Turkle and Carr have a very simpler message and I agree with them both. Carr has a very good point that us humans don’t have a lot of patience because google and technogly are so fast so when we don’t get something fast enough we get upset and annoyed. this goes along very well with Turkle because she says a lot with how technogly affects us in conversation and public areas with conversation. another thing I really liked in Carrs essay was that he explained how bad our handwriting has gotten as a community and we only type now so no one really has that special touch of a letter with there own hand writing on it which is very special. Carr and turtles essay gives up very good points about how technogly and social media has changed us as a world for the good but mostly bad and how we need to change.
With the increasing power and abilities of technology it has begun to take over our abilities as humans to do things on our own. There are many ways we use technology whether it be social media, using the internet or simply just on your phone or other devices, and all those things have changed how we live. The idea of having a conversation with someone, being able to talk with someone has diminished. In “The Empathy Diaries” written by Sherry Turkle she says “But these days we find ways around conversation. We hide from each other even as we’re constantly connected to each other” (Turkle 344). Turkle explains how technology takes away from the simple abilities we should have, like as simple as being able to have a conversation with someone. All of the ways we hide from it using technology as a gateway to hide from the real world. Technology starts to take over and control us. Nicholas Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” says “I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory” (Carr 1). We have allowed technology to have the power to take over our brains and control what we do and how we go about our lives in the real world.
In Sherry Turkle’s Memoir she argues that technology, Particularly the internet and social media, is altering the way people communicate and form relationships, often leading to more superficial connections. As she observes, “ we are together, but each of us is in our own bubble, furiously connected to keyboards and touchscreens.” It emphasizes how digital connectivity can isolate individuals in their own virtual worlds, despite being in the same space. Turkle critiques how technology, while connecting us to distant networks, often disconnects us from meaningful, face-to-face interactions. Nicholas Carr shares a similar concern, though his focus is on how the internet impacts cognitive processes. He notes, “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” Together, their views highlight a broader issue. Digital technologies are reshaping both our social and interactions and our intellectual capacities in ways that may diminish the depth of both. Turkle emphasizes that while we appear more connected that ever, these connections are often devoid of genuine intimacy or emotional investment, a phenomenon she refers to as being “alone together” Carr, in contrast, discusses how the internet fragment our attention, discouraging deep, sustained reading or thinking. He describes how this constant distraction rewires our brains, leading to a more scattered and superficial way of processing information. The common thread between Turkle and Carr is their concern for depth—whether in relationships or thought. Both see technology as encouraging breadth over depth, with Turkle focusing on the emotional consequences and Carr on the cognitive. Thus, they present a compelling case that while digital technologies offer convenience and connection, they come at the cost of the richer, more meaningful experiences that arise from sustained attention and deeper engagement, both with people and ideas.
Jaidin Fuentes
Journal #11
Nicholas Carr and Sherry Turkle both say the internet and technology have a negative effect on our attention spans, which hurts our relationships with one another. Nicholas Carr says in his work Is Google Making Us Stupid? “The more they use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr 8). When we browse on the web or internet in general, we are fed fast and efficient information. This not only has a negative effect on writing but our ability to focus on any task at hand, including conversations. Sherry Turkle also expresses agreement with this idea by saying in her work Empathy Diaries “We have become accustomed to a constant feed of connection” (Turkle 344) and “Students don’t seem to be making friendships as before. They make acquaintances, but their connections seem superficial” (Turkle 345). Turkle seems to be saying that the internet is hurting our ability to focus on friendships and relationships. Sherry Turkle emphasizes this point strongly throughout her essay. Nicholas Carr agrees with this point by saying the cause is humans becoming to use to quick and easy to gain information from the internet that we struggle to focus on topics that require more effort. Both authors believe there needs to be a change in the way we interact with the internet in order to correct these issues in order to solves these problems.
