THE END!!!

We are finally done with The Shallows!!!! Thank God! I have failed to do a single blog entry until this one and of course it is last minute. Many of the things I questioned throughout the entire book, but as I was reading the last chapter, A Thing Like Me, I came across a quote that I found particularly interesting. It was a bit exaggerated I felt, but I was able to relate to it and think of times where it applied to my life. Carr stated, “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation. The toll can be particularly high with our intellectual technologies. The tools of the mind amplify and in turn numb the most intimate, and most human, of our natural capacities –those for reason, perception, memory, emotion (211). As I read this I took it as him saying that we rely on technology instead of our own instincts and that since technology has given us  abilities we never could have imagined, the use of technology stops us from accessing human traits that we have acquired over thousands of years. Even though the powers of technology are great they are not necessarily superior to human intuition.

I felt that in some ways we are alienated through technology. When you are using a computer you have information at your finger –tips, but you don’t have the human interaction that going to the library gives you. You are limited to your own creativity when using the internet, but say for instance you went to the library you have the opinion and ideas of the librarian.

Carr uses the last chapter to sum up all his ideas and explains one of his main points that we shouldn't just jump right into technology without understanding the effects it has on us.There is such an instant gratification with technology that I don't think people really care what is happening to them and how we are changing by using the internet, and I can admit I am guilty of it too. Carr's opinion is a bit ridiculous at times, but I do understand where he is coming from, though it's a bit exaggerated at times and repetitive. 

I'm glad that the book is over!

-Hannah Rey