Computers: A boost, not a detriment
Nicholas Carr’s article Is Google Making Us Stupid? Poses an interesting question; Are we seeking quicker, faster turnover from reading on the internet? The question is interesting at the very least. To hear the story of Nietzche’s transition in writing style and perhaps even cognition by simply changing from writing with eyes open to writing with eyes closed. It is true both in practice and in research that the human mind is beyond malleable. We have proven ourselves to be incredibly adaptive to change in nearly everything that we do. The Internet facilitates this change. Having access to the newest information, the newest studies, and so on promote the ability to reflexively form our opinions and ideas continuously as new information continuously becomes available. Thus, to this end, I do agree with the author of the article. However, one of the tones I took issue to throughout the article was the idea that computers are inherently ‘bad’. The author continuously implies that we would be as a whole better off without computers and the Internet, given the amount of time we devote to each. He implies that we are becoming reliant on the Internet, and becoming less competent to function without it. However, I disagree with this position. I think computers have brought about a new era of possibilities. Computers allow us to do things faster, but do not necessarily imply reliance. When I worked briefly in the hospital in the triage office, I was amazed how quickly hospital staff could categorize patients, identifying every relevant piece of information to their illness, alert all necessary responding staff, and direct the patient to where they needed to go. Where once paramedics had to write out entire forms with all of this information, now the hospital is updated as the paramedics record symptoms and findings en route to the hospital, where staff can already be setting up a hospital bed. As for smartphones, laptops, and the like: Although it is clearly easy to become glued to your phone but on the whole, phones and laptops increase communication in unprecedented ways. On my way to class or a meeting I can quickly check and respond to any emails I’ve received, or confirm the directions to a new place that I’m going to. We have to take the responsibility into our own hands in order to make sure that phones and laptops don’t become a detriment to our productivity. Used correctly, they can greatly boost productivity. However, that usage is up to us, and us alone. It’s become a hot topic to say that smartphones are ‘making us’ shut off from society, become anti-social, become reliant on the Internet, ect. But the truth is that we have a choice.
7 Comments
naomicameron
April 14, 2016I must agree with you on the point that being able to see such a clear change in Nietzsche’s writing style after his use of the typewriter was fascinating. Having grown up with computers all of my life, I do not have a time absent of computers to which I can compare my life as it is now. It is true, however, that my patience for long pieces of writing is quite thin and I don’t take interest in combing through piles of research in order to find key information. It’s as if I expect the answers to be seated in chairs waiting for me before I even begin asking questions.
Another thing about my reading faculties that I’ve noticed because of the internet is that I am an awful speller. I’ve never been great at spelling certain words properly and this is because autocorrect has always been there to catch me.
I agree with you when you say that computers don’t have to make us antisocial but I must suggest that they make us inevitably entitled to information and truths for which we have not labored. Because of the internet, I can become a plumbing master after 4 minutes on YouTube even though someone else went to school for this skill. I have access to important excerpts from great works without having to read the works themselves. On Google, I can spell out a desired concept phonetically and still get the answer that I’m looking for. Point being that I am no longer accustomed to laboring for knowledge or thinking my way through a challenge; the answers are right before me.
This is why the study of science and math is so important to me. In math, there is usually only one right answer and I can choose many ways to find it but in every case I am guaranteed that the answer will not just pop out and greet me with kisses. Google may love me no matter how poorly I spell but, in a coding program, my spelling counts and can bring costly mistakes if I don’t take my time and think before I type. The fact is that mastery of anything worth knowing in this world requires a personal journey through confusion into knowledge. I believe that scientists will be able to keep hold of a faculty that most of the world will soon be without; that is, the ability to seek out, find, and apply knowledge.
Ben
April 14, 2016I like the way that you analyze the issue as coming directly from us (the users of technology). Exactly as you said, we have the choice to either use technology as a tool to enhance our productivity, or to become reliant on technology to the point that it becomes detrimental to ourselves. However, I don’t agree with you on the point that Nietzsche is trying to tell us that the internet and computers are inherently bad. In fact, he goes on to cite the numerous benefits of computers along with other forms of revolutionary technology. He merely writes to us to inform us of the way that the internet may be affecting our thinking processes. This is where Nietzsche perceives the damage of technology and I must agree with him. Even before reading this article my mind was all over the place, I needed to check this and look up that, essentially wasting 10 minutes surfing the web before looking at the article that only took me about the same amount of time to read. Even though I haven’t really noticed it up to this point, the internet is certainly changing the way our minds think. We can no longer stay focused on the task at hand because we’re used to jumping around everywhere to explore the various tangents that pop up randomly in our heads. This mindset has been facilitated by the rapid flourishing of the internet recently. I entirely agree that it is up to us to maintain a healthy mindset despite all of this change, but at the same time I feel it is important to identify and accept the problem in an effort to work towards a better solution.
Tala Azar
April 15, 2016Like Ben and Naomi, I also notice a change in my own ability to process longer pieces of texts. And although much of our conversation as a class and your reflection on the articles have centered around the Internet, I also partly attribute my ability to get distracted by the Internet to the way we are expected to have so much to do all of the time. I find myself opening my email a lot during longer readings not solely because it allows me to take a two second mental break, but because I’m expecting an e-mail or thought of something urgent I had to send. This constant juggling of events, tasks, and activities can allow one to jump back and forth in their own brains and can affect our attention span.
