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.

"Getting Smarter" by Jamais Cascio

Summary:

In this article, Cascio defends the argument that technology is actually making us smarter. He brings up some of Carr's ideas and backs up some opposing points. He agrees with Carr in that our attention span is deteriorating, but says that there is medication available for it. he also says that we are meant to be able to quickly adapt to our surroundings. He discusses how in the past our brains had to change in order to adapt to new inventions such as speech. This is the same thing that we are seeing now. Our brains are changing as new technologies emerge. He concludes by talking about robots and other sci-fi ideas which could or could not be a part of our future.

Reaction:

I agree with Cascio's article because we are getting smarter. our brains are developing and our learning is changing to adapt to our new surroundings just like we have done in the past. I personally have always had ADD, even before the internet days. I find it very useful actually! I am able to do many things at once and I am able to adapt easily to change. Another huge reason why I must agree with Cascio is because I see the effects of technology on the new generation on a daily basis. I have to young sons who have only known the internet, cell phones, and video games through their life. I can compare them to me experiences growing up without all these technologies. I know for a fact that I would not have been able to play some of the video games they play. I can't even play them now! The problem solving abilities that they demand in order to pass each level! It encourages them to read and many more developmental activities. I agree with Carr that we are learning differently and as they both say our brain is changing, but is change necessarily a bad thing?

Tie In:

Carr and Cascio both talk about our brains changing because we are learning differently. Humans have done so from the beginning of time and will continue to develop and re-develop according to our surroundings and our different needs. They both also discuss the toll that technology has had on our attention span. Carr says that he can no longer immerse himself into a book like he used to before all the different distractions around him existed. Cascio on the other hand says that yes we have short attention spans, but thanks to technology we have the cure for this problem. He calls this a form of "self induced ADD." He also points out that it is normal and necessary for us to be able to go quickly from one thing to another.

Summary of An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness & a comparison to Carr

Summary

According to Pope’s article of An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness, we are becoming too dependent on technology. Instead of building new memories and focusing less on those bad situations that occurred in our past, we are forced to reminisce about uncomfortable situations such as an “argument with a spouse” or a quarrel with a friend.
Pope also states that technology increases our dependency on others, where we feel alone if we are not in “cyber-contact” with others. Pope explains that technology is becoming an addition like that of gambling, or a sickness, like an eating disorder. She explains that in order to keep ourselves under control we should monitor our technology uses in the future.

Reflection on meaning

My interpretations based on Pope’s article are that technology is causing us to be dependent on “cyber-social” relationships. Instead of visiting an old friend, we simply look them up on Facebook. Instead of enjoying conversations at lunches with co-workers or family dinners, we are more consumed with being engrossed by our smart phones. We are losing our relationships through the uses of the internet, children are disconnected with parents through the uses of cell phones and computers. Wireless internet provides instant access to limitless knowledge and online friendships- these are disconnecting all of us from use of social interactions and skills.
My interpretations of how Pope indicates that we can fix this problem to simply limit ourselves from too much technology- refrain from taking our cell phones a few times a week when we leave the house, or only use the computer during certain hours a day. Technology addiction should be treated with the same intensity as a gambling addiction or eating disorder.



Comparrison
In relationship to Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid? both Carr and Pope discuss the results of technology on cognitive, or memory, judgment, and reasoning. Both state that our thought process are disrupted, where listening to a child or reading an uninteresting book may seem like an uncomfortable eternity- where patience is limited. Carr however, feels that we are overpowered by ambition and are becoming too reliant on the internet for a directory of this ambition. He claims that in everyone’s case (where technology is accessible), their ways of thinking is changing and becoming more limited due to the limitless knowledge and sources available at the click of a button,
Pope relates her article to that of Carr’s by stating that memories are not simply memories. She mentions that we are becoming too dependent on technology and are simply remembering that we “went on vacation,” instead of the experience brought by it. Carr shares this similar quality. Carr explains that are relationships are becoming superficial with limits on face-to-face communication and the social experiences one is denied of through technology.

Get Smarter Summary, Reaction and Tie in w/ Carr

• Get Smarter Summary:

The article “Get Smarter” by Jamais Cascio talks about how intelligence is an adaptation in humans in way similar to how animals that lived in cold environments grew fur and cactuses that grew in dry deserts gained the ability to retain water for long periods of time. He makes allusions to various other sources, events and articles; he references Carr’s “Is Google making us stupid?” article.

• Get Smarter Reaction

I like how Cascio presented evidence to support two different and opposing arguments. It kept his article interesting, though it is obvious he supports the argument that technology is making us smarter. I thought that his statement of how our intelligence is another adaptation to our environment was very true; I got really excited when I read that we were only going to get smarter in the years to come. I don’t believe the internet is dumbing us down anymore than the discovery of fire or the invention of stone tools did. After his discussion of “fluid intelligence” his article becomes very confusing and talks about mind altering pills, genetics experiments and other topics that sounded like they came from the producers of the Matrix films. He has a good argument up till that point though.

• Get Smarter vs. Carr’s “Is Google making us Stupid?”

Carr’s major argument in his article is that the internet provides many distractions and models our thinking process into one which is unable to maintain full focus on given subject much like the mind of a person who has attention deficit disorder. Get Smarter does not necessarily deny this fact but says that this is simply a short term problem because of the limitations of Google and other internet resources like the fact that information is exactly neat and organized. Get Smarter also states that these multiple thoughts may actually improve one’s process of thought and that now it is inevitable so just go with the flow and adjust to it (which according to him is what we humans are excellent at proven by the fact that we’ve survived for this long).

