An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness with Summary, Reaction, and Tie-In

Summary:
In “An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness” Pope writes about how our internet usage is not becoming an addiction, but more of a dependency. She writes how the internet has changed our day to day interactions with friends, and makes us more irritable and impatient. Overall she states how the internet as a whole allows us to essentially escape from everyday life in the fact that we don’t have to deal with it personally, we only have to deal with it virtually.

Reaction:
I believe Pope makes some very good and interesting points, although some I do not agree with. Her first comment about facebook I find extremely accurate. I often find myself becoming enthralled with the drama and events that occur on facebook not only on a daily or weekly basis, but on an hourly basis. The comment I disagree with most is that the internet distracts us and makes us more impatient. Often times when reading an article if I get an email or a notification I will continue reading and delve deeper into reading the article to its completion rather than using the notification as an excuse to click over to the next tab. However, I do believe that internet usage, especially for my generation, is becoming a huge problem, with everyone constantly checking the internet on their phone to see the latest gossip or news, I even find myself doing it most of the time. Internet usage is not so much of a habit as it is a “necessity” and I agree with Pope on that. Overall, I feel that Pope’s statements are mostly accurate, internet usage is becoming a dependency and it is a dependency that needs to be broken.

Tie-In:
Both Pope and Carr’s articles are very similar in nature. Each, in their own way, explain how internet usage is changing our brain, and how we function in society. Pope writes about how since we are used to everything being instant online and we have nothing to wait for, we may be impatient with a child who is slower. Carr seems to agree with this by stating when reading a lengthier article he can not focus and does not have the ability to finish it. Carr and Pope also agree that internet usage is becoming more of a dependency than a commodity. Pope writes about how we should put limitations and restrictions on our internet usage to solve the problem, while Carr almost seems scared to an extent that the epidemic will just continue getting worse. Overall, both articles raise their skepticism about technology and the way we use it, but both understand it is a problem that can not be solved, but only moderated.