3rd draft revised with peer review

My relationship with technology is complicated. On the one hand, it is essential to my everyday life. It’s a staple. It grants me instant, unlimited access to anything I could ever want. Up to date news and information, check. Unlimited streams of entertainment, tv shows, movies, games check. Instant connection to people through social media, check. I spend every waking minute on my phone and laptop (except when I’m sleeping) because I love technology so much. But this brings me to the question, if everything that matters to me is digital, is that good? I argue it’s not. I don’t want to use technology so much, that everything I do is dependable on it. That’s why I’m glad I’m not the person I just wrote about. This idea stems from Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” where Carr explains how advancements in digital technology have changed our intellect for the worse. With that being said I share Carr’s trepidation and skepticism of how we have become too adamant on technology to carry out our daily tasks. And with that, I believe we have lost a lot of our capacity to use our brains to the best of their abilities. This brings me to my main point where I feel like technology is starting to dictate our lives, rather than ourselves. We should be at the forefront of our experiences, interactions and emotions, not our devices. With that being said, I believe we have become too reliant on technology as it has changed our intellect for the worse, deteriorated our physical, mental and emotional health, and allows for false narratives to spread and misinformation to thrive.

Technology has changed our intellect for the worse. There is a common misconception in the world today, that we’ve gotten smarter. That narrative is false. We aren’t as smart as we used to be. Our computers are smarter. Over the past half century, we have gone from having one computer in the entire world, that acted basically as an improved typewriter, to everyone in the country having that computing power in their hands, times a thousand. So when I ask you the question, are we getting smarter, or are computers getting smarter, it’s inherently clear that we are not the ones getting smarter. It’s our computer counterparts that are.

Technology has deteriorated our physical, mental and emotional health. We’re fat. Fatter than we’ve ever been. Obesity is through the roof, mental health issues are skyrocketing and the average American can’t even do one pushup. What is associated with these alarming trends? The growth and rise of digital technology. As our computer counterparts are doing more and more for us, we are doing less and less. And yes that includes moving. 70 years ago the average amount of time an American spent looking at a screen was 0. Today it’s 10 hours. That’s basically the entire day aside from the 8-9 hours spent sleeping and 2 hours of eating, peeing and pooping. All that time used to do things early in the 19th century that was beneficial to our health (exercising, spending time outside, meeting new people) is now consumed by us sitting, staring, at our screen. And yet people continue to ask, why is everyone overweight, why are so many people having mental health issues, why is everyone angry at each other. The answer is so much simpler than it seems. It’s because of our screens.

Technology allows for false narratives and misinformation to spread and thrive. Fake News? What is fake and real anymore. With technology continuously advancing it is harder and harder to differentiate reality from fantasy. As each day goes by, we are constantly being disassociated with the real world, and dragged back into the online world, which in reality is just some computer script on our devices that we constantly stare at. Which brings me to my next point, how we depend on it for our news and information. As Francis Bacon once said, “knowledge is power”. And where do we get our knowledge from? News and information. And now thanks to digital technology news now often spreads off its attractiveness to the consumer (ability to get clicks) rather than its validity. Because at the end of the day digital technology including the web/internet (which is where we get our news from) is more of an outlet for entertainment than it is for information. Meaning its more novel and fiction based, than fact. When people open up a web browser they usually do it with the intention to be entertained. Making the web more like a graphic novel than a newspaper. Meaning that in a sense our power as humans (with the web being the biggest source of information on the planet), is hanging in the balance thanks to digital technology.

