Aninda Halder
Research Paper
We now live in the era of Information. Some also refer this era as Digital age. Even the modern age is long gone. Technology has almost taken over every aspect of our daily lives and successfully helped us transit into this Digital era. But this transition is not the only time Technology played a major role in. In fact Technology has been playing major roles for every single change of era. Technologies have always influenced our way of living and there were also times when it has affected us negatively. The articles “Is google making us stupid” by Nicholas Carr and “Smarter than you think” by Clive Thompson has given me insight on Tech. For this paper I will explore both the positive and negative possibilities of Technology and I will try to predict how the technologies will affect the future generations.
We always imagine Technology to be computer like object with complex algorithm or, something like internet or, space rockets. For the most of the part this description is fairly accurate for this era. For this paper I want to consider the term “Technology” to be anything as simple as a pulley to more complicated computer processors. Any knowledge that has a real world practical application can be defined as Technology. For example, the invention of wheel. It is a technology as it revolutionized the communication methods of the world. Basically technologies are tools that people create to make their lives easier. This is the fundamental goal of these tools. The invention of wheels made our lives easier by improving travel method. In the early days of our civilization, we invented sharp weapon to hunt, we invented various methods of cultivation, ways to make homes. Eventually we developed way more sophisticated tools. Anyway these tools that we created and developed throughout the years has been improving our lives but at the same time it is also taking away something from us. Carr in his article has mentioned his concerned about some of the things that the tool called Internet takes away from us. In his article he claimed that he has been losing his concentration level andbstruggling to achieve the deep reading which was supposed come to him naturally(Carr,2008.) In his case he blamed Internet for encouraging the Skimming habit. Skimming habit is the habit of going through information very fast without getting into deep. Carr thinks that the unlimited access to information often distracts people from getting a detailed singular piece of information. Although Carr couldn’t present any concrete evidence regarding deep reading, It was certainly thought provoking that may be the abundance of information on internet is restricting our deep thinking and creativity. For example, If we don’t know how to tie a bow tie, rather than trying to improvise we turn to google. Then copy someone else’s steps. This kind of behavior does point to the possible lack of creativity but it is not always the case. In the past Human had to spent a lot of time and labor to produce fire. Yes, they invented fire through many trials but in the present days does it make sense to crash rocks on rocks to produce fire where you can just use a lighter. Using the lighter may not be very glorifying task but it is certainly efficient and saves us a lot of time. Now using the lighter doesn’t make me any less creative than the stone age people. What I am trying say is that Technological tools always comes with a price. Now I will go through the different sections of our society in respect to the technological tools and compare the positive and negative sides.
Technology has a great impact on communication. The present day business communications are heavily depended on email and Internet. Messages can be sent and received from anywhere in the world. The social media has become a major platform of communication. The social media is now the very definition of communication. It has turned the whole world into a small village. Also, the social media has given people a voice. They can now voice their opinion out loud through social media. According to Malcolm Gladwell in his article “Small changes” Social media is about interactionism and conversation(Gladwell, p4) Countless people participate in social media to seek change and revolution but Gladwell doesn’t think that social media is capable yet to bring about major change in society due to its lack of discipline and strategy. That is true. Most people has chosen the social media to seek change rather than really being on the street protesting. The higher participation in social media has costed us the commitment level. A lot of people participate in social media but they are not very committed to their cause like before. Social media has allowed people to socialize in virtual world but reality they are getting isolated and un-social. Rather than paying attention what’s happening around them they seem to pay more attention on digital screens.
Technology also plays a big role in our decision making process. The Internet has provided us with unlimited access of information. We can now acquire information faster and easier ways. Researching materials has become easier and students now have the opportunity to learn a lot more in shorter time. Internet also caused people to be more careful in buying products or, stocks. They now can review the stuffs they buy. Also in terms of politics, Internet has made people more active in politics. People now extensively research a candidate before electing them. But Internet also has dark side here. The media sometime manipulates the facts of an event for their own sake. As one have access to so much info that he may find two information completely contradicting each other. As there is no way to know the actual truth, his biased mind will consciously or subconsciously choose a side that satisfies him. For this the actual truth remains blurred on the internet. Just like Carr mentioned that Internet is in some aspects taking away our deep thinking(carr, 2008.) In this case we are just simply taking in what the media feeds us.
