Effects of Humans' Dependence on Technology

In 2011, Betsy Sparrow’s experiment tested college students on a number of different levels of retaining information. For the second experiment, participants were asked to read and type phrases into the computer and told to remember the phrases. Some were told their phrases would be retrievable, and others that their phrases would be not be saved. In regard to those that were told their phrases would be saved, she stated, “Participants apparently did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statements they had read.” (777). She points out that all participants were asked to remember the phrase, therefore that specific request had no bearing on the results. “Participants were more affected by the cue that information would or would not be available to them later, regardless of whether they thought they would be tested on it.” (777). Google, and other search engines, are slowly replacing the internal memory functions of encoding, storage, and retrieval when there is an option of letting a computer do the work.

Over the years technology has become more advanced and it has become a big part of our everyday life. Technology has played some big roles in education, medicine, agriculture, communication,safety, and the economy.While technology has become a big part of our life it has caused some bad side effects in jobs, communication, education, agriculture, and safety.

The internet has revolutionized the world. The internet users can easily access from any data from around the world. However, the internet was also made the users less critical thinkers since the data obtain can be easily found online instead of reading it from a print book. Two sources in particular, Nicholas Carr, “Shallows” and Michael’s Aggers, interview with Clive Thompson “Smarter than you think” have recently argued how the internet has changed our memory and ways of thinking. The internet is bad for your brain because it limits your knowledge of memorization and XXXXXXX .In the book Shallows by Carr, he states. “The arrival of the limitless and easily searchable data banks of the Internet brought a further shift, not just in the way

As I read the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicolas Carr, I cannot help but see the influence of how internet use can affect your thinking ability and create a negative effect on how think. We can use the internet for all sorts of resources in our daily lives but, the problem is that nobody puts the work in anymore and is finding the fastest way to get the “A,” while not grasping the concept resulting in them not being knowledgeable in their field of work. By them just skimming instead of understanding, they are not fully learning. For example, many of us can look at something and not remember what it was that we looked at the following day. This paper will be discussing the pros and cons of Nicolas Carr’s thoughts on Google, and how the search engine turned GPS, email, and so on is affecting the brains of today.

In the article “Does Tech Make Us Stupid? the author Genevieve Roberts presents different views of the effect of technology on our memory. Roberts obtains these views through the results of various studies performed in universities and by quoting a collection of books she has read. Roberts states that the use of technology has caused our memory to deteriorate therfore promoting a dependency on technology to retrieve information.

The most noticeable effect of technology usage is a shortage of memory; not as in computer memory, but human memory. With Google constantly at people’s fingertips, it’s easy to look up information rather than memorize it. Carr cites in his article that tech users "cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful," instead of relying on the internet to quickly search for facts without having to commit them to memory (7). He also states that humans are losing the capacity to ‘deep read’ and cannot unearth meaning in articles the way that they used to in the time of the printing press and less evolved pieces of technology (3). In Gigi and Small’s article, they mention that the prefrontal cortex, or the area in the brain that handles short-term memory, could be altered by technology usage (4). However, Kristina Konidaris, a student who uses multiple technological devices daily, states that the technology does not have a profound impact on her memory. Instead, she states that her memory is more affected by her interest in the subject and her feelings rather than the technology used, although sometimes it may be easier to remember things she has handwritten rather than typed. Also included in Gigi and Small’s

In 2011, Betsy Sparrow’s experiment tested college students on a number of different levels of retaining information. For the second experiment, participants were asked to read and type phrases into the computer and told to remember the phrases. Some were told their phrases would be retrievable, and others that their phrases would be not be saved. In regard to those that were told their phrases would be saved, she stated, “Participants apparently did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statements they had read.” (777). She points out that all participants were asked to remember the phrase, therefore, that specific request had no bearing on the results. “Participants were more affected by the cue that information would or would not be available to them later, regardless of whether they thought they would be tested on it.” (777). Google, and other search engines, are slowly replacing the internal memory functions of encoding, storage, and retrieval when there is an option of letting a computer do the work.

Techno-optimist or techno-pessimist? That is the question. Technology throughout time has no doubt changed our way of life. Travelling to destinations quicker, curing new diseases, or figuring out how to cease a wide famine are examples of how technology has made advances over time. The solutions that scientists create spark a tool that others cannot live without. But what if these technologies bring out negative effects rather than their desired purpose? Sometimes, innovators create new inventions that bring unintended consequences. It could range from less communication face to face, side effects from new medicines, or pollute the earth’s atmosphere.

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.

If you were to ask somebody what a computer was sixty years ago they would look at you look at you puzzled. Now days it is hard to find a household or office in America that does not contain at least one personal computer. With all of this information at our finger tips, we have to ask ourselves if we are becoming too dependent on technology. Imagine if we were to wake up tomorrow with all electronic devices disabled. Everybody’s life would be impacted in one way or another. We would lose what has become the largest portal for communication. We would also lose countless information that has

Are we too dependent on computers? The answer is yes! In today’s society, people use computers in business, education, and in the entertainment world. Almost everything we do and every aspect of our life is affected by modern technology with computers at the top of the list. People obsess over computers. The computers do everything for us so we don’t have to use our brains anymore. People are losing their jobs due to the computers moving into the workplace. They are making society dumber by the day. Society today is too dependent on computers because we use them for everything, we don’t have the social interaction that we once had, and technology makes us lazy.

Technology surrounds us. Like water in the ocean, people are swimming in technology each and every day. From the radio playing a favorite song to a text received about the results of a game, people use technology constantly. However, there is a point at which people are overtaken by technology; when the wave engulfs us and there is no way out. People are becoming more and more dependent on technology. Ever since technology began heavily integrating itself into society, many major uses have developed, but at a cost that brings on dangerous side effects, both mental and physical, as shown by the potential Y2K bug, that will continue unless active measures are sought out by those so dependent on technology.

Since the beginning of time, the human population has strived to live simpler lives. We have spent generations, creating innovations within technology to ensure our lives would always be more simplistic than those who lived centuries before us. People now have the ability to update their Facebook status’, map the human genome to target strands of DNA that can be disastrous to one’s health, send out amber alerts nationwide, and create plants that are resistant to pesticides. Many fields, such as medicine, law enforcement, and entertainment have benefited greatly from advancements in technology which has inevitably changed the way society operates. However, with the abundance of technology available, society has developed an unhealthy relationship where we now rely on technology too heavily. Technology has rendered our minds incapable of the ability to play, communicate, and live our lives in the moment, despite its positive additions to our society.

Technology has changed so many of the ways in which we live our lives, from the invention of the wheel to the advanced systems we use and take for granted everyday. Technology was once taboo in most house holds while people still clung to the idea that life was built on life experiences. Nicholas Carr stated in, Is Goggle making us stupid? "Back in the fourth century, BCE, Plato complained that writing (then a fairly new technology) was destroying peoples memory, yet he wrote dozens of books. For half a century, television has been accused of rotting our brains and making us fat and lazy, but most people depend on it for info, news and entertainment." Technology has changed our understanding of the way things work and

Regina Fleck has an iPhone 7 and she admits, “I no longer feel frustrated or impatient. That emotion now manifests in me as a desire to check my e-mail." (Tran). All around the world, technology has taken over the lives of many, especially children. Each year younger children are being introduced to new technology to help them learn and grow, but the effects of this may be different from what is expected. Rather than seeing growth, the overuse of technology is leading to many issues, including a decline in creativity, less active lifestyles, and difficulty falling asleep. The growing overdependence on and overuse of technology is affecting young children both mentally and physically.