Final Post

Today we spent the last class discussing the final portion of reading we had for Nicholas Carr’s, The Shallows. We took the time to discuss different questions we may find we ask ourselves regarding the Internet after reading Carr’s book this semester.

As I write my final blog post now, I may not be thinking of any questions I may have, but I am thinking about how the Internet has affected me, and our society today. Apart from the Internet I simply think about technology as a whole and whether or not I really think it has had a great enough affect on how we think, research and really affected the way we think. Well, according to Robert White he believes that,

“Technology is changing our lives. It cannot and will not change what is fundamental to the human condition. It will never change the way we are, or how we feel. The more technology we create, the more we seem confused, side-tracked with what we are conned into believe will improve our lives in the future. Always the future.”

           

            After reading The Shallows and coming to my own conclusion, I believe that I can agree with White. Technology is changing our lives in a rapid pace, which is giving us the chance to expand our research as well as much much more. Although Carr believes that it is actually changing the way we think, in other words having an affect on the brain, I don’t necessarily agree. He makes the argument in the book that technology is affecting our attention span. I agree, though it doesn’t necessarily have to. That is under our own personal control. So as White says, the Internet “cannot change what is fundamental to the human condition.” The only thing that can change that is the person himself or herself.

            So I guess after reading Carr’s book I may have thought about the affects more, I can’t say that I can completely agree with everything that Carr says. It was a tough read in some places, but regardless if I may not have completely agreed or not, and regardless if it was a tough read or not, it is a book I would recommend to other people if I had to.

           

-Michelle Krupnik