While technology undoubtedly has its uses and advantages, people have become too dependent on it. And it’s hurting our intellect. It’s hurting our brains. It’s hurting our knowledge. It’s hurting our health. It’s hurting our family members. It’s hurting our friends. It’s hurting our classmates. It’s hurting our teachers. It’s hurting our pets. It’s hurting our kindness. It’s hurting our love. It’s hurting our push up ability. And It’s hurting us. I want to conclude this essay with an anecdote. It highlights something simple, something familiar but at the same time something that is so far away for so many people, the definitions of words: I wanted to note that while using the word technology in this essay I was talking about it mostly digitally. But with that aside you could make an argument for things like a written paper, or a hardcopy book to be products of technology. But while reading this essay I bet you didn’t even think about that once. It just goes to show you how much influence technology has over our lives. A majority of people don’t know what things (words) truly mean. And a major reason for that is they never have to. They can just google it. Take a simple word, like technology for example. I’ve come to the conclusion that in this current age a lot of people can’t tell me what technology really is, because like I said before they don’t ever need to deeply learn and understand the true meaning of words. Why? Well, because they have access to every single definition on the internet. On the odd chance they need the definition for work, or school they can just copy it from Wikipedia. Meaning they’re not retaining the information, they’re just copying and pasting it from their internet browser to their google doc.

1st draft (600 words).

My relationship with technology is complicated. On the one hand, it is essential to my evrey day life. It’s a staple. It grants me instant, unlimited access to anything I could ever want. Up to date news, check. Unlimited streams of entertainment, tv shows, movies, games check. Instant connection to family and friends, Check. I spend every waking second on my phone and laptop (except when I’m sleeping) because I love tech so much. But this brings me to the question, if everything that matters to me is digital, is that good? I argue it’s not. I don’t want to use technology so much, that everything I do is dependable on it. That’s why I’m glad I’m not the person I just wrote about. This gets to my main point where I feel like technology is starting to dictate our lives, rather than ourselves. We should be at the forefront of our experiences, interactions and emotions, not our devices. With that being said, I believe we have become too reliant on technology as it has changed our intellect for the worse, deteriorated our physical, mental and emotional health, and allows for false narratives to spread and misinformation to thrive.

Technology has changed our intellect for the worse. There is a common misconception in the world today, that we’ve gotten smarter. That narrative is false. We aren’t as smart as we used to be. Our computers are smarter. Over the past quarter century we have gone from having one computer in the entire world, that
basically acted as an improved typewriter, to everyone in the country having that computing power in their hands, times a thousand. So when I ask you the question, are we getting smarter, or are computers getting smarter, it’s directly clear that we are not the ones getting smarter. It’s our computer counterparts that are.

Technology has deteriorated our physical, mental and emotional health. We’re fat. Fatter than we’ve ever been. Obesity is through the roof, mental health issues are skyrocketing and the average American can’t even do one pushup. What is associated with these alarming trends? The growth and rise of digital technology. As our computer counterparts are doing more and more for us, we are doing less and less. And yes that includes moving.

Technology allows for false narratives and misinformation to spread and thrive. Fake News? Fake News? Fake News? What is fake and real anymore. With technology continuously advancing its harder to differentiate reality from fantasy.

Conclusion: I wanted to note that while using the word technology in this essay I was talking about it digitally (iphone, internet and web). But with that aside you could make an argument for things like a written paper, or a hardcopy book to be products of technology. But while reading this essay I bet you didn’t even think about that once. It just goes to show you how much influence technology has over our lives. A lot of people don’t know what things (words) truly mean. And a major reason for that is they never have to. They can just google it. Take a simple word, like technology for example. I’ve come to the conclusion that in this current age a lot of people can’t tell me what technology really is, because like I said before they don’t ever need to look up and learn the definitions of words. Why? Well, because they have access to every single definition on the internet. On the odd chance they need the definition for work, or school they can just copy it from wikipedia. Meaning people are not retaining the information, their just copying and pasting it from their internet browser to a google doc.

2nd draft 1000 words

My relationship with technology is complicated. On the one hand, it is essential to my every day life. It’s a staple. It grants me instant, unlimited access to anything I could ever want. Up to date news, check. Unlimited streams of entertainment, tv shows, movies, games check. Instant connection to family and freinds, check. I spend every waking second on my phone and laptop (except when I’m sleeping) because I love tech so much. But this brings me to the question, if everything that matters to me is digital, is that good? I argue it’s not. I don’t want to use technology so much, that everything I do is dependable on it. That’s why I’m glad I’m not the person I just wrote about. This idea stems from Nichols Carr’s essay “Is technology making us stupid?” where Carr explains how “advancements in digital technology have changed our intellect for the worse”. With that being said I share Carr’s skepticism of how we have become too adamant on technology to carry out our daily tasks. And with that we have lost a lot of our capacity to use our brains to the best of their abilities. This brings me to my main point where I feel like technology is starting to dictate our lives, rather than ourselves. We should be at the forefront of our experiences, interactions and emotions, not our devices. With that being said, I believe we have become too reliant on technology as it has changed our intellect for the worse, deteriorated our physical, mental and emotional health, and allows for false narratives to spread and misinformation to thrive.

