Steve Ballmer once declared that “the number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.” He assuredly expresses how technology has not only benefited, but has also transformed society to be more creative, diligent, and aware of their potential. On the contrary, technology may have been beneficial to attaining knowledge, but it also ruined our humanity. While the average user, such as Steve Ballmer, may find technology to be useful and important in their daily lives, technology comes to be an impairment in society. It interrupts …show more content…
social relationships, causes a distraction from responsibilities, destroys empathy, and leads users to depend too much on resources for knowledge and information rather than their brains. To begin with, technology is a detriment to society because it limits the interaction between users, leading them to find it difficult to maintain and develop social relationships in their home and community. According to the article “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” written by Matt Richtel, technology can disrupt family life. Daily users have trouble concentrating on their family and prioritizing the people they love due to the addiction of gadgets. For example, Richtel illustrates how a man named Kord Campbell, who is the co-founder of Loggly “forgets things like dinner plans, and he has trouble focusing on his family”. This reveals that Mr.Campbell-who is a heavy user of devices -unfortunately struggles to connect and give his full attention to his family. This obviously is not beneficial for society, and it only creates more stress in an average citizen’s life. Also, the attachment to his electronics is not only affecting Mr.Campbell, but it is also disturbing everyone else in his family. Richtel states that Mr.Campbell’s wife, Brenda complains about her husband's behavior. “‘It seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment’ she says” (Richtel). Brenda also recalls how in the past Mr. Campbell “left college to help with family business [and] then set up a lawn mowing service. At night he would read, play video games, hang out with Brenda and, as she remembers it, ‘talk a lot more’” (Richtel). This proves that technology was the core reason to why Mr. Campbell’s family life became disconnected. Before he was attached to technology, he had a good social life, and as Brenda said, he would “talk a lot more”. Likewise, Mr. Campbell’s 8-year-old daughter, Lily, also notices her father’s lack of interaction with family. Richtel illustrates how Lily, “playfully tells her father that he favors technology over family”. This is not something Lily deserves to experience at this age. Instead of playing and talking with his daughter, he spends more time accompanying his electronics, which seem to be his top priority. Technology has come between Mr. Campbell and his family in such a way that is truly unacceptable. Mr.Campbell is one of billions of technology users, which means that technology has, and is, disrupting billions of families. Similarly, technology also damages an average citizen’s ability to understand and to share their feelings with one another.
In many cases, without being able to empathize with one another, people suffer in isolation, and society is not as spiritually and mentally healthy as it used to be. In the article “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” by Matt Richtel, a communication professor, Clifford Nass voiced his concern, that, heavy use of technology alters the way people interact with each other. Nass argues that “the way we become more human is by paying attention to each other, [and by showing] how much you care”. This informs that as users become more attached and addicted to technology, they become less human, because they begin to lose empathy. To continue, in the article “How Not to Be Alone”, by Jonathan Safran Foer, Foer describes an unusual experience, in which he indicates, lack of empathy. Foer portrays how when he encountered a distressed girl (who was crying next to him), he found himself to be unaware of what to do. Foer reveals how during the situation, “it [was] harder to intervene that not to” but later finds himself on his phone which “[made] ignoring her easier in that moment”, and the phone, “comfortably encouraged [Foer to] forget [his] choice to [ignore her]” Even after knowing between right and wrong, technology dangerously helps the average citizen to forget that they did something wrong and inappropriate at the moment. This is not beneficial for society because it will compel technological users to form a habit of being narcissistic and unaware of the people who surround them, showing absence of empathy. Everyone is always in need of something that another person can give, be it undivided attention, a kind word or deep empathy. Without an empathetic society, so many people would be trapped in loneliness because they would have no one around them to share their problems and feelings with. In addition, according to the article “Technology:
Does It Breed or Kill Empathy” by Marianna Levine, “studies have shown that increased dependence on technology has resulted in the diminishing of empathy by limiting the amount of human interaction that takes place”. This makes it clear that technology is causing the downfall of empathy in society. For example, Levine mentions how “a recent analysis of 72 studies performed on nearly 14,000 college students between 1979 and 2009 showed a sharp decline in the empathy trait over the last 10 years” confirming that as technology advanced throughout the years, human’s were losing their ability to understand one another. If everyone ends up not caring about anyone else in their community, what will become of us?
