300-400 word draft
Many people feel differently about technology. Lots of the differences appear between the different generations. The older generations that have only had digital technology at the end of their lives may be more apprehensive about it, while the younger generations who have used it for the majority of their lives cannot imagine what they would do without it. There are the rare few across different generations who are the same opinion. One of my classmates, Finley Morrison, shares the specific opinion that the amount of technology introduced to young children today is very detrimental with Sherry Turkle, renowned author of “The Empathy Diaries.” Sherry is also a clinical psychologist with a joint doctorate degree in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard, and she teaches at MIT. Another one of my classmates, Hailey Cloutier, highlights all the different personas that technology can take on: how it can be good, but also bad. All these authors accentuate the need to regulate our intake of technology while it is still manageable. I agree with these writers: technology can be so incredible, but it also can be used badly in the wrong hands.
*Not sure which part of the passage I’m using. “It takes her minutes to return to reality once she’s done playing with her technology. It’s incredibly disheartening for her to finally recognize me after disconnecting from her tablet; this child genuinely appears to be waking up from a coma after watching nothing but brain-rot inducing videos on her iPad. The warm and fuzzy feeling of her wanting to be around me is shackled to her device. I’m now often left thinking about how a device made my existence a fleeting memory for her, and how could I compete? The internet takes my little niece’s mind to places that not even I have explored, and while that doesn’t necessarily have to equate to danger, she’s floating somewhere that erases her connection to reality” (Finley Morrison). “People don’t have to depend on their knowledge or schooling anymore when they can get the answer in under five minutes of googling. The fast information-giving programs are creating a gap in information processing, where the brain can’t handle too much information at once and it just shuts down. No longer can people read textbooks thoroughly, now we see skimming for easy information without a clear understanding of the topic” (Hailey Cloutier).
800-word draft
Many people feel differently about technology. Lots of the different feelings appear between the different generations. The older generations that have only had digital technology at the end of their lives may be more apprehensive about it, while the younger generations who have used it for the majority of their lives cannot imagine what they would do without it. There are the rare few across different generations who share the same opinion. One of my classmates, Finley Morrison, shares the specific opinion that the amount of technology introduced to young minds today is very detrimental with Sherry Turkle, renowned author of “The Empathy Diaries,” in his work “Digital Worlds: Teleportation at your Fingertips.” Sherry is also a clinical psychologist with a joint doctorate degree in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard, and she teaches at MIT. Another one of my classmates, Hailey Cloutier, highlights all the different personas that technology can take on: how it can be good, but also bad, in her work “The Balancing Act: The Good, Bad, and Problem Solving.” All these authors accentuate the need to regulate our intake of technology while it is still manageable. I agree with these writers in that technology has many different sides. Technology can be so incredible, but it also can be used badly if directed to. Technology’s dependence on whether it is a tool, or a danger relies on the person using it.
Technology can be whatever you make it out to be. People who have had bad experiences with it may see it negatively, whereas others may have had only great encounters may believe it to be something that everyone should come to love and enjoy. Technology can be used in many different areas of life, so there are many different opinions on the use of technology in our day-to-day lives. Finley believes that “ultimately, no matter how you view it, technology has the ability to be whatever you want it to be and take you wherever you desire to go. How you use the internet is how it will reflect your views on it…it’s man’s own obligation to make sure that he’s properly equipped to navigate safely around the flames.” Grown adults have the information available to them: they are well educated on the negative effects of technology. If they allow themselves to be consumed with it, it is on them. They could have changed the way they exploit the usefulness of the internet. Hailey agrees that technology can be used in many different ways, and she “think[s] that there needs to be some form of regulation or restriction for it so we don’t ruin something that has helped so many lives. People shouldn’t be in fear of what the internet and technology have to offer.” With the vast amount of sheer information the internet holds, it can be used in many different manners. The person who uses their tech writes their own narrative on if it is good or bad. In the end, the user determines whether internet will be their savior, or their villain.
Mature adults are able to control their usage of technology, but children are not expected to. The adults in their lives and the society they grow up in influence how they use technology. Their use of it in school and personally can be controlled by educators and parents or guardians, respectively. Young kids are given technology, but often not given sufficient instruction and rules on how to properly use it, and this leads to the increased usage of technology that does not educate them. Finn sees the effects of technology on young children personally: his four-year-old niece “gets cranky when she doesn’t have her tablet to watch mindless videos or play noneducational games no matter what time of day it is. It takes her minutes to return to reality after she is done with her technology…[she] genuinely appears to be waking up from a coma after watching nothing but brain-rot inducing videos on her iPad.” The unregulated use of technology for such young children is a shock to their system: it is not what the human body is meant to do at that age. They are meant to learn about other people and themselves. They need to learn emotions and feelings and how to exist with others. Sherry Turkle also sees the decline in social awareness in young children who have grown up attached to technology. To Turkle and some teachers she has met with, “it is a struggle to get children to talk to each other in class, to directly address each other. It is a struggle to get them to meet with faculty…they sit in the dining hall and look at their phones…[and] seem to understand each other less and less” (345). Children are using technology to degree where it is becoming detrimental to their social abilities. They have become engulfed in technology, but it is not their fault. Children are being handed the technology and not given enough instruction early on to help them navigate this incredibly important tool. Without help navigating the internet, as the users, children are not able to find the educational, useful side of technology. They, instead, only use it for games and hiding away instead of learning necessary life skills, because that is all they know.