Technology has altered our intellect for the worse. There is a common misconception in the world today, that we’ve gotten smarter. That narrative is false. We aren’t as smart as we used to be. Our computers are smarter. Over the past quarter century we have gone from having one computer in the entire world, that acted basically as an improved typewriter, to everyone in the country having that computing power in their hands, times a thousand. So when I ask you the question, are we getting smarter, or are computers getting smarter, it’s directly clear that we are not the ones getting smarter. It’s our computer counterparts that are.

Technology has deteriorated our physical, mental and emotional health. We’re fat. Fatter than we’ve ever been. Obesity is through the roof, mental health issues are skyrocketing and the average American can’t even do one pushup. What is associated with these alarming trends? The growth and rise of digital technology. As our computer counterparts are doing more and more for us, we are doing less and less. And yes that includes moving. 70 years ago the average amount of time an American spent looking at a screen was 0. Zero. Today it’s 10 hours. That’s basically the entire day aside from the 8-9 hours spent sleeping and 2 hours of eating, peeing and pooping. All that time used to do things early in the 19th century that was beneficial to our health (exercising, spending time outside, meeting new people) is now consumed by us sitting, staring, at our screen. And yet people continue to ask, why is everyone overweight, why are so many people having mental health issues, why is everyone angry at each other. The answer is so much simpler than it seems. It’s because of our screens.

Technology allows for false narratives and misinformation to spread and thrive. Fake News? Fake News? Fake News? What is fake and real anymore. With technology continuously advancing it is harder and harder to differentiate reality from fantasy. As each day goes by we are constantly being disassociated with the real world, and dragged back into the fake world, the online world, which in reality is just some computer script on our devices that we constantly stare at. Which brings me to my next point, how we depend on it for our news and information. As a famous man once said “knowledge is power”. And where do we get our knowledge from? News and information. And now thanks to digital technology News now often spreads off its attractiveness to the consumer (ability to get clicks) rather than its validity. Because at the end of the day digital technology including the web/internet (which is where we get our news from) is more of an outlet for entertainment than it is for information. Meaning its more novel and fiction based, than fact. When people open up a web browser they usually do it with the intention to be entertained. Making the web more like a graphic novel than a newspaper. Meaning that in a sense our power as humans (with the web being the biggest source of information on the planet), is hanging in the balance thanks to digital technology.

While technology undoubtedly has its uses and advantages, people have become too dependent on it. And it’s hurting our intellect. It’s hurting our brains. It’s hurting our knowledge. It’s hurting our health. It’s hurting our family members. It’s hurting our friends. It’s hurting our classmates. It’s hurting our teachers. It’s hurting our pets. It’s hurting our kindness. It’s hurting our love. It’s hurting our push up ability. And It’s hurting us. This last idea that I’m about to wrap up this essay with is about really hammering that home.
It highlights something simple, something familiar but at the same time something that is so far away for so many people, the definitions of words: I wanted to note that while using the word technology in this essay I was talking about it mostly digitally (iphone, internet and web). But with that aside you could make an argument for things like a written paper, or a hardcopy book to be products of technology. But while reading this essay I bet you didn’t even think about that once. It just goes to show you how much influence technology has over our lives. A majority of people don’t know what things (words) truly mean. And a major reason for that is they never have to. They can just google it. Take a simple word, like technology for example. I’ve come to the conclusion that in this current age a lot of people can’t tell me what technology really is, because like I said before they don’t ever need to deeply learn and understand the true meaning of words. Why? Well, because they have access to every single definition on the internet. On the odd chance they need the definition for work, or school they can just copy it from wikipedia. Meaning they’re not retaining the information, they’re just copying and pasting it from their internet browser to their google doc.

Details