People all around agree that technology is changing how we think, but is it changing us for the better? Clive Thompson definitely thinks so and this book is his collection of why that is. As an avid fiction reader I wasn’t sure this book would captivate me, but the 352 pages seemingly flew past me. The book is a whirlwind of interesting ideas, captivating people, and fascinating thoughts on how technology is changing how we work and think.
Humans have been creating tools that allow us to be do things that would be otherwise impossible since the beginning of our existence. The ability to use and develop new tools is what sets us apart from all other animals. Yet it seems that ever since these tools started being created there were also people that feared these new tools and claimed that they are bad for the human race. The present fear of new technology is illustrated in the essay “Is Google Making us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr. In this essay Carr argues that the internet and other new technologies are changing the way we think in a negative way. Carr claims that new technology is making our generation stupid. In opposition the article “Smarter Than You Think” by Clive Thompson
We live in a time where technology is at the center of our society. We use technology on a daily basis, for the simplest tasks, or to aid us in our jobs, and don’t give a second thought to whether these tools are actually helping us. Writers such as Kevin Kelly and Clive Thompson argue that the use of technology actually helps us humans; whiles writers such as Nicholas Carr argue that technology affects people’s abilities to learn information negatively.
Humans are becoming more technologically-efficient every day. New inventions and innovations are constantly being made. The Internet is becoming more “reliable” every day. However, how much do we really get from the constant advancement of Internet use and smarter technology? Should we look at their contributions to the world as a benefactor or a curse? The common effect of “artificial intelligence” in the technology we use every day is examined by two brilliant authors, Nicholas Carr and Jamias Cascio. In Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, he explains the effects of the Internet and technology in our society and claims that the overuse of technology is dangerous and can affect how our mind operates. Jamias Cascio, on the other hand, uses his article “Get Smarter” to show the positive effects of technology in our constantly adaptive society claims that technology may just be making our society smarter and more efficient. While Carr and Cascio both use the claim of cause in their articles to provide valid points on how technology affects our society, Carr’s article proves to be more effective because it focuses on skeptical-based evidence and uses a variety of appeals and proofs.
Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has become an essential tool in human life. Technology impacted lives in society by offering a way to “multitask” by using two or more technological devices. Technology and internet offers the facility to do homework faster through Google, while listening to music on Pandora or YouTube. Sometimes, you can even talk on the phone while you listen to music and do homework. All you need in order to multitask is to have all the technological devices needed. Many people consider technology as a positive change in our lives, because of the facilities it offers us. However, many other persons, like Christine Rosen, think that technology instead of improving our lives, it has only changed it negatively. Technology, in fact has provided us with many facilities, however such facilities are affecting our interactions with the physical space.
In the world today, people are constantly surrounded by technology. At any given moment, we can connect to others around the world through our phones, computers, tablets, and even our watches. With so many connections to the outside world, one would think we have gained more insight into having better relationships with the people that matter the most. Despite these connections, people are more distant to one another than ever. In the article, “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk," author Sherry Turkle details her findings on how people have stopped having real conversations and argues the loss of empathy and solitude are due to today’s technology. Turkle details compelling discoveries on how technology has changed relationships in “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk,” and her credibility is apparent through years of research and the persuasive evidence that supports her claims.
Technology is one of the most important things in everyone’s life. Technology improves every day. in regards to today’s youth, they were born with all the new technological inventions as opposed to our parents. In “Quality Time, Redefined” by Alex Williams, published in the New York Times, the author talks about the positive and negative effects on technology. I enjoyed this reading because it related my personal day to day life. Even though some Americans acknowledge that technology is a part of their everyday life, they do not see the negative outcome of technology, they are blinded only by the positive aspects.
The topic of technology and our society has become a very controversial subject today. Many people believe that technology is an essential component of our modern world, helping us to improve communication from farther distances as well as giving us easy access to important information. On the other hand, there is the opinion that too much technology is affecting social interactions and our basic development. “Technology…is a queer thing, it brings you great gifts with one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other.” (Carrie Snow.) The CBC Documentary “Are We Digital Dummies” displayed the pros and cons when it comes to modern technology that we use in the western world everyday.
