The last of the Shallows

            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 The presenter that argued Carr’s research was outdated and misinterpreted had very thorough research and knew what she was doing.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