Technology has taken power ovevir our generation, and now technology has advanced so much over years that we rely on it unintentionally during our daily lives. Nowadays people spend more than four to five hours on the internet with no purpose. Before in time, people used to manage without having technology, now technology is a necessity for almost everyone. We are so attached to technology that we are not capable of doing anything without it whether it is driving to work with your morning radio show on the stereo or sitting in a couch at your house watching your favorite show on the tv. In the debate “Smart Technology Is Making Us Dumb?” by Inteligence2 debates, we can perceive both positive and negative side of the conversation. The debate focuses on the impacts of technology that supports the motion, and also some reasons that are against the motion. Yes! technology is making our life more easier when it comes to saving us time, also helps many with communication or making any kind of business choices yet at cost. I wouldn’t necessarily use the word “dumb” to describe this situation but I would still consider that technology is taking over part of our mental ability. The truth is technology has become a very negative habit for many of us. We have given machines more power/ potential over us humans and is slowly evolving to become something more bigger. We have become less capable of doing a task quickly in a competition with a machine. Arguably, most of all technology has many more disadvantages than its benefits such as distraction, loss of critical thinking, laziness, loss of communications, and obviously addiction which makes many vulnerable. On the other hand, technology can have few benefits but in a limited use or moderation.
To begin with, Smartphone are one type of typical technology that has easily became available to everyone but has make us more distracted every day. We tend to spend so much of daily time on our phones, to the point we have lost our senses of reality. Nowadays, we see people on their phone every single minute. Even if they aren’t talking on their phones or doing something productive, people are just addicted to scroll down notifications and checking their phones. According to the article Is Technology Making Us Dumb?, “Between the year 2000 and 2016, the average human attention span fell from 12 seconds to eight seconds, a change that most scientists attribute to constant use of technology (Ed: but see this source). Most teachers feel that this generation of students is more distracted than previous years, as well as the idea that technology was contributing to, if not causing, the problem.” 4 seconds might not seem like a large number of difference but it is long enough to make a significant change in your learning ability or life decisions. We are so constantly surrounded by the technology, that we don’t realize how much of distraction it could be to our brains. As emphasized in the article “Texting and Driving” by Megan A. Moreno, “Texting and driving is dangerous because it distracts drivers and takes their eyes away from the road. It is estimated that the minimal amount of time a driver’s attention is taken away from the road when texting is 5 seconds, which, at a speed of 55 mph, equals driving about the length of a football field without looking at the road. It is estimated that teens who text while driving spend approximately 10% of driving time outside of their lane. The first year of having a driver’s license is a high-risk time for crashes and texting while driving is estimated to increase the risk of a crash by 23 times.” Even 5 seconds of distraction off of the road to view a quick text message can cost your life. I have witnessed a similar scenario by my school. It was around 12:30 on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, I was on my way to work when I saw this young teenager with the headphones in his ears and eyes glued to his smartphone’s screen about to cross the road. Without any sense his surroundings, he decided to walk down the sidewalk to the cross the street. After noticing him do that, I immediately slammed my brakes and luckily saved him from any injuries by couple inches of distance. Whether it is on sight or over time technology like smartphones can be distractive and cause you to lose your connection to the real world around you. “A variety of studies have been done that indicate a vast majority of people are suffering from the ‘Google Effect,’ or a lack of memory created by their propensity to rely on technology for answers. Studies have shown that 90 percent of people suffer from digital amnesia. Seventy percent of parents don’t have their children’s phone numbers memorized, and 49 percent do not know their partner’s number.” (Is Technology Making Us Dumb?)
In addition, have become so dependent on technology that we have lost our ability to think deeply and we are losing our critical thinking skills/ creative part of our brains. Couple years ago, people had to use encyclopaedias, dictionaries, books to find the answers before technology evolved so much. People regularly used to read more books in order to expand their knowledge about something. According to How technology Is Expanding Our Minds, “When our ancestors developed language, it altered not only how they could communicate but how they could think… Mathematics, the printing press, and science further extended the reach of the human mind” (Will Oremus). During this time people had to used their brains and put it to practice to learn day by day and expand their mental skills. After new technology was discovered the evolution of phones, calculators, internet more specific with ‘google’ started to play a larger part in our learning strategies. Of course for our generation technology has become very efficiently accessible that we can just pull out a phone out of our pockets and just Google or Siri questions. We always choose an easier route than wasting more time to search something, or reading through a book. Even if it cost you to understand something more deeply and thorny with the explanation of a book. In another words, it is not very convincing stating an exact definition from an internet rather than explaining it with your own creative ideas (thinking outside the box). Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: “How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember and The Glass Cage,” Where Automation is Taking Us, states “It’s not as if remembering and thinking are separate processes. The more things you remember, the more material you have to work on, and the more interesting your thoughts are likely to be,” (Is Technology Making Us Dumb?). Reflecting on Carr’s opinion, it is fairly true that the more knowledge you observe and emphasize on, most commonly critically analyzing a reading could expand your wisdom. Where as I believe article or an audio book online could just make you listen to one’s opinion or point of view. As reading a book you can be more active with analyzing, highlighting, writing notes, looking up words rather than just quickly scanning through an article online. “We have become inseparable from our computers and, as time goes on, we are relying on them for more and more of our daily cognitive functions. The brain needs exercise. When you don’t use it often enough, your abilities deteriorate.” (Is Technology Making Us Dumb?). Comparing the active work using a novel/book to an online readings, a book requires more enjoyable experience that many of us have forgotten over the years.
