Technology is becoming a big part in our society. Nicholas Carr wrote an article called “Is Google Making Us Stupid”. Carr believes that the internet might have a very negative effect on cognition that diminishes our capacity for concentration and contemplation, therefore making us stupid. He argues that the internet has actually affected how human beings process information. He suggests that the internet is dangerous. Jamais Cascio wrote “Getting Smarter” in response to Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid. ” He argues about how technology is not necessarily hurting us, but rather expanding our knowledge.
Cascio believes that technology has made us smarter but there are always things that you must be careful of. Technology, such as Google, has become a big part of society and has had an impact on our knowledge. Nicholas Carr and Jamais Cascio both agree that frequent use of the internet is making the ability to focus, a more difficult task than it used to be. Nicholas Carr, the author of Is Google Making Us Stupid? , believes that information overload by using the internet has caused people’s ability to focus to decrease.
Jamias Cascio, the author of Get Smarter, states that our minds are used to interruption and having multiple things going on at once, therefore we expect our focus to be divided. The ability to focus may be decreasing, but is that making people less smart? Cascio says that, “The trouble isn’t that we have too much information at our fingertips, but that our tools for managing it are still in their infancy. ” He’s basically saying that our brains have to adapt to all of the information we receive by ways of the internet, that our brains will “evolve” to be able to accept these mass amounts of information.
Carr states that people rely on the internet for quick answers and by the process of looking something up on the internet, we aren’t really learning anything. The age of the internet and other technologies have cause humans to just want instant gratification. Is Google Making Us Stupid, declares that people rely on computers and the internet for almost everything now, and that in a way, is making us less reliable on our actual brains and thought processes. Get Smarter states that by our use of the internet and technology that people have a lot more access to different thoughts and ideas, therefore making our thoughts more diverse.
Cascio argues that without the advanced technology that we have today, many scientifical and everyday tasks wouldn’t be able to happen. People have obviously begun to fully rely on the internet and technology to get them through the day, but through those means we have easier access to so much more information than people would have had even 20 years ago. Technology is neither a conceptual flood of data nor a simple machine-like accessory secondary to human intentions, but instead the very manners in which humans engage the world.
Technology isn’t making us stupid or smarter, but it is disconnecting people from the world. In Rogette Harris article “Technology Was Suppose to Connect Us, instead We’re Disconnected More Than Ever” she believes that modern technology enables us to connect to anyone in the world whenever we want. She claims that it's so easy to get seduced by technology because it makes everything so easy. People do not go out to meet new people instead they use social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and etc.
These social media websites allow people to communicate with other people rather than communicating with people in person. She supports her claim by adding that some people cannot go a day without their faces being all in their phones. People spend too much time isolating their selves and disconnecting their selves from the real world in order to maintain the perception of being connected. In Jason Farman article “The Myth of the Disconnected Life” he argues how digital devices are disconnecting people from the world.
The cell phone is the perfect symbol of the always-on lifestyle that leads to disconnection and distraction. Emerging media and technologies have been immune from the critique that they disconnect us from the people and places in our lives. Technology, such as Google, has become a big part of society and has had an impact on our knowledge. Technology is neither a conceptual flood of data nor a simple machine-like accessory secondary to human intentions, but instead the very manners in which humans engage the world. Technology isn’t making us stupid or smarter, but it is disconnecting people from the world.
