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Effects of technology on education
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Modern advancements in technology are an illusion of improvement, while they distract from important factors in life. Thoreau’s belief on simply living is to take advantage of advancements in society, while avoiding distraction from important topics. Like Thoreau’s thoughts on simple living, technology has negatively affected society through persuasion of isolation and addiction.
Modern-day technology has become a strong influence of isolation. In today’s society it is a common misconception that technology is necessary for daily tasks and communication. Although through the experiment “the solo challenge” where students must go 48 hours without social media, email, texting, or web surfing conducted by professor Richard M. Perloff he explains,
In Sherry Turkle’s Growing Up Tethered, Turkle speaks of a term titled the collaborative self. She defines this term by telling many different stories through the lives of high school students. These students focus on this type of compulsive desire to feel socially accepted or connected. The students speak specifically about the anxiety that results from the feedback they receive or do not receive through their phones. Through Turkle’s stories, they agree that they rely on technology in order to live their lives. She speaks about young people living in a state of waiting for connection and event taking risks to stay connected, such as texting while driving. Although technology is intended to help,
Thoreau states, “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary”. In this statement is is trying to distinguish between the life that he already has and the life that he wants in solitude away from civilization so that he has time to think through the deeper meaning of life.
Turkle argues that technology has fundamentally changed how people view themselves and their lives (271). She reports that, “BlackBerry users describe that sense of encroachment of the device on their time. One says, ‘I don’t have enough time alone with my mind’; another, ‘I artificially make time to think…’” (274). Her point is that people have to make a deliberate choice to disconnect, to exist in their own mind rather than the virtual world (Turkle 274). Another point Turkle brings up is that in this technologic age children are not learning to be self- reliant. Without having the experience of being truly alone and making their own decisions, children are not developing the skills they once did (Turkle 274). As Turkle reports, “There used to be a moment in the life of an urban child, usually between 12 and 14, when there was a first time to navigate the city alone. It was a rite of passage that communicated, ‘you are on your own and responsible.
Have you ever woke up in the morning and asked yourself, “Why am I living this life?” Throughout the book of Walden, Henry David Thoreau questions the lifestyles that people choose; he makes his readers wonder if they have chosen the kind of lifestyle that give them the greatest amount of happiness. Thoreau stated, “Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them().” This quote is important because most of society these days are so caught up in work and trying to make ends meet that they lose the values in life. Thoreau was forced to change his life when he found himself unhappy after a purchase for a farm fell through. On Thoreau’s journey he moves to Walden and builds a house and life from nothing but hard work, symbolizes many different objects.
Throughout Thoreau's “Walden”, he lays out many suggestions that some may take as significant or just senseless. Thoreau brings forth many concepts such as necessity, news, and labor which would benefit modern society. Yet, his views on isolation and moderation are unattainable in a technology-driven society. Even though the ideas that could benefit society may not be totally agreeable, the main reasoning for them are valid. Those ideas of isolation and moderation are clearly not possible in a world where people crave to be social and live to obtain any and everything they want.
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
The Industrial revolution took place from 1760 to 1840 and was controversial in America because it pushed human kind away from nature but created more jobs. The 21st century is like this period of history, for society has become so invested in technology that nature and simple things become less appealing. People’s lives have changed; everywhere someone goes he/she may have some form of technology with them and transcendentalists would argue that this is not an advancement that has helped our society. Transcendentalism is a movement created by philosophers in the 1820’s that has many aspects, but one main idea is that nature is important and allows one to connect with their inner spirit. Henry David Thoreau took part in this movement, and in his book Walden, he shows that getting rid of material items and becoming closer to nature can allow one to live their most fulfilled life.