Technology also has major impacts on our cognition. Thompson in his article smarter than you think has insisted that Technology has positive impact on our cognition. According to him the technologies are parts of our evolution and rather than being overly afraid of the changes, we should try to co exist with them. In his article he showed that if Human and technologies combined can be more productive and these tools makes us smarter even when we are not using them(Thompson). But Carr has a different opinion where he claims that our brain circuits wove differently while using printed works and works on net. He thinks that technology may have certain abnormal changes in our biological brain causing us to think differently. But in the article “Cognitive processing differences between frequent and infrequent Internet users’ the author G. M. Johnson conducted a research where she found that the test scores of frequent internet users were higher than infrequent internet users(G.M. Johnson). Although the the difference between them was not anything significant but still that indicates the positive changes in our cognition.
I always get fascinated whenever I try to predict future society. There are so many possibilities and uncertainties. We can never be sure whats going to happen. But there are few possibilities that are the most exciting and promising in the future. One of them is the concept of Artificial Intelligence or, AI. Carr imagined the AI as a fictional character depicted from the movie 2001:Space odyssey(carr,2008). In the movie the AI is portrayed as a villainous computer with selfish and brutal emotions. Although the concept of the AI in the 1965 movie was though provoking, the reality is not quite the same. In the article “The learning Machines”, Nicola Jones said that “In the 1950s, when the computers were new and first gen. AI researchers predicted that fully programming AI will be invented really soon but decades have already past and still no sign of full fledged AI.”(N. Jones,p5) An AI with human emotions are really hard to programme. The real world application doesn’t have the tech to inject emotions into a machines. Even in the future it will be difficult job. But it is very possible to add supplement to our brain. Carr talked about the google brain which will allow the wearer of that device to be connected to cumulative intelligence in the Net. We are part of Evolution and we have been evolving both physically and mentally for thousands of year. Although we have limitations on our physical evolution, we always make that up with our mental evolution and all the technological tools that we use are the result of our metal evolution. Just as Thompson insisted that if we want progress, we must accept these tools as parts of us and use them properly. Otherwise we won’t able to keep up with the exceeding amount of information around us.
Nothing in this world is blessed with absolute perfection. As human we have countless faults but that is what makes us human. Everything must maintain a balance. Technology also have two sides. But here we are provided with a choice. We can either choose to use the possibilities to bring progress or, we can exploit the tools for our own selfish purpose. At the end If we stop being afraid and choose to use technology to its full accepting its risks, there won’t any limits to what we can achieve.
Annotated Bibliography
Carr, Nicholas (2008). Is Google making us stupid? The Atlantic.
In this article the author pointed out the negative effects of Internet on our mind. He focuses on how the Internet has changed our way of thinking and how its has played a role in decreasing our critical thinking.
Thompson, Clive. Smarter than you think.
In this article Thompson puts his focus on the Positive sides of Technology. Throughout the article he was really optimistic about the positive outcome of technological change.But there are always risks involved that’s why he told us to understand our own creation. Every tool can serve multiple purposes and by understanding them we can avoid successfully the risks.
Gladwell, Malcolm.(2010) Small Change: why the revolution will not be tweeted. Annals of Innovation.
In this article the author has discussed the reasons on why the social media can’t bring a revolutionary change. He discussed about the things that Social media lacks and why they lack them?
Johnson, Geneieve Marie. (2007) Cognitive processing differences between frequent and infrequent Internet Users. ScienceDirect.
In this article the author presented a research on almost Four hundred students. The research was conducted to find which group is more smarter between regular internet user and non regular internet user group.
Jones, Nicola.(2014, January) The Learning Machines. Nature(vol 505).
This whole article was about the past, present and future concepts of AI concept. The author gave a broad explanation on what AI was thought at the beginning of the information age and he also talked how much the scientists have progressed till now.
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