Technology is convenient and with easy access to the social world it allows us to create various connections, but it has become common today to underestimate the impact on our abilities to obtain focus and empathize in deeper connections. Turkle articulates that “conversation advances self-reflection, the conversations with ourselves that are the cornerstone of early development and continue throughout life” (Sherry Turkle 344). If technology is present during early development, it can factor in effects on a kid’s capacity of attention and meaningful connections. Although our brains are neuroplastic, meaning it can create new pathways or lose them. Therefore, it’s also affecting adults as we are making new pathways associated with our use of technology. As time goes on, we are seeing the advances in technology and Carr ultimately feels that “I’m not thinking the way I used to think” (Carr 1). That’s the vague way of saying technology is rewiring the way our brain works. The internet takes your past activity and creates a personalized feed for you, with short spurts of information at a fast pace. This doesn’t require us to think and read into a deeper context. It essentially adjusts us to the flow of fast paced reading, so now when we try to read long essays we can’t seem to keep focus the whole time.
Technology is a relatively new feature to many. While most didn’t grow up with it, the entirety of my generation did, in one way or another. I think technology is a great tool for learning and life. If used responsibly, it won’t always have negative effects on human minds. Sherry Turkle, a MIT sociologist, does not share this view. She believes that technology is hindering the human ability to be bored. She writes, “We check our messages during a quiet moment or when the pull of the online world simply feels irresistible.” She is essentially saying that technology has a negative effect on a very human trait, boredom, which can be healthy (especially for children). Similarly, Nicholas Carr writes about losing the ability to think deeply in his article, Is Google Making Us Stupid? He writes, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think…Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore.” Carr is frustrated with losing his ability to read deeply like he once could and blames it on the internet for having so much information that is so easy to access and so easy to distract oneself with. Both Turkle and Carr believe technology is messing with attention spans in very deep, very consequential ways. Though I agree that the inability to put the phone down and the inability to read deeply could have very detrimental effects very soon, I also believe that this isn’t the issue for everyone, nor is it as extreme as they make it out to be. I believe that with time, people will learn how to coexist with technology in a way that is most beneficial to us. Currently, since technology is so new, we don’t know how to use it the correct way yet. But, like everything else, we will adapt and be able to use technology mindfully and retain the ability to have deep thoughts.
These days technology creates many distractions surrounding our abilities to think deeply. The constant updates, notifications, and amount of information available tend to be overwhelming to us making it harder to focus on one thing and splitting our attention between too many things. This concern is shown by both Sherry Turkle in her essay The Empathy Diaries and Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid. Turkle says that “we are more connected than ever, but we are also more alone.” This quote talks about the idea that even though technology is a way for us to be connected constantly, it serves as a distraction from more meaningful connections at the same time. Similarly to this Carr states that “They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away at my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” In this quote Carr is saying that while the internet is the place providing us with all this information available constantly it is also the reason as to why we think differently. He argues that the way online content is formatted in fragmented ways, makes our concentration more limited and us more likely to just skim around things instead of gaining a deep understanding.
Technology is negatively affecting our brains; it distracts us from the information in front of us and causes us to have shorter attention spans. I think technology can be a helpful tool but also can distract us from things that actually need to get done. As Turkle says “we turn to our phones when we’re “bored”. And we often find ourselves bored because we have become accustomed to a constant feed of connection, information, and entertainment. We are forever elsewhere.” (Sherry Turkle 344). While I may need to be doing homework or talking to a friend, I get bored and want stimulation. I instead turn to my phone to play a game or scroll social media, taking breaks from something that would be done so quickly if I could just focus to get it finished. As Carr puts it in his piece “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do.” (Nicholas Carr 1) In Carr’s piece, he talks more about how he feels his brain is being “remapped” and “tinkered” with. This obsession with technology, to constantly want to scroll, is slowly affecting our brains to the point where we cannot focus on small tasks without needing to take a break. It distracts us from everything, and makes tasks take even longer than they should.
