop complex skills. Digital technology has interesting effects on the different processes of our mind.

Some researchers found that readers were able to learn better when reading from paper while some it depended on if they were engaged readers. For some readers, it was more difficult because their performance was impacted from scrolling which is something that I can relate to. According to the study that was done by Wasteland “Text flowing, up and down a page also disrupts a reader’s visual attention forcing eyes to the search for a new starting point and refocus.” When I am reading from a phone or tablet I always have this issue after scrolling I lose the sentence that I was on and it takes longer for me to read on a screen compared to paper. Taking time to refocus disrupts the reading the text is blurred because you end up focusing more on refocusing than continuing to read. This is one of the major reasons why I choose not to read on screens because there are way too many distractions and I would rather save time and read from paper. There are times when I prefer to read on screen because I like to be sustainable and so some texts do need to be printed out depending on length and can be read on screen but I also like to have physical paper, especially on books and mangas. The author also brings up “E-readers may fail to capture a crucial, generally overlooked aspect of paper books: their physicality.” Personally, I enjoy reading when I have the text physically in my hand and my understanding of the text is much better on paper. Overall deep reading occurs for me when I read from paper and prefer it over a screen. There are fewer distractions and not much effort put into it because all you have to do is flip to the next page and not worry about