An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness

Tie-In:

Both Pope and Carr discuss the fact that the immediacy of information coming from the Internet is changing who we are as people. Pope mentions that it is changing our personality because we are more impatient and impulsive. Also, she mentions that we are more forgetful. While Carr mentioned his concern with our intelligence because we have become so dependent on sites like Google. We are no longer able to keep our focus on long articles or novels. He also discusses how back in the day Socrates was concerned that writing would change how people learned because they would become less studious and forgetful. This is interesting because I feel as if it wasn't for the written word nowadays I wouldn't have learned all the things that I have. However, Carr is making the comparison that maybe the Internet is actually helping us more than hurting us. However, I couldn't help noticing that what Socrates said about the written word is exactly what Pope was saying about the Internet nowadays. I believe both authors make a good point because I feel as if the Internet has changed our society but don't believe it was all for the worse. Since I feel as if that just like books I have managed to learn a lot more because it is very easy to Google information unlike searching in encyclopedias for something. Also, I do have to admit that I am a tad impatient and tend to forget some of the things that I recently learned.

After reading the article by Tara Parker Hope I couldn't help but agreeing with most of her points. I feel as if people are very dependent on their devices. I have friends who spend time with me but 75% of that time is them checking their facebook, them checking their e-mail, or texting their other friends. I have to admit that I can be easily distracted when doing my homework because I constantly check my facebook or e-mail. I have the hardest time being able to focus on my homework because I feel as if I need to know what other people are doing on facebook. I think the worse is when I go on the internet to research a topic because I will see something else that I want to know about and somehow I end up shopping for a new shirt. I never know how I completely shift from one topic to the next but I tend to blame the hyperlinks or the ads on the side of websites. I agree mostly that people have to learn how to moderate their usage of the internet because I gave up my facebook for two years and the only thing I had to check was my e-mail or phone. I felt some relief not having to check my facebook every three seconds like I do now. When I leave my house without my cellphone I feel like a part of me is missing and that is probably abnormal to feel about a piece of technology. But this is probably because I am addicted to my phone and technology in general.