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Cami Williams

English 111

Whyman

How is technology affecting us?

When looking at digital technology it is easy to say that we, as a society, would be very
different without it. We are no longer a society of newspapers and radio; today the average
middle class American, along with other middle classes around the globe, indulge in a heavy
doses of digital technology ranging from phones, to TV, to computers or tablets. Because of this
new era of technology many specialists are concerned about the effects of all the screens,
raising questions towards the outcome of the next generation and ,after all, the worlds future.
Although intelligence is hard to measure because of the vast meaning and use of the word and
the multiple types of intelligence, it is safe to say that the world is not getting dumber, by
means of any calculation it is easy to see that we are progressively getting smarter, whether
measuring SAT scores or average IQ scores the numbers just keep going up. But that doesnt
mean that the technological era isnt having an effect on our everyday lives it just leaves the
question how is it effecting everyday lives.

Digital technology is a part of our everyday life; generations today have the ability to
view all the knowledge of the world with a simple handheld device. Not to mention the
hundreds of hours spent each week watching TV and on social media. This overdose of face to

screen contact is having a very powerful effect on said generations, The Pew Research Center, a
public research organization, shared their opinion on the matter;

Google will make us stupid and intelligent at the same time. In the future we will live in
a transparent 3D mobile media cloud that surrounds us everywhere. In this cloud, we will use
intelligent machines, to whom we delegate both simple and complex tasks. Therefore, we will
lose the skills we needed in the old days (Pew Research, 379)

Maybe the change is for the better, preparing us for the upcoming advancements in society.
The end of the fossil fuel era, the fragility of the global food web, growing population density,
and the spread of pandemics, among others-will force us to get smarter if we are to survive
(Pew Research, 378) Nicolas Carr author of Is Google Making Us Stupid and

says I now

have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print
(370). However Carrs opinion of what intelligence is would further explain his article; according
to Carr intelligence is the absorption of information and has nothing to do with how we use
that information. The face to screen contact the world is coming to know might be seen, even if
its in different ways, as a guide to the future. There is also the possibility of technology being
the easiest way for fortune 500 companies to draw consumers to their next big buy. We spend
hours every day scrolling through advertisement after advertisement the more links we click
and pages we view- the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect
information about us and to feed us advertisements. (Carr, 375). This is a fear that many
parents have for the young children that get ahold of their devices, what will they buy?
Fortunately for google it has your whole search history to file through and decide what will

appear as an advertisement on your next page and even better gives us the nstant gratification
of the purchase that we seem to crave.

Another topic of discussion is how technology, more importantly social media, is


affecting people in a more personal manner; such as emotion. Watching news these days could
be compared to a Hallmark movie with focuses such as celebrities personal lives and what
Obama ate for dinner. And when these trifling stories no longer amuse us theres always CNN
to remind us that there is no safe place in this world and everyone is out to get us. Caryl Rivers,
author of The New Media Politics of Emotion and Attitude would state what lingers is the
emotion and the attitude, and at whom these are directed. (Rivers, 398) what Rivers is saying
is that the information and details are not necessarily what stays in our heads, its the emotion
when had when seeing whatever it was being shown to us and who we had these feeling
towards. A simple example of this would be seeing a McDonalds commercial and instantly
craving McDonalds, you may not even remember what the food was you saw but it made you
happy and made you want to visit the restaurant. Could technology be taking away a humanly
right such as emotion?! Now that would be something that no ordinary person could answer,
however it is noted that she mere sight of something can affect someones emotions; think of
the humane society commercials. Emotional responses from media and technology could be
seen as good, in the way that we become more invested in the world around us if we are
emotionally attached. But it could also be bad because these emotions are forced upon us, and
thus it could be said that we are controlled by technology. people have become so
machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine (Carr, 377). As
computers are becoming more and more prevalent in the world they seem to be taking away

even the easiest chores of daily life and before we know it we are depending on technology
more than necessary.

Everyday something new is created, usually meant to make life easier, and changing the
lives we once knew. Disneys movie WALL-E is a great reminder that too much technology,
specifically digital technology, is not good for us. There is always going to be too much of
something and that too much is going to cause a global discussion but rarely a global pandemic.
Weather the technology era was invented to make our lives easier or just to bring in money for
the big companies creating it may always be a topic of debate. But either way we will continue
to devour the next new thing meant to be bigger and better. We are a society of instant
gratification and factions, making every new generation one in the same all working together to
bring us closer and closer to the future.

Work cited

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." Exploring Relationships:Globalization


and Learning in the 21st Century. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 370-77. Print

Center, Pew Research, comp. "Does Google Make Us Stupid." Exploring Relainships:
Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 377-86. Print

Rivers, Caryl. "The New Media Politics of Emotion and Attitude." Exploring
Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 398-400.
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