People use their technology so consistently that they completely lose sight of what is happening around them, and their interactions with the people around them lessen to what can clearly be a deadly degree. No matter if it is relations with people within a community or simply the day-to-day communications with strangers on a train, the important aspects of people’s social health suffer tremendously when they rely on technology too…
In this article there are several examples of how the use of the web, as well other types or media, such as IM, FB and Instagram have changed the way people thinks. One example is a person who says “Texting and IMing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,” a University of Maryland student wrote after being asked to refrain from using electronic media for a day. “When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life.” (Greenblatt, 2010)…
In the text “Critical Thinking and The Techno-Brain,” Dr. Hiner describes how “we reside in a technological cave so pervasive, so distracting, and so enticing that its very presence in our lives often goes unnoticed” (214). This quotation drew my attention to the role that technology plays in our lives. Our world revolves around the use of technology and connecting to others by digital means. We are constantly glued to our phones and surrounded by images, social media applications, and family and friends who stay connected through the internet. The text made me contemplate the amount of time we spend on electronic devices and how we have become immersed in a digital world.…
Chapter 13 of They Say I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein analyze the ongoing, controversial topic of social media/ technology. The authors organize both sides of the topic by going back and forth and giving different view points. The two sides of the argument are one, that technology and social media "fries our brain" and makes person to person communication more of a problem than what it used to be. On side two, we hear that technology actually brings us together and gives us immense amounts of information that we never had access to before. "You may have heard parents and journalists complain that smartphones, iPads, and other electronic devices that seem almost wired into our brains are destroying our ability to think, communicate,…
Professor Sherry Turkle chronicles the impact of being overly attached to technology in her essay “Growing Up Tethered”. In this essay Turkle interviews may high schoolers on how much technology and being tethered to their phones affects their daily lives. Turkle states that the overabundance of technology and the constant need to be entertained as well as be connected is harming the development of adolescent’s independence. Turkle also observes that being bound to social media causes extreme amount of stress on adolescents as they try to fit in while sculpting their digital identity’s. Turkle brings many of these unfortunate byproducts to light, but she only looks at a subset of high schooler that use this technology the most profoundly in…
The digital age is forming our brains into 140 characters and making us express ourselves in little yellow faces. When we’re bored we go straight for technology. We are more distracted, have decreased attention spans and most importantly addicted. Science has gone a long way and so far has proven that the technology produced from it has mind altering abilities that affect our daily lives.…
In the essay “Our Future Selves,” by Eric Schmitz and Jared Cohen, the authors focus solely on how technology has had an optimistic impact on our lives and society. Similarly, the more technology advances are available the more effective, productive, and creative an individual will become, therefore, making an individual feel more connected and equal. However, in his essay “The Loneliness of the Interconnected,” Charles Seife introduces and proposes an opposing view. Seife believes that the more technology offers us, the more isolated we become towards our surroundings. Due to the abusive use of technology, we have become isolated to reality, to opposing views, but most of all towards verbal communication. Thus, although these two essays demonstrate distinctive views on technology, they share three common views: Technology is creating equality, optimism, and simplicity.…
Technology grants people instant gratification, so they spend more time watching television or listening to music than developing relationships that allow them to have a happy life. In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred and Montag’s marriage lacks emotional connection due to the overuse of technology in their society. Bradbury comments that why did Montag not “by himself an audio- Seashell broadcasting station and talk to his wife late at night, murmur, whisper, shout, scream, yell? But what could he whisper, what would he yell? What could he say” (Bradbury 42). Montag cannot communicate to the one he “loves” due to the continual utilization of technology that prevented him from learning how to have conversations. Without social skills, society in Fahrenheit 451 never fought with each other, giving the impression to Montag that his marriage was content, when it actually lacked emotional connection and happiness. In society today, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted an experiment on how technology affects