How Computers Change The Way We Think By Sherry Turkle Summary

Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr and How Computers Change the Way We Think by Sherry Turkle both explore the effects of technology, or more specifically the effects of the internet in society and individual thought. Carr suggests that computers and other forms of technology are becoming of greater value than humans. He believes that humans are losing their natural instincts while everything and everybody are being measured up to the speed and vast knowledge of Google. Although Turkle agrees with many of Carr’s beliefs, Turkle focuses more on the aspect of how society is evolving with technology. She views the internet as a medium that carries new ideas, thoughts, and ways of self-expression. Carr and Turkle both use their essays to explain that although computers can lead to a lack of patience and depth, they can also increase productivity, build knowledge, and encourage acceptance of people from all different walks of life.

By making something easier one can almost always expect to see some losses in the process. Carr explains how throughout time, with every new invention, there were people who were worried about the loss that the invention would incur. (59) He gives examples like how Plato’s Phaedrus Socrates was worried that the development of writing would make people forgetful and “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.” (55) When people stop exercising the mind, its capacity will decrease. Turkle gives another great example of how technology has caused loss when switching from lectures to PowerPoints. He believes that PowerPoint “encourages presentation, not conversation.” (289) In keeping everything crisp and clean with bullets and pictures there is little room for grey areas, it is either black or white. Students do not take the time to question information that is displayed as clear cut