The generational incarceration of today’s youth in a digital database has had some serious impacts on the way we utilize language and knowledge. While it should be regarded as an essential element of development, the youth of today must have a better relationship with how they interact with their education. They must have access to knowledge outside of their bubble to grow, but they must be limited in certain ways so that positive development can occur.

Project 2

Draft 1

There are a few authors involved in the discussion of how technology has been affecting our lives over the past few decades. Nicholas Carr and Sam Anderson both share a variety of viewpoints and list an inclusive scramble to learn how certain technologies impact us more than others. Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, an opening idea that gets brought up is how we interact with the access to almost limitless information. With access to millions of databases, critical on the spot thinking and the ability to have human interactions have been lost to the virtual world. From page 3, it introduces a study about the “power browse” for gaining some amount of information in rapid succession with a minimal effort input. Maryanne Wolf, from a study that Carr interacts with, calls this idea, “We are how we read”, where she worries that the immediate effect in which we aggressively chase is weaking the capacity to how we can deeply interact with a text. Anderson’s, “In Defense of Distraction”, the first paragraph on page 5 discusses the myth that the ability of multitasking, even after thorough research, is merely a myth. I lean to disagree. It continues by describing multitasking is where the brain is in rapid-fire mode just jumping between avenues of focus in a repeated and anticipated way as a myth for something that we need to perform well on a task. Although “multitasking” is challenging to perfectly describe, I think we see it in our lives more often than not. Maybe not in the streamlined way Anderson sees it, but as a subtle, more behind the curtain way. He brings up the driving the car and texting, a very extreme, polarizing combo with a dangerous overlooked potential outcome.

Both Carr and Anderson see the advantages of what technology can provide us. With an ever-evolving society and a drive for advancement that is through the roof, technology has most certainly gotten to a point where it has begun to affect how we see each other and the way we collect our knowledge. We have gotten to a point where learning is more like trying to absorb a block of information instead of being involved and deeply thinking about seeing where it could lead us. A mostly linear growth pattern is seen as technology continues to advance, and so does our expectation of having the access and ability to understand the information to grow alongside it. But there is absolutely a limit in our social existence to how much information we as humans can actually retain, this is where these millions of information databases need be indited, and recognized as our last chance to keep in touch with reality.

Project 2

Final draft

Myths about a digital enterprise

The multi-generational argument of how technology has evolved many times over the last few decades as we move into an age of highly digitized media and electronic dominated youth. Nicholas Carr and Sam Anderson are a pair of authors who share an intriguing selection of viewpoints in which they highlight how certain technologies impact us during the developmental stage of our young lives. Both Carr and Anderson are visualizers of the advantages of what technology can provide us. With an ever-evolving society steamrolling forward for advancement, they believe that technology has gotten to a point where it has begun to affect how we interact with each other and the way we collect our knowledge. In Carr’s passage on page three, he states, “The ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply” (Carr), this is an interesting point on how he views not only from an educational perspective, but also from the perspective of how our ability to recognize a language could decline and not having an ability to break down and apply the write-up of that information. As we continue to study how humans have succumb to the use of different technologies, we see the health of our well-being and mental aptitude severely declining. But through careful digestion of information and the need for patience in learning how to balance the use of devices, we as a society can overcome this to allow technology to change us in a healthy way.

