Cascio vs Carr Essay Example

time management but on the negative side it changed our research methods.

Another advantage is immediate access to such rich information that could take years to formulate. But on the negative side he states that “ the Net is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation”(1). He is experiencing the negative consequences of technology, which has changed the way his brain thinks. The internet is shaping our brains to take information how the net describes it rather then a more educational way. Although we are reading and writing more then we were in the 1970s we are creating a new sense of the self.

Never has a communication system played so many roles in our lives or such a broad influence over our thoughts. Carr knows that technology changes our everyday lives in significant ways but he believes we rely to much on it. Just like Fredrick Winslow Taylor conducted a series of experiments into a factor that allowed each worker to only do one specific job it created a much more efficient work environment as many today would say an ‘algorithm’. As the industrial revolution went on Taylor’s same ideas were applied and made the revolution blossom.

As well as today Taylor’s ethics still govern how software engineers re creating new information allowing the engineers to govern the realm of the mind as we see it. On the contrary Jamais Cascio expresses how the trouble with technology isn’t that we have to much information at our fingertips but our tools for managing it are still in their infancy. He explains how our brains are ever evolving into the demands our

lives are faced with. Humans have always changed to the world around them and responded to the demands of a long age turbulence.

Such advancements in technology has made information that you used to not know simply into information you already have known. Technology is making everyday inconviences into primitive tools of peoples everyday’s lives. Its allowing everyday people to do jobs that they would never be able to do in earlier years. The range of media Cascio argues is “strengthening our ability to be in constant connectivity”(4). Media is being seen in many different ranges making us smarter and knowledgeable. Not only is the internet playing a major roll by advancing but so is medicine and procedures.

Specialists have made drugs allowing us to concentrate longer. It allows the impossible to become possible. He also agrees there are many consequences in continually advancing our technology. He explains how a intense surgery today will soon seem primitive and unnecessary in the future. Cascio and Carr both believe the internet and technology have a major impact on the world today, but their ideas are completely different. Carr introduces research of cognitive scientists to provide examples of how new techniques occur when technologies keep improving which widens the gap for mistakes.

Cascio talks about how the Holocene epoch 12,000 years ago supplies civilization with tools and technology to manage and adapt to the amount of knowledge we created. Cascio also touches on the side with his opposer Carr and realizes with every technological advancement that it harms our ability to think making it harder for us to engage in deep contemplation. Cascio also thinks

that the information we are receiving is to relaxed and needs to be more precise. People are allowed to put their own answers, thoughts and opinions either wrong or right which ultimately affects the results of others.

If wrong it can sway someone opinion and lead them down the wrong road or it could be the right information and help someone greatly. Individual’s knowledge is being interfered since they need to learn what to believe and what not to believe when dealing with the internet. People need to become their own skeptics and take into consideration that they need to be specific about their research and make sure they analyze it. Whether or not the internet is helping or harming us there are major impacts that we have learned from trial and error.

Although Carr opposes the internet because its making our brains think differently he agrees that “thanks to the ubiquity of text on the internet not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970’s or 1980’s when television was our medium of choice”. But on the other hand he cant stress enough how the outcomes of technology transform individuals into less reflective, less responsive, and less “human beings”.

After analyzing both articles I realize that with the help of technology it can help us drastically change our lives or ultimately lead to our demise. I personally believe that my generation strives off technology and learn to do everyday activities with the help of technology. Although it has led to an obesity epeidemic we are also having

a larger amount of young adults attend college and go further in life. Technology is ever evolving and I think it is out responsibility on how we let it shape our lives.