Essay on Technology Is Changing the Mind

As time progresses in our technologically propelled era and the internet continues to provide as the largest network source of information, our intellectual perception of information takes on a more distinctive and less analytical approach than before. The use of the internet has seized control over the vast connection of neural pathways in our minds, influencing our experiences and essentially hindering our natural ability to apply cognitive thinking.

Bruce Friedman, a blogger, has mentioned how the Net had changed his mental habits. Friedman has lost the ability to read and absorb long articles, now he just quickly scans short passages. Anything, even blog posts longer than three paragraphs are too much for him he just skims the articles. A study conducted by University College London suggests that we could be in the middle of a change, the way we are now thinking and reading. This study consisted of two popular research websites, one operated by the British Library and the other by a UK Educational Consortium. The individuals using this website only skimmed, hopping from one source to another, rarely returning to a previous source or reading more than two

“We are always in a perpetual state of being created and creating ourselves (Siegel, 221)”. The brain is a product of its ever-changing environment. As certain linkages between its regions are used more or less frequently, their relative strength fluctuates. Many times, cultural shifts, such as the current transition from a print culture to a digital culture, cause the largest effect on the connections within the brain. Because of the overabundance and simplicity of information on the internet, the brain is becoming more impatient and losing its ability to focus and interact at a deep level. As a result, humans must rely increasingly on the internet.

In Nicholas Carr’s book What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains the Shallows (2008) the author explains the cause and effects of the newly made Internet with individuals’ thought processing and the major impact the Net has had on the world. Carr supports his assertion by rectifying suspicions and using evidence derived from experiments and years of research to explain how “the brain’s thinking process is changing when the Internet is a deciding factor.” (Carr, 2010, p. 120) The writer implies that in order for the Net to completely envelop and change our thinking process, we mustn’t forget our original cognitive linear thought processing gained from reading and writing. Nicholas Carr establishes a personal basis to reach out to intended readers to touch all areas and aspects of the study.

“The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr 773). Carr’s point is because people are using the web, it is making it harder for them to concentrate and process information. Carr and Turkle both suggest in their articles that people now have lost the ability to be able to concentrate and to be

Communication with our society and the aptitude for reading has been transformed by the Internet as we, no matter who we are or what we use, adapt to the mechanism of technology and become a less intelligent, shallow community. Due to the many hours we spend on our electronic devices and the fast-paced reading we’ve adjusted to, our brains have become psychologically less perceptive of how the Internet is affecting our everyday lives. We need to make note of our daily habits and how much time we spend online, for the Internet will continue to affect generation after

The internet is our conduit for accessing a wide variety of information. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr discusses how the use of the internet affects our thought process in being unable to focus on books or longer pieces of writing. The author feels that “someone, or something, has been tinkering with [his] brain” over the past few years (Carr 731). While he was easily able to delve into books and longer articles, Carr noticed a change in his research techniques after starting to use the internet. He found that his “concentration often [started] to drift after two or three pages” and it was a struggle to go back to the text (Carr 732). His assertion is that the neural circuits in his brain have changed as a

Nicholas Carr published The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains in 2011 as a result of his own personal experiences and observations of his own behavior. The book was published by W.W. Norton & Company with ISBN 978-0-393-33975-8. Carr began working on the book after he noticed that since the birth of the internet, he did not think in the same ways that he used to think; he was easily distracted and had trouble concentrating on tasks requiring a lot of thought (2011). This effect, he noticed, was not unique to him. Many of his colleagues reported that they too had lost a lot of interest in reading books, had trouble concentrating and were easily distracted (Carr, 2011). What if, Carr wondered, everyone doesn’t just prefer to do their reading on the internet for its inherent convenience and speed but rather, what if the internet was actually changing the way we all think?

The internet is an excellent place to explore our mind and put our thoughts together; however, it also has a negative effect to our brains, and the more we use it the more it decrease our intelligence. In this essay “Does the Internet Make You Smarter or Dumber?” by Nicholas Carr, he argues about the immoral side of the internet. According to Carr, “When we’re constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to forge the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our thinking” (22). Carr’s pint of view about the internet is that it does not make us smarter in any way; if anything it make us dense and slow. Scientific study have shown that most people who stayed on the internet quit a lot are more likely to damage their brains mentally. According to Carr, the internet is also a place to waste our time. Carr backed up his arguments with studies from scientists, researches and even books. In these essay, Carr’s appeals to logic and understanding is the strongest; whereas his appeals to ethos and his appeals to pathos are finite.

Every day the world is changing and things are done differently. Technology has also affected the way students are taught and in which they learn. It has changed the classroom. Technology saves us time and allows us to access material in only minutes. “The Internet and online subscription databases, even as a supplement to the printed works in the library, allow students to see, and force them to consider or reject, points of view that they might never have encountered in decades past” (Gow 4).With all the time technology produces, it also has downsides and it also may have created a less intelligent society.

Where would we be without technology? The number of things that we are now capable of doing is infinite because of the technology we have access to. This technology is also changing the way we think, write and concentrate. Cell/ smart phones along with texting and being able to Google practically everything have all played a role in the way we think and do things in today’s society.

Over the years technology has been growing fast. Knowing human use communication by texting and calling. It’s careless for humans because not seeing each other could cause them to have problems. Instead of going out together and be active they just waste time on their phones. Humans putting a stop of when they have access to their phones so that they can spend more time with friends.

After many decades elapsed, nowadays, the quality of human life is growing better. Human beings always search and invent new things in order to meet their needs. There are not only changes in the way that people dress and behave, but also there are many changes in forms of entertainment. In the past when technologies had not developed much, people usually entertained by getting together to dance, sing, or listen to music; many of them went to a small bar in the community to drink or play cards. Today is completely distinct from the time in the past. With innovative science and modern technologies, the entertainment has become easier and more convenient for all people. Everyone can relax and amuse themselves wherever and whenever with modern electronic devices such as cell phone, tablet, LCD TV, laptop, etc. Therefore, technology has become part of our life. Many people say that we could not do anything without technology; it helps people to make work easier. In fact, technology not only impacts our daily lives, but it also has a strong influence on the criminal justice system. If law enforcement officers apply technology to their investigations, it will assist to make the investigations less difficult and more efficient. So, what has the technology already helped to make an improvement in the criminal justice field, and how has it impacted on the law enforcement?

In our present society, people cannot deny that the changes in this world have been tied to the advancement of the technology. It has evolved with this society so deeply where such conveniences are no longer luxuries but rather necessities. Unfortunately, the most affected group of people from the developed technology is the younger age people (Subrahmanyam, 2000). In the past, children were more lively and active: playing outdoors, running around, climbing trees and remaining active rather than watching television and playing video game and computer. It is true that the use of the technology has its own virtue. It provides value, convenience and entertainment, but it should not take the place of movement and realistic

Remember the days of the Old West? The women walked around with their parasols or rode in a horse drawn carriage and the men rode fast and furious on their horses. Everything you needed was right there in town: the saloon, the general store, and the barber. When one needed to get somewhere, they would walk. If they needed to travel far, there were steam-powered locomotives. As towns and cities grew larger, it was not so convenient to walk everywhere. There was a need for a machine that could get us around to where we had to go. Technology was becoming a bigger part of the times and the machine we now know today as the automobile was invented.