Get Smarter Summary Reaction and Tie-in

Summary: The article, "Get Smarter" by Jasmais Cascio starts off by explaining how are present century is similar to that of seventy-four thousand years ago. Although we are not dealing with the aftermath of a super-volcano, we are dealing with the similar change to our brain. We are able to get through the new inventions that each century proposes to us by, getting smarter. After explaining to us how we cope with new the technology he then goes on to explain that the new technological advancements are helping us become more sophisticated. The change in technology is requiring us to adapt in a positive way; this change is a form of co-evolution. Carr also explains how technology has helped in pharmacology. We have now created a pill that allows you to concentrate and "get smarter". Finally Cascio goes on to talk about the futuristic world that will include brain doping, intuition networks, and the artificial mind.

Reaction: The article "Get Smart" by Jasmais Cascio explained how we must cope with advancements of technology and what we have gotten out of it and will continue to get out of it. I agree with his statement that technology is an advancement to us and the world. By allowing technology in our life, we are becoming smarter.I consume the benefits of technology every day. For example, without technology I would not be able to write this paper or be able to take breaks and check out my news feeds on Facebook. The benefits that technology has on our lives in endless. So yes, i agree that technology is making us smarter. I do not agree with Cascio idea that digital implants will be placed in peoples brains. I do not think people would agree with the idea of everyone having the "same model brain".

Tie-In- Carr and Cascio both agree that technology has changed the brain of everyone. Carr fears about the " the impact of wall-wall connectivity on the human intellect". He says that the simplicity of sitting down and reading a book is no longer in existence. Everything is on the internet where we hardly even read the whole article, just a skim through it. He claims that technology is making us lazy. Carr also says that we are dependent on technology and it should not be that way. On the other hand, Cascio argues that technology is making us smarter. The advancements in technology is like an advancement to our brain. Even though the simplicity is no longer there the benefits of technology is far more greater.

Carr v. Cascio

In both articles the authors agree that the new technologies have caused a form of ADD. We now have the inability to focus for a long time. But Cascio talks about the pharmacy side and how it has helped to allow us to focus better. Both authors feel that technology has a promising ahead of us, but a risky one. With the ability to be so technical it could do one of two things it could help us to me "smarter." Cascio feels that because the influx of information that the internet provides until it is able to be filtered to relevance it could be harmful. But, he believes that if there is a way that it can be narrowed down to just what we are looking for or trying to grasp it could change everything. The authors both highly respect the power of what technology can offer to us. I do however agree with both articles in the fact technology is able to rewire the brain. I know personally when i read a book it is a different experience for me then reading off of a computer screen. When I am reading on a computer screen, the temptation of facebook or other stimulus' make it extremely hard to concentrate on what I am reading. I believe this is very much the case for people of all ages. No matter what the side effects, technology and its advancements are never going to slow down and stop. End result, let it happen.

Getting Smarter, Summary & Reaction

The article “Getting Smarter” began as an interesting and thorough rebuttal to some ideas posed by Carr and those of his school of thought. He talks at great lengths how human’s brains changed when intelligence and speech were invented. He then discusses how our brains are changing now just as they were before, only this time it is to cope with a plethora of data available to us whenever we go online. After his initial well-reasoned presentation, he moves into the realm of science fiction what ifs, creating a futuristic world inhabited by chemically doped societies with differently functioning brains, which may or may not be waging war against an army of super-intelligent robots.

I like and agree with the beginning of Cascio’s article, that humans are not being dumbed down; rather, they are in the middle of a shift in the functionality of thought. His explanations of early humans learning how to speak and think critically are perfect examples of the human brain’s ability, when faced with a challenge or something technology, to change in a way beneficial to humans as a species. The same changes we are faced with now presumably parallel the changes in thought for humans at the dawn of the stone or bronze ages. These changes are nothing to be feared or avoided; they should be welcomed and embraced; we should grab hold of them like the back of a galloping horse, bound for lands as of yet undiscovered but with promise and ability to better the lives of the entire human species. Perhaps these feelings of enthusiastic anticipation stem from my generation’s growing up in a world of technology—we do not remember the old ways of doing things because we were not around, we only know the new ways, and therefore have no problem moving on to the bigger and better thought processes of tomorrow. The second half of Cascio’s article is useless speculation and fantasizing though; things get a little carried away after he suggests that future societies will begin worshipping different drugs as icons of their brain power, and he builds a science fiction world of rival societies and possibly-evil AI computers. For someone in the mood to read a silly science fiction piece, the second half of this article could suffice; nevertheless, the first half is gold when battling Carr’s assertion that Google and technology are making us stupid.

Carr suggests that tools such as Google and the like are causing a type of ADD, an inability to focus on long articles, and a constant need for stimulus for the brain. Cascio calls this “an induced form of ADD—a ‘continuous partial attention-deficit disorder,’” and while I may laugh at this assertion, some people, notably those of earlier generations, cringe at the idea of changing thought processes. I have been born and raised in a world of technology, so I do not notice any big shift in the way I think and act today. My mind is innately capable of operating in a state of “induced ADD” because I have always been functioning in this sort of state, and therefore do not experience the negative side effects such as inability to concentrate on long articles or be absorbed by a great book. Carr and people of the older generations are not built this way, and can see the shift in their thought processes in an entirely negative light. The situation is similar to children trying to explain to their Great Uncle Randy that having a black passenger riding with him on a bus is not all that bad. The ability to think in a way that encompasses technology is the future for humans, and whether individuals feel it will be good for them in the end or not, Cascio reminds us that “there’s no going back,” and Uncle Randy can either bite his tongue, or get off the bus.