Article Analysis: Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

Technology, Advancing, but Not in the Right Direction It may be technological, but it certainly is not progress. According to British novelist Aldous Huxley, “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” Constant reliance on one resource can be dangerous, because when that resource fails, those relying on it suffer. This can be applied to the technology that is used today. Smart phones, computers, the internet, all technology is no good when service, wifi, etc. is lost. The easiest way to see this is when the power goes out. Aside from being unreliable, Technology also puts strain on people’s lives in other ways. The internet has been found to shorten concentration, and alter the way humans

Tech developers have built ingenious ways into devices to capture attention so they can sell their products. In the article, “Is Google making Us Stupid,” by Nicholas Carr, Carr says “[a] new email message, for instance, may announce its arrival as we’re glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper’s site. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration.”(Carr). Carr’s point cannot be more correct. With each additional distraction, concentration is directed at more and more information, which reduces reading comprehension, as well as the quality of work. The same thing happens in the classroom. Clay Shirky, a professor of theory and practice of social media at NYU, has seen the problem technology poses to learning. What he sees in his classroom is technology competing with the teacher for the students’ attention. In this constant struggle, Shirky said, technology always wins. How can it not? In the choice between learning about the Crimean War, or reading a new text message, the text will always be more interesting (Shirky). When the devices are turned off and put away, Shirky notices that his students are much more focused. Shirky states that he “notices the conversation brighten, and the students become more involved” (Shirky). Only once the distractions are put on silent will meaningful and high quality learning

Face to face interactions have been replaced by technology, and that hurts relationships. There is a lot that cannot be conveyed or expressed over chat or text, including emotion. Face to face interactions are lost because technology is more convenient, and not in real time, which makes it easier to hide things because there is more time to think about what to say. This allows people to make themselves look better online, which is attractive to many. Sherry Turkle states that humans “use technologies to dial down human contact, to titrate its nature and extent. People are comforted by being in touch with a lot of people whom they also keep at bay” (Turkle). What is lost when these interpersonal connections are lost is human contact. Humans are social animals, and communication using the internet replaces real friends with virtual or online friends. No one can claim that those 1500 facebook friends are truly good friends, most are no more than acquaintances met at some long forgotten party or place. So when time is spent on these fake friends, time is also lost that could be spent building real relationships that last. Technology is not a great tool for society. Its drawbacks are numerous, and the changes it brings to the way humans interact are certainly not healthy. This is evident in education, relationships, and concentration, all of which have been ruined by technology. Slowly, as technology expands,