I really enjoyed your example of the triage office because it shows how inefficient so many of our systems would be without the power of computers. Although smartphones and the Internet have negative effects- like allowing us to get distracted- they also enabled so many technological advances. This sole fact seems to cancel out the effects of the “stupid mentality” that Carr discusses.
Michael
April 18, 2016Although I agree with your main point, I wouldn’t go so far as to say Nicholas Carr was implying that modern-day technology is necessarily “bad”. I found his argument to be more akin to that of the devil’s advocate; although he finds in technology great potential, as he points out several times in the article, he is also conscious of its downsides. From the perspective of someone who agrees wit your main point, that we do have a choice in how much we become absorbed in digital media, I can appreciate the other side of the argument. There are times when I see a particularly nasty example of a smartphone bubble (i.e when my sister sits with her smartphone out on the dinner table and can’t be bothered to participate in the conversations happening around her), and reflect on how such an argument as “smartphones are evil” can possibly be conceived. To an older generation that saw digital media take root and destroy what they have considered “common courtesy”, I can see how technology seems threatening and where the backlash comes from.
Its important to understand the other side of the argument, even if you don’t agree, and this article does a good job of showing both sides in a reasonable light.
Revital
April 19, 2016I think you brought up a great point that access to the internet has changed the way we live our lives. Of course the internet has a greater, direct, impact on the lives in first world. That being said, those of us who do have access are able to propel their lives, and gain knowledge. Having Google alone gives us the ability to search up anything we want. Whether it’s simply checking the weather or news, to going to old classic literature, we have whatever we want at our fingertips. This instant knowledge does make us smarter and if you want to learn something, you have that information within seconds. Alternatively, this gives rise to a lot of stupid, or unintelligent news and media on the internet. It can let people create hate and stigmas through the internet. In this sense, if negative information is spread, then it does increase stupidity. And I think we all know how much people love to voice their opinions, even if their views are incorrect.
Additionally, I agree that it increases reliance on technology. I can’t even imagine most of today’s world going through a day without internet. We can’t make judgements for ourselves without seeking the advice of the internet.
kevincall
April 19, 2016I agree with Alasdair, the computer and access to the internet has vastly improved the capacity of human labor. Naomi does have a very solid point and that the internet has definitely made people feel entitled to information because of this easy accessibility but to me there is no harm in this. A person with a passion can now self teach himself/herself anything he/she might want to know. Although some individuals may simply look for “answers”, most are driven to actual gain actual knowledge. In fact those looking for answers, may not actually be interested in the subject at hand and only need these answers to specific problems they are facing due to work or school, but either way finding an answer and solution increases the productivity of these individuals even though they may not dedicate the time to actually understand how to arrive at the solutions.
When it comes to the other benefits of using computers is that there are numerous softwares available to cater to specific needs and wants. Naomi brought up the point that spelling counts in coding, and some coding environments do not cater to fixing spelling errors but others are available that prompt the coder of the word they might of meant to use instead of doing an automatic correction which still improves the efficiency and effectiveness of a coder.
In terms of social interaction and how our technology effects it, although there may be a decrease in face to face communication due to some people growing overall attached to their phones as Woo mentioned about his sister, overall people are interacting more. Borders essentially no longer exist as a result of the internet. People hundreds of miles away can keep in touch with an occasional skype call or through messaging apps. Current widespread social media sites create platforms to generate events and publicize them to encourage in person communication.
I do disagree with Alasdair though. The growing use does in fact imply reliance. Ask anyone who goes to a grocery store when the system is down. Although these kinds of mishaps are avoidable, it does not mean we are not dependent on computers and the internet. Think of the tv show Revolution. If one day, the entire grid goes out, maybe there is a massive EMP explosion that wipes out current communication systems and renders computers as large paperweights, there would be chaos and people would die as a result of it. I am not advocating that we should shift away from computers, but currently we are overly dependent on them and the information infrastructure we have crafted and as a result we must be careful to prevent such widespread losses from occurring because the end result would not be pretty.
tanvirislam7
April 19, 2016I agree with your argument that we are changing and that the Internet is keeping us up to date and making us more dynamic human beings. This quality is important in a globalized world where nothing really is constant anymore. Even physicians note that practicing medicine today is much more different than practicing medicine decades ago where physicians were expected to know all the diseases and methods of treatment in consultation sessions with patients. However, today, physicians succumb to the notion that medicine is too vast to memorize from textbooks and that the most effective methods in diagnosing patients often come from using the internet, research data bases and constantly fact checking. This is important because it allows more effectiveness in medicine where a physician can fear less in treating a patient incorrectly and instead be more confident in their decisions.
Your experience with triage and the importance of using technology and computing in triage definitely proves the value that technology and computing services have on different fields today, especially the medical field. Another instance where advents in technology proved to be successful in medicine is in Electronic Medical Records in hospitals. Electronic medical records are digitalized patients histories and medical records that hospitals currently use. While using EMR’s, hospitals were able to stop having paper files and instead store them in clouds digitally. This was effective in ensuring safety of a patients’ history as well as making it possible to spread a patient’s file from one hospital to another for the comfort of the patient. While volunteering at a clinic in Nicaragua, last summer, I saw the difficulties that underprivileged clinics that still have paper files for patients had. Not only was it difficult to store the mountains of files in a clinic but also difficult in updating since patients would go to different clinics based on which ones were located closest to them since patients were always moving. Above all, my experience also corroborates the point that technology is enhancing our daily lifestyle instead of hindering it.