I’ve had
mixed feelings throughout this book. When I first read it I found it dry and
honestly skipped a chapter or two. Once I got a few chapters in I found it to
be entertaining, in a good way. I agree with many of his arguments, since the
Carr War presentations are what I also wrote about. The presenter that argued Carr’s
research was outdated and misinterpreted had very thorough research and knew
what she was doing. However, after completing my research paper concerning
Facebook as a distraction to work, I found it similar to Carr’s main idea about
how the Internet is changing the way we use it, our brain and dependence on it.
I found a lot of supportive
research regarding Facebook so I believe it would be highly likely that if Carr
or another interested writer were to approach theories like these again they
would find even more evidence behind it. Especially since some of his research
was years ago and now the social networking sites have become so popular.
Overall I defiantly see that technology
is changing us, well at least me. This has affected several generations
differently, like my grandparents, younger sibling, my own friends and myself.
My father uses Facebook, he doesn’t go overboard, and he has a healthy medium.
He goes on once a day, just to check updates and update funny posts. Recently
we bought my Nana an I Pad and made her a Facebook account. My Nana is 85 and
she used to work in a mill, now she loves Facebook. I’ll find my notifications
are full from her commenting and liking my page all day long. I know my Nana
uses it as entrainment and to socialize with friends and families and celebrities
she likes to be updated on but she has told my dad that she had heart pain when
her I Pad broke for a week. Then again, she’s older and does tend to exaggerate.
Then I have my younger brother who comes home from school, checks his phone and
plays x-box. When he gets kicked off x-box he uses the computer to check
Facebook, YouTube and whatever else. When he gets kicked off that and he finds his
phone and texts, uses the intranet and listens to music. He does not catch a break. Which is hard
because the other kids his age seem to live off the technology as well, so what
do you do? Let your kid be a social outcast or join in?
However, my generation is all
scattered in different ways. Some of us have realized how much the Internet has
impacted us while others are still caught up in it. The only reason I make this
assumption is I used to send thousands and thousands of texts a day. Now I talk
to maybe two people a day, about twenty texts a day. Although I frequently
check Facebook and Twitter when I’m sitting around waiting for class, the bus
or commercials. I do not allow myself to engage in this during school, work or
any type of work because to me it’s distracting. I don’t feel a constant need to be connected
to everyone I know every second of the day, maybe I just grew out of it. Then I
have my sisters who are a few years older than me and work full time. They are
constantly involved in not just the social networks, but updating technology. They thrive on owning the newest, shiniest
phone and whatever else. I don’t understand it, it’s nice to have up-to-date
things, and of course it’s nice to have a new phone but it’s not a necessity,
it’s a luxury. We can become so wrapped that we can lose sight in determining necessities
and luxuries. Is it even a necessity to have a cell phone? Maybe, because I
don’t see many pay phones or public phones to use but is it a luxury to have to
have a smartphone?
Then again I’m a hypocrite which I
know because I have the latest IPhone, the difference between my sisters and
myself is I plan to keep this until my upgrade (two years give or take). I have
no interest in waiting for hours in line the day the next IPhone comes out
because I have something that does everything I need. They tend to maneuver
some way around upgrades and money just to have the latest and greatest. The
way they use the technology is hideous, they live off of it, constantly on
their phone throughout the day, never letting it out of their sight. They are
always updating me on other people’s lives, the information and drama they got
off Facebook. Its super strange to me to be in your 20’s and still acting like you’re
in high school.
Then the epidemic of texting and driving
makes me sick. My sisters and a number of friends do this. I’ve been in a car
accident before I could even drive because my sister was too involved with her
phone. And I’ve prevented a number of accidents by saying, “oh, hey, your veering
off the road”, once my sister told me she was playing 20 questions with her
boyfriend, she’s 23. I want to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense
into her. The only stance I can really make is really voicing my opinion about
texting and driving (which I do) and either hoping they respect me and don’t do
it while I’m with them or I choose not to be in a car with certain people.
Basically,
I think technology has changed us in many ways, not just the points Carr makes,
and it goes much further. Some of us have not allowed this change while others
are becoming dangerous. I believe technology is what we make of it, and whether
we allow it to become a big part of our life. A part of that I believe has to
do with maturity, understanding consequences may it be texting and driving, or
procrastinating. Lastly, I think as time progresses many more people will be diagnosed
with ADD and other types of attention disorders due to these technologies.
Partly because last semester at UMD a professor in my human science class told
us that until more recently asthma was not seen in such high numbers but houses
are built tight with extra insulation now and not allowing drafts therefore
asthma as become much more common. Same with technology.
By Allison Saffie