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Teaching In The Age Of Distraction Summary

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Alive But Not Living A relatively new epidemic is threatening everything we treasure most. Unlike the Black Plague long ago this epidemic very slowly takes its course. Although it’s something that does not kill you, it also does not let you live. Technology is taking away everything we hold dear. Sherry Turkle warns in her essay, “Teaching In The Age Of Distraction,” published in The Chronicle Review, of the skills and abilities we are losing to technology. She cautions, “When you train your brain to multitask as your default approach — when you choose hyper attention — you won’t be able to focus even when you want to” (Turkle). This is extremely frightening because we need to have the ability to focus in every part of life. A hindered education and career issues are terrifying to comprehend. However, what is most troubling is the inability to listen to one’s own children in the future. With that being said, Sherry Turkle’s stance on the issue of technology is clear and easy to understand. To say Turkle is a credible source would be the understatement of the year. The author is the professor of social studies of science and technology at MIT. As if that is not enough, Turkle also holds a BA in Social Studies and a Ph.D. in Sociology and Personality Psychology at Harvard University. With an abundant amount of credibility to back her, Turkle does an excellent job diagnosing and …show more content…

When used in moderation technology has the power to be very beneficial. The internet has a vast amount of information and is often needed to do a number of tasks. Even Turkle claims laptops and smartphones don’t need to be removed. This is because they are a part of our creative lives. As Sherry Turkle says, “The goal is to use them with greater intention, to live with them in greater harmony.” Sadly this is not the case and many tend to abuse the advantage they

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Technology Takeover Technology is taking over the lives of peoples in many ways and for many reasons as shown in “Taking Multitasking to Task” by Mark Harris and Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury. The idea that technology would one day be indispensable in our lives seemed like a far fetch idea years ago, however today, rarely is there an hour where humans are not using technology in one form or another. Certain characters in Fahrenheit 451 exhibit the unintended consequences of the overuse of technology. These effects are also present in our own lives and society. Mark Harris opened up about his issues in the past about the overconsumption of technology.

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In his book Smarter Than You Think, Clive Thompson aims to persuade the readers into believing that technology has had a positive impact on our society and the World as a whole. He claims that technology has improved our retention rates, allows us to write and think with global audiences and even improves our senses. How does he persuade us to believe his claims? He gives us many examples of people and their inventions, and how these inventions have had positive impacts on our society. One example he gives us is Ory Okolloh, a woman who created a website that played an important role during the disputed presidential elections in Kenya in 2007.

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In Sherry Turkle's essay "How Computers Change the Way We Think", she is speaking to the teachers and the citizens. She say, "As educators and citizens, we must ask ourselves, whether current technology is leading us in directions that serve our human purposes"

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Nicholas Carr, What the Internet is doing to Our Brains The Shallows (2010) asserts that, “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation.” He supports this assertion by saying, “They both ultimately achieve their mental and behavioral effects by shaping the synaptic organization of the brain.” Also by, “ We long to keep it activated.” The writer concludes in order for people to improve their thoughts, they will have to cope with the new technology and how they think. Carr believes that technology is taking over how people interact with each other.

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Clay Shirky, the author of “Does the internet make you smarter?” wrote about how ignorance has poisoned the internet with incorrect information. Not only does technology has its flaws, but so do books and novels dating back to the Protestant Reformation. Even though many people are against the internet Shirky reassures that if used correctly and appropriately, then it can become a very useful tool that can “tap our cognitive surplus”. The increased collaboration of technology is important to society for the reason that the internet is full of valuable knowledge that can be claimed very quickly and easily. Increased collaboration is absolutely a benefit.

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Sherry Turkle argues that the dependency on technology in society eliminates the ability to communicate in her essay “the flight of the conversation.” Similarly, Paul Barnwell criticizes societies’ technological dependence but narrows the conversation to the current generation of high school students in his essay, “My Students Don’t Know How to Have a Conversation.” While both authors intend to argue the necessity for making conversation ultimately Turkle better identifies the issue and reaches a wider audience. In incorporating a variety of examples in her essay, Turkle asserts that technological dependency is shaping our world.

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The internet has made it so much easier to find new information, if only we wouldn 't get so sidetracked. There is no reason to get rid of the use of technology, but we need to find a way for us to discipline ourselves to only use it for our

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I agree with her opinion of people not paying too much attention to the face to face communication. I have been in the situation were everybody is on the cell phone and not paying attention to each other. Turkle argument is so relatable to the people who use technology. Turkle is not completely against technology. She is trying to make an insight on the negative aspects of technology.

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Sue Honoré, an independent learning consultant who has studied people who were born from 1982 to 2002 has that “while young people are "undoubtedly capable of long periods of concentration", those who spend a lot of time alone using technology tend to have less in the way of communication skills, self-awareness and emotional intelligence”. It has been proven that around 31 nations that students who used computers everyday in class had lower test scores in reading and math than students who don’t use them as much (Study: Students Who Use in School Doesn’t Help Test Scores). Though technology is amazing and has given so many people different opportunities they would’ve never had before it is resulting in a few bad habits for students. Casey Schools systems around the United States have begun to rely on technology to teach their students instead of teachers to teach them. According Michael Godsey, a veteran high-school English educator, even said and agreed with many people today that we are at the point in time where since we have the internet at our fingertips, there is really no need for teachers

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People rely on technology for many things. Phones, laptops, and tablets can be used for social networking, researching for a school assignments, to quickly looking up information

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Imagine living in a world without any internet. Imagine the amount of trouble a person would require to go through in order to find out the simplest things. The internet nowadays has become an essential part of almost every human being’s life. Cutting the internet off for just one day my actually leave the world in a state of commotion. Every type of technology may be used in either a way that benefit’s a person, or a way that may harm a person.

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Internet is changing our lifestyle which includes work, producing and consuming. The creative potential release by digital technologies is also boosting questions about rules and ethics, as well as social benefits

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In conclusion, technology can have negative impacts on today’s people in many ways. It is harmful to people’s well-being, makes people lose physical connections with those around them, and it makes students disregard their work. Technology is everywhere in today’s society. These devices can be so harmful to people without them even knowing it. People should be more aware of what technology can do, and try their best not to depend on

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It has improved people’s jobs, practically in fields such as construction and design, and education through Internet access. Technology has many benefits; however, is all that technology good for people’s health? Is using a cellphone or computer all day long worth it? Overusing technology can cause mild to serious problems. According to Soltan (n.d.) of Digital Responsibility, “Technology can have a large impact on users ' mental and physical health.

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"Technology is like art. It is a soaring exercise of the human imagination". Like everything in this world that has its good and bad effects on us, technology does too. How we use technology is important in determining what results it would bring us. Nowadays, technology is heavily used for educational purposes.

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