With access to millions of databases, critical on the spot thinking and the ability to have human interactions have been lost to the virtual world. Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, an opening idea that gets brought up is how we interact with the access to almost limitless information. Page three introduces a study about the “power browse”(Carr) for gaining some amount of information in rapid succession with a minimal effort input. Maryanne Wolf, from a study that Carr interacts with, calls this idea, We are how we read, where she worries that the immediate effect in which we aggressively chase is weaking the capacity to how we can deeply interact with a text. Anderson’s, “In Defense of Distraction”, the first paragraph on page five discusses the myth that the ability of multitasking, even after thorough research, is merely a myth. I lean to disagree with this as it continues by describing multitasking is where the brain is in rapid-fire mode just jumping between avenues of focus in a repeated and anticipated way as a myth for something that we need to perform well on a given task. Although multitasking is challenging to perfectly describe, I think we see it in our lives more often than not. We can choose to multitask nearly anything, cooking food and watching a show, or having a conversation but making sure our surroundings are safe. Maybe this is not in the streamlined way Anderson sees it, but as a subtle, more behind the curtain action is nearly always present. He brings up the ‘driving a car and texting’ example, a very extreme, polarizing combo with a dangerous and overlooked potential outcome. But what about writing an essay. Reading and digesting an article and then interpreting it in your own way. Collecting, writing, and editing as you go. Not dangerous in any kind of way, but most certainly could be strenuous and challenges the brain. What about professional chefs, making sure the food is prepared correctly, applying different techniques, assuming that you have given the food enough time to render out, being observant of sharp objects and hot metals, fast-paced people moving all at once around you in a constant controlled chaotic motion. The more I think about it, the more I disagree with this institutionalized “myth” that calculated and precise multitasking is bad. I see it as something less of a complimentary item, but as something we require in our lives to function at the current pace, and where we exist to meet the status quo. During educational periods of our young lives, we develop these skills that pit us against real-world experiences which challenge us to make mostly accurate, but more importantly conclusive decisions on how we would use them in a working environment. This should be deemed as merely a part of the learning stage, even though our decisions and conclusions will change throughout the time spent here, this is where the formation of ideas and approaches are fine-tuned and sharpened so that when we get to the point in our lives where we move from the educational setting to the working environment, we know how to use these techniques as an advantage to further our knowledge and create an efficient work space.

As our society grows and evolves, so does the use of technology which evolves right alongside us. Each avenue of the working environment certainly uses technology different, as a doctor will have a selection of medical devices and techniques that will differ heavily from a lawyer or a professional businessman, but essentially, that idea of technology molding and shaping the way we perform tasks will stay fluid, and if that shaping stagnates, so will the work, people, and the environment it is in. Negatively, if the abuse of technology, or rather the lack of the drive to use technology to aspire, will spread like a wildfire. This is where the authors Nicholas Carr and Sam Anderson play a crucial role in deciphering the way different technologies around us influences our decisions and ultimately, as Carr states on page five in his article, “The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration”(Carr). This intrigues me for sure, it is an important and very relevant topic to how we use or sometimes abuse the technology we have. I, as well as many others, would agree that it is easy to mistake our working time as play time. Especially during a jam-packed semester, having smart phones and computers that go off from an email or text every few minutes that ruin a focused session, yet can so easily help us find a bit of unknown information from just a couple of digitized words and autofill, helps to challenge us in designing our own way of learning and growing.

In the eyes of Nicholas Carr and Sam Anderson, they have both written detailed articles about how the influence of technology has a seemingly negative effect on humans and the interactions with others that follow. Efficiency may not always be the most effective, we, of course, as humans constantly look for the easiest path to the finish line in a race where we already start in a deficit. This is the interpretation of a parallel to how humans have become so addicted to the screen and dragging us away from the necessary exposure to interaction where we clearly have more social impact both as an observer and speaker. Humans constantly want more out of life, both mentally and physically, and we make ends meet to feel the passion for success. Technology will always come with a price, however. As we see it now, abuse is the first term that comes to mind. We constantly make our interactions with others so difficult because of the disconnect we create from constantly being distracted by our devices. Anderson and Carr have seen this, and they have made the effort to create warnings for others so that they may begin their transformation back to reality and feel the passion from healthy interactions with others.

Works Cited

Anderson, Sam. “In Defense of Distraction.” The Best Technology Writing 2010, 31 Dec. 2017, pp. 186–205, https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300165654-015.

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Best Technology Writing 2009, 31 Dec. 2017, pp. 84–97, https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300156508-009.