1200-word draft
Many people feel differently about technology. Lots of the different feelings appear between the different generations. The older generations that have only had digital technology at the end of their lives may be more apprehensive about it, while the younger generations who have used it for the majority of their lives cannot imagine what they would do without it. There are the rare few across different generations who share the same opinion. One of my classmates, Finley Morrison, shares the specific opinion that the amount of technology introduced to young minds today is very detrimental with Sherry Turkle, renowned author of “The Empathy Diaries,” in his work “Digital Worlds: Teleportation at your Fingertips.” Sherry is also a clinical psychologist with a joint doctorate degree in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard, and she teaches at MIT. Another one of my classmates, Hailey Cloutier, highlights all the different personas that technology can take on: how it can be good, but also bad, in her work “The Balancing Act: The Good, Bad, and Problem Solving.” All these authors accentuate the need to regulate our intake of technology while it is still manageable. I agree with these writers in that technology has many different sides. Technology can be so incredible, but it also can be used badly if directed to. Technology’s dependence on whether it is a tool, or a danger relies on the person using it.
Technology can be whatever you make it out to be. People who have had bad experiences with it may see it negatively, whereas others may have had only great encounters may believe it to be something that everyone should come to love and enjoy. Technology can be used in many different areas of life, so there are many different opinions on the use of technology in our day-to-day lives. Finley believes that “ultimately, no matter how you view it, technology has the ability to be whatever you want it to be and take you wherever you desire to go. How you use the internet is how it will reflect your views on it…it’s man’s own obligation to make sure that he’s properly equipped to navigate safely around the flames.” Grown adults have the information available to them: they are well educated on the negative effects of technology. If they allow themselves to be consumed with it, it is on them. They could have changed the way they exploit the usefulness of the internet. Hailey agrees that technology can be used in many different ways, and she “think[s] that there needs to be some form of regulation or restriction for it so we don’t ruin something that has helped so many lives. People shouldn’t be in fear of what the internet and technology have to offer.” With the vast amount of sheer information the internet holds, it can be used in many different manners. The person who uses their tech writes their own narrative on if it is good or bad. In the end, the user determines whether internet will be their savior, or their villain.
Mature adults are able to control their usage of technology, but children are not expected to. The adults in their lives and the society they grow up in influence how they use technology. Their use of it in school and personally can be controlled by educators and parents or guardians, respectively. Young kids are given technology, but often not given sufficient instruction and rules on how to properly use it, and this leads to the increased usage of technology that does not educate them. Finn sees the effects of technology on young children personally: his four-year-old niece “gets cranky when she doesn’t have her tablet to watch mindless videos or play noneducational games no matter what time of day it is. It takes her minutes to return to reality after she is done with her technology…[she] genuinely appears to be waking up from a coma after watching nothing but brain-rot inducing videos on her iPad.” The unregulated use of technology for such young children is a shock to their system: it is not what the human body is meant to do at that age. They are meant to learn about other people and themselves. They need to learn emotions and feelings and how to exist with others. Sherry Turkle also sees the decline in social awareness in young children who have grown up attached to technology. To Turkle and some teachers she has met with, “it is a struggle to get children to talk to each other in class, to directly address each other. It is a struggle to get them to meet with faculty…they sit in the dining hall and look at their phones…[and] seem to understand each other less and less” (345). Children are using technology to degree where it is becoming detrimental to their social abilities. They have become engulfed in technology, but it is not their fault. Children are being handed the technology and not given enough instruction early on to help them navigate this incredibly important tool. Without help navigating the internet, as the users, children are not able to find the educational, useful side of technology. They, instead, only use it for games and hiding away instead of learning necessary life skills, because that is all they know.
Technology makes everything easier for us, especially being able to avoid being authentic and in-person. We allow ourselves to take the easy route through our digital personas. No longer do we have the drive or confidence to walk up to people and introduce ourselves: why not just type out something that may or may not be true and not let others see our true selves? Sherry Turkle notes the more recent change in behavior: “these days we find ways around conversations. We hide from each other even as we’re constantly connected to each other. From our screens, we are tempted to present ourselves as we would like to be… [when online,] it is easy to compose, edit, and improve as we revise” (344). We are not willing to put in the hard work it takes to get to know ourselves and others. We are hiding, as Sherry says, from who we truly are, all because it takes less work. Hailey Cloutier also sees how technology grants us the ability to pick and choose who we are. She believes that “social media has…[made] socializing easy, but it is making people disconnected from reality. People use social media to hide behind false personas where nobody would be the wiser. You can pretend to be a completely different person than you are and disconnect yourself from the real world.” In this way, we are using social media and technology badly. It can be and is used for good often, connecting friends and family from far away and keeping relations up, but we are constantly using it for many reasons other than this one. We could seek out the tool that is technology for exactly that: using it as a tool that can help us make our way in the world. However, more often than not, people today use it solely for avoidance of responsibilities and take advantage of all it has to offer.
Final Paper 3