Furthermore, to make us humans lazier the technology has evolved so much that the effort to finding something on the internet have even become easier using such as using the google voice. In the article, “How technology is expanding our minds” According to Oremus, “Many of us now carry our smartphones with us everywhere, and high-speed data networks blanket the developed world. If I asked you the capital of Angola, it would hardly matter anymore whether you knew it off the top of your head. Pull out your phone and repeat the question using Google Voice Search, and a mechanized voice will shoot back, ‘Luanda.’” The answers have become so easily available to us that we tend to not put any more effort into expanding our knowledge anymore. In addition, we don’t bother to even verify the answers because of our blind trust for the internet/ Google. We tend to believe that everything stated/ provided on the internet these days is correct. “People think they’re smarter because they’re googling, and they confuse what’s on google with what’s in their own brains” stated by Carr (Ed: see this source). According to Carr, people think that they are smart just the fact they can find all the answers on the internet, but the truth is people are not making an effort to learn or search on their own for any answers. We have forgotten to think outside of the box. I have heard somewhere that for us humans our brains are our greatest weapon, and we humans don’t have access to all parts of our brain. Since we have discovered/ created things like computers, smartphones, and tablets we have sacrificed our ability to grow and expand our knowledge.
Also studios shows that our brain turns off the hippocampus when the driver uses the GPS. “Hippocampus is the area of the brain that help us remember where is something located like an object or person.”(Wikipedia) when a driver use the GPS to get to a place or destination, the driver is having less activity in their brain to remember where something is located. “When we have technology telling us which way to go, however, these parts of the brain simply don’t respond to the street network. In that sense our brain has switched off its interest in the streets around us.”(Spiers) We are getting so used to GPS that we are not realizing that we are doing less activity with our brain. “A previous study led by the university showed pops in activity in these areas of the brain as taxi drivers learn to navigate new roadways and landmarks. When participants in the latest experiment navigated on their own, those findings were confirmed as spikes of activity could be seen in the brain scans…Yet as soon as the volunteers relied on the vehicle’s GPS device for directions, no activity was seen. Those areas “switched off” when technology took over, the authors explain.” (Brain ‘Turns Off’ When Drivers Rely On GPS, Study Finds)
At this time, smartphones have became an essential part of our lives. However, it has also became very addicting to such if we don’t have it in reach, we often tend feel lonely without it. Even though, phones are a good source of help, it is evolving into daily destruction for many. Attitudes among people leads others to act or react to their phones the same way. Sort of as a chain reaction. From personal experience, I have encountered something similar; If a friend or someone around me pulls out their phone, I right away tend to reach for mine and start using it unconsciously. In the article, “Are You Addicted to Technology?” by Jennifer Acosta Scott, she mentioned, “The latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that nearly 75 percent of all American households now have Internet access. And 58 percent of adults in the United States have a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center. It’s not surprising, then, that more people are developing what could be considered unhealthy behaviors related to computers and mobile devices, says Lisa Strohman, PhD, a psychologist and founder of the Technology Wellness Center in Scottsdale, Ariz.” There is a large number of people who use technology such as computers and cell phones as their daily routine, and have become unhealthy additive to it. As you can see from the numbers of scale there are a lot of people in United States who have access to Internet and smart devices effortlessly. She also quoted Strohman, “It’s just gotten so much worse in terms of how much technology is impacting my clients… You see kids out at dinner with iPads. It’s ubiquitous. It’s everywhere… Theoretically, anyone can become a technology addict… but people with such conditions as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are more likely to become over-dependent on the Internet. In some cases, the technology addiction may cause these other conditions.” after reflecting on this article I have understood that addiction to technology in modern world is a very serious issue, specially for your health matter. Kids tend to spend more of their time inside their houses playing video games, using their iPads, and watching TV rather than being outside being more physically active.
Some may argue that apart from all the negative connotations about technology there still may be few positive impacts that it might have on our lives. Yes, it does! Technology has made our life more easier and has open many opportunities for us. In the article “Positive Effects Of Technology On Our Lives” states, “Though a real hug and kiss is better than a virtual one technology still brings families closer because in the pursuit of realizing our dreams no matter where it takes us technology enables us to go back to our roots and be connected to what is really important – our family.” I can very much agree because I also have a family in El Salvador, and video chatting/ facetiming them just make me feel a little closer to them because I do not get to visit them often. He also mentions, “Starting from the toy string telephone to the smartphones of today technology has definitely made keeping in touch a lot easier. Mobile phones have become essential because you can now call anyone at any time, anywhere. In fact, even outer space is not a hindrance for speaking with loved ones or with anyone over the phone. Meanwhile, even if in all probability nothing will really prepare us if nature truly wrecks havoc but with our more modern means of communication technology has given us a measure of a chance of survival in case of natural disasters.” Communication has become much more easier and quicker over the time due to the evolution of technology, and also much more reliable for just in case of an emergency.
In conclusion, technology can have some benefits but in a limited use or moderation, however, it still comes at a cost. Disadvantages such as distraction, loss of critical thinking, laziness, loss of communications, and most commonly addiction which can cause many to vulnerable. According to my research, the cons of technology’s impact on our daily life has out weighed the pros for me. A lot of the human/ low-income jobs are being replace my newer technology causing a lot of people debt and unemployment. I believe that one-day technology will be so advanced to make everything much more easier and comfier for us, yet we might lose our ability to many of human connections.
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