Can Technology Affect Your Mind?
Tayja Walker
English 1105
Emily Gilliam
February 19, 2011
Can Technology affect your mind?
"iPod+ iPhone+ iPad= iBroke”…and dysfunctional” Has your life begun to revolve around your cell phone? Are you checking your email, texting or tweeting more often than you speak to an actual human? Are you making life and death decisions at the computer. “Should I buy new iTunes or have gas for the rest of the week?” This is a growing problem. People have begun to let technology control their lives. They don’t have the self -control to put it aside and live their lives without it when things become too stressful. We find the need to constantly be linked to whatever may be happening on Facebook, MySpace, our email etc. Studies have begun to show that although technology has many benefits, it can initiate the inhibition of our social skills, cause stress and enable dependency issues. I’ve recently read an article by Sherry Turkle, a professor in social studies of science and technology at MIT. Turkle argues that technology has overpowered our lives and deprived us of the need for human physical and social interaction therefore damaging our social skills. She also claims that we live life as a contradiction. “Insisting our world is increasingly complex, we nevertheless have created a communications culture that has decreased the time available for us to sit and think, uninterrupted.”(Turkle, 2007, pg.273) I believe that Turkle’s argument is fair in saying that we seem to let our technology stress us out, when all we need to do at times to stop the stress is to simply turn it off. I specifically remember Turkle’s opening quote to her article, stating “Thanks to technology, people have never been more connected- or more alienated.”( Turkle, 2007) I agree with her position on the negative effects of technology and the self -control we need to manage it. I will be branching off on why technology is invading our social structure and how the use continuous use of
English 1105
Emily Gilliam
February 19, 2011
Can Technology affect your mind?
"iPod+ iPhone+ iPad= iBroke”…and dysfunctional” Has your life begun to revolve around your cell phone? Are you checking your email, texting or tweeting more often than you speak to an actual human? Are you making life and death decisions at the computer. “Should I buy new iTunes or have gas for the rest of the week?” This is a growing problem. People have begun to let technology control their lives. They don’t have the self -control to put it aside and live their lives without it when things become too stressful. We find the need to constantly be linked to whatever may be happening on Facebook, MySpace, our email etc. Studies have begun to show that although technology has many benefits, it can initiate the inhibition of our social skills, cause stress and enable dependency issues. I’ve recently read an article by Sherry Turkle, a professor in social studies of science and technology at MIT. Turkle argues that technology has overpowered our lives and deprived us of the need for human physical and social interaction therefore damaging our social skills. She also claims that we live life as a contradiction. “Insisting our world is increasingly complex, we nevertheless have created a communications culture that has decreased the time available for us to sit and think, uninterrupted.”(Turkle, 2007, pg.273) I believe that Turkle’s argument is fair in saying that we seem to let our technology stress us out, when all we need to do at times to stop the stress is to simply turn it off. I specifically remember Turkle’s opening quote to her article, stating “Thanks to technology, people have never been more connected- or more alienated.”( Turkle, 2007) I agree with her position on the negative effects of technology and the self -control we need to manage it. I will be branching off on why technology is invading our social structure and how the use continuous use of