With the statement, “Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them,” Thoreau is saying that many people in the world, including the United States, are not able to enjoy life because they are too preoccupied with working and earning wealth to buy unnecessary goods. Thoreau believes that men only need four things to survive: fuel, food, shelter, and clothing. However, according to Thoreau, people still strive to obtain more and more unnecessary material goods. To obtain these goods, Thoreau writes, “He has no time to be any thing but a machine,” meaning that men are so busy working to make excessive money that work consumes their entire lives. Thoreau, on the other hand, ignores “factitious cares” such as excessive wealth, furniture, and a large home, in order to enjoy his life and not be forced to live his life as a machine.
Though being exposed to technologies like computers from an early age may have given us the ability to do things more efficiently, technology has also made us less dependent on ourselves. Claudia Wallis, editor for Time, in her article makes known in The Multitasking Generation, “That level of multiprocessing and interpersonal connectivity is now so commonplace that it’s easy to forget how quickly it came about. Fifteen years ago, most home computers weren’t even linked to the Internet” (63). There are many things that students are able to do on their computer that their parents aren't even aware of or that the parents couldn’t do themselves. My parents always tell of how looking through the library’s card catalog and searching for the books they needed only to find out that they have been taken out. Computers have allowed us to do many things faster for example, write much faster than a typewriter or pen and paper and correct typing errors without starting over. The computers and technology we now have makes it easier to almost anything and with technology so easily at your fingertips it o...
Henry David Thoreau, an American philosopher, transcendentalist, and abolitionist, was in many regards well ahead of his time. Few of his works highlights his genius as well as Walden, or Life in the woods. Thoreau writes Walden for himself hoping readers will come to similar conclusions when given Thoreau's personal experiences to think about. This is unlike a preacher telling others how to live, for Thoreau is not preaching, but simply observing. Thoreau’s Walden argues against the barbaric structure of American society, a society that pursues an illusion of progress through exploiting Indians, Africans, and the poor; while he cannot himself end slavery or subjugation Thoreau instead offers self reliance, and living on less, as solutions
Lutfala, A. (2011, October 28). Technology imposes social isolation. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from The Pudget Sound Trail website: http://trail.pugetsound.edu/2011/10/technology-imposes-social-isolation/
In a modern society when technology is developed so quickly, and it helps us contact everyone much easier, but there is a big issue that we can recognize easily. People are dependent on technology so much. People tend to focus on technology stuff with their social network than to talk to others who present in front of them, technology makes people less sociable, and ruins the connection between them, and it creates the isolation.
How much can technology impact your social life? Who would of thought that technology would affect life in such a major way? Little did people know that technology can impact the way humans interact with each other. While listening to music and playing games on their mobile devices, how many people actually get to know one another while standing right next to each other? A small ride on a metro or bus ride will show you just how little interaction goes on in a humans life do to the amount of use on their mobile devices. The role technology plays in socializing has a great impact on people’s interaction. People can be standing right next to each other with out saying one word to one another. While waiting for the next class to start or even during the class, people tune out the rest of the world and this can lead up to social isolation. Technology has had a bad impact on the way humans socialize because it causes people to be less interactive. Social isolation is a health condition that can become very severe and lead up to depression, anxiety, despair and many other things. Social isolation can be avoided if technology is limited to use at only appropriate times as when bored, alone or incase of an emergency you would use cell phones.
In the article “The Flight from Conversation” which describes the effects of technology on human interactions, Sherry Turkle argues, “WE live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection”. Many others would agree with Turkle; technology and its advances through new devices and social media takes away face-to-face conversation. Her idea of being “alone together” in this world is evidently true as many people can connect with one another through technology, altering relationships to adjust to their own lives. Despite Turkle’s opposition, I believe that technology makes our lives easier to manage. There are numerous forms of social media platforms and handheld devices
Reports from students after the study suggest that giving up technology cold turkey not only makes life logistically difficult, but also changes our ability to connect with others.” (Parker-Pope, “An Ugly Toll of Technology: Inpatients”). Her point is that, for the young generation, it is quite impossible to give up from becoming addicted to technology.... ... middle of paper ...