The opinions of many people vary on technology and the effects it has on today’s society. Some say that it’s more beneficial than anything, others completely disagree, and some have mixed emotions. Would you rather read out of a book, or play online learning games with a possible risk of eye problems? It’s about taking matters into your own hands. 71% of people believe technology has improved their lives. 76% of people completely disagree by saying that technology creates a lazy society and that is distracting and corrupting. Daily life with technology is also another huge issue in society. According to a survey taken in January 2013, people feel their work productivity has dropped 8% in the last year. They also felt that their relationships with their family at home dropped 4% in the past year. The opinions vary, but they are needed to show how technology is affecting different people.
The world is getting smaller, yet remains full of possibilities due in part to technology. Interestingly, the very first emails could only be sent to someone using two computers, literally side by side. Technology dates back to the first manipulations of materials to assist in human survival. There are many definitions for technology, John D. Carl describes technology stating,” it deals with the creation, use, and application of knowledge and its’ interrelation with life, society, and the environment” (Carl, J.D., 2011, p.301). For the purpose of this paper, any instrument, invention, or method influencing and allowing people to control or adapt to their environment, is technology. With the increased availability of technological tools (smart phones, text messaging, image scanning, email, and social media), communication is rapidly changing. Society has moved beyond the Industrial Age and into the Information Age, where the sharing of knowledge and ideas is the new driver of power and world economy. Technology possesses many merits, and as with any tool, it carries drawbacks. Misuse and overuse creates unsavory dependence. This dependence can have adverse affects on people, business, and education. Technology receives vast criticism for reducing face-to-face interactions. Although the information technology of today is widely held as impersonal, it promotes communication; technology reduces costs and leverages productivity by facilitating access to information and knowledge, and augmenting interaction amongst those who utilize technology.
Empathy is instilled in all humans but we show it in different ways. Empathy is feelings people have for one another. Humans show empathy by being compassioned, caring and understanding to each other feelings. On one hand, as technology, social media and cell phones has evolved empathy has been decreasing for each other according to research. Because technology have taken over how we interact with each other people aren’t having face to face conversations anymore. Cellphones and social media have taken the place of the face to face conversations. If we don’t converse with each other face to face how are we able to display our feelings. Technology have taken over some of our lives people have become dependent on cellphones, internet and gadgets.
Technology has changed the way society interacts with one another. While technology has allowed society countless means of social interactions that weren’t possible 50 years ago, and has allowed people to sustain long-distance friendships that would have otherwise ended, the fact remains that technology is still taking over human interaction. Many may argue that this change has been positive. However, there are those who believe that this is one of the numerous social disasters when it comes to technology. It is believed that the changes are ruining the quality of social interaction that we all need as human beings.
Some may argue that technology helps us not feel lonely because technology is the way to escape reality for a bit and the internet can reconnect with our friends and family from around the world. We can save time by “shopping” online and communicate quickly by “email than postal mail” (Franzen 428). We can also communicate via webcam, especially for college students away from their family. It’s a way to reconnect with our love ones and stay in contact with our friends. We want to be “able to share our lives with others” and technology “allows us to do that with music, videos, pictures, and texts” (Arnett 477-479).
Consider a situation where a family is sitting at the dining table, the son pull out his iPhone, connects to Wi-Fi, and starts chatting with his friends on “Facebook”. The father has a Samsung Galaxy S4 in his hands and he is reading the newspaper online and using “Whatsapp” messenger while having his meal. The mother is busy texting her friends. They are all “socializing” but none of them has spoken as much as a single word to each other. This situation can be commonly seen nowadays. Technology has brought us closer and squeezed the distances but in reality, it has taken us away from each other. The rapid growth of technology has brought about significant changes in human lives, especially in their relationships. The latest technologies have turned this world into a “global village” but the way humans interact with each other, the types of relations and their importance has changed a lot. The advancement in technology has brought us close but has also taken us apart.
Is technology controlling us or are we choosing to be controlled by it? This is the question we should ask ourselves when we feel controlled or connected to our technology. It is in our hands to control overuse or misuse of technology. Technology is everywhere we go: stores, schools, households and banks and that must mean it’s good for something. The purpose of technology in general, is to help us have more productive and with less hassles.