youth today. According to the foundation’s studies, 20% of heavy media users have a low level of personal contentment and 9% have a high level. On the other hand, 10% of light media users have a low personal contentment and 22% have a high level personal contentment (Foehr). Heavy media users tend to feel more discontent in life due to their lack of social skills that have them feeling isolated from society, leading them to feel depressed and anxious. Likewise, the Kaiser Family Foundation led another experiment that came to the results that among 8-to 18-year-olds, 32% of heavy media users are often sad or unhappy, while only 27% of light media users say they are often sad or unhappy (Foehr). Similar to Fahrenheit 451, society is becoming less content with how their lives are due to the excessive utilization of electronics…
In Sherry Turkle’s article entitled No Need to Call (2011), Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld’s article entitled The Influencing Machine (2011) and Nicholas Carr’s article entitled Is Google Making Us Stupid? (2008), each author examines how technology affects the way we communicate with others and the way we think. Turkle writes about how we are choosing our phones over people and losing out on face-to-face communication, Gladstone and Neufeld discuss echo chambers and how we can easily block out thoughts we don’t like, and Carr talks about how skim reading on the internet has disrupted the ability to deep read. The purpose of each article is to bring awareness to the dangers technology can have on our lives. Each author wants to reach…
Multitasking is the most detrimental activity in the human race. It is used in multiple aspects of life, including technology. Technology is revolutionary. In Restak’s “Attention Deficit; The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” he expresses how today’s society has affected humans to the place where their brains have been rewired. Additionally, in the documentary Digital Nation, the film, like Restak, also shows how technology has affected humans. As a result of technology, there have been many advances in medicine like the creation of the MRI and CT scanners that have saved numerous people from life-threatening injuries. However, technology is also destructive. Continually, countless people have not developed the…
In the Frontline video titled Digital Nation, Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushkoff explored the impact of digital media on today’s society. In the video they cover everything from it’s impact on the brain, to it’s impact on students, to it’s impact on the military. Nothing is spared in this investigation on the effect of digital media, and growing up in a wired world. However the main thing I managed to take away from this film was it has had a dramatic effect on human abilities and communication, which I will be discussing in the following paragraphs.…
Glazed, shambling, distracted. These are words often used to describe the “digital zombies” of the modern world. Many people, including Nicolas Carr, fear that “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation.” In his words, “The tools of the mind amplify and in turn numb the most intimate, the most human, of our natural capacities - those for reason, perception, memory, emotions.” Are the modern digital media we consume today negatively affecting the human race? I believe that this immersion into our technology signifies an ever greater connection with other people. If anything, we are more connected as a society, and more human than ever.…
Social media and the internet in general have created a huge impact on the way we live our lives. The human race has had a dramatic affect with how much we really are distracted because of excessive use of electronics and social media. Many look at the younger generations as the ones who will be extremely affected by this, but the older generations are being affected as well. Many of us enjoy the use and ease of the internet but this is leading to other troubles such as loss of relationships, poor health, and distractions from life. The way the internet…
Ever since the advent of the modern digital culture, there have been some heated discussions on the topic of whether technology is a foe or a friend. Some people argue that it is influencing us negatively, scattering our attention and diffusing our concentration, while others believe otherwise, suggesting that it is making our lives more efficient and convenient. The emergence of such technology not only enhances some of our fundamental cognitive abilities, but also enables us to explore more of what is we are truly interested in.…
In “Will They Call Us ‘Generation Isolations’?,” Diane Schmitt explains that modern technology’s impact on people’s social interaction or lack there of seems to be a mixed bag. According to Schmitt, mobile phones and social networking websites have been some researches suggesting that there is indeed a correlation between use of Internet, video games, and MP3 palyers and reduced face-to-face interaction. For instance, in one study, about 10 percent of who spent more 5hours online had fewer social interactions. The author describes more people live isolated nowadays than the previous generation. On the other hand, the author point out that the latest technology can encourage people to have more social relations. A research tells that people…