Technology has many negative and positive effects on the human population. Sherry Turkle, a doctorate holder from Harvard, and Nicholas Carr, an American journalist and writer, have similar views on the negative impacts of technology. They both believe technology breaks down our attention span. Turkle says, “Afraid of being alone, we struggle to pay attention to ourselves. And what suffers is our ability to pay attention to each other”(Turkle 348). She mentions how technology is always there to distract us when we are alone so we never have time to pay attention to anything other than our devices. I believe this to be true because whenever myself or the people around me have free time, it’s usually spent on devices so my mind is always stimulated and I can never focus. Similarly Carr says, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it mostly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages”(Carr 1). It’s impossible to focus on anything for long periods of time because our brains have gotten so used to so many things popping up on our devices to distract us. I agree with both Turkle and Carr that technology has shortened our attention span. As I’ve grown up, my attention span has definitely gotten shorter and I can see it in the younger generations.
Google and the other services that the internet offers, has such a large impact on many aspects of our daily lives. Technology offers many opportunities and with it just as many distractions. We spend so much time everyday using our devices for communication, education, accessibility necessities, and so much more. Carr explains “Never has a communication system played so many roles in our lives – or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts – as the internet does today (Carr 3).” This frequent and heavy usage has inadvertent effects on our lives and the lives of our children. When we rely so heavily upon these services, we don’t realize that we are giving up some of our intuitions and becoming dependent on our devices. Turkle states, “Despite the pull of technology, we are resilient. For example, in only five days at a summer camp that bans all electronic devices, children show an increased capacity for empathy as measured by their ability to relate to the feelings of others by looking at photographs and videos of people’s faces (Turkle 348).” When we are able to step away from the technology that is ruling our lives we can really connect to ourselves and begin to repair the negative effects that technology poses upon us.
Technology hinders our ability to think and communicate, weakening our connection with others. Sherry Turkle, author of “The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir,” explains throughout her work that technology is ruining empathy in both older and newer generations. She begins the passage with the sentence, “…we turn to our phones instead of each other” (Turkle 343). This means that instead of having social interactions with others, we tend to prefer the safety behind a screen. It is easier to communicate over the phone, but it is often shallow and lacks meaning. Face-to-face interaction is necessary, because “It’s where we develop the capacity for empathy” (Turkle 344). Likewise, Nicholas Carr’s essay displays the idea that having convenient access to online information is negatively affecting our ability to think deeply and it is a distraction in our lives. He explains that “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Carr 2). Carr believes that the internet has affected his own mind, making him less capable of analyzing large pieces of literature and resorting to the Net for quick, correct answers. Although he is finding the answers he is looking for, he isn’t improving his ability to think and comprehend large pieces of information. Both passages referenced above help prove that technology does not teach deep thinking or communication skills, but is a convenient distraction from real-life interactions.
There is only one way which is most beneficial and efficient for everyone. That is a belief that both Sherry Turkle and Nicholas Carr share. In the context of the internet Carr believes that “The internet is a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information, and its legions of programmers are intent on finding the “one best method” —the perfect algorithm-to carry out every mental movement of what we’ve come to describe as “knowledge work.”. While Sherry Turkle makes a point of defining and improving conversation she says that society is “more lonely than before, that our children are less empathic than they should be for their age…”. Despite the fact that Carr is referring to the way the internet is programmed and Turkle about the way we are losing key values, they both believe in a singular best method.
Digital technology causes distraction – in everyday activities, work, conversation, and, arguably most important, thinking. Sherry Turkle, a Harvard graduate and MIT professor, addresses this issue in her work: The Empathy Diaries. Turkle discusses many problems stemming from the use of digital technology and the internet such as lack of empathy, poor conversation skills, and the inability to think. She states that “..we turn to our phones when we’re ‘bored.’ And we often find ourselves bored because we have become accustomed to a constant feed of connection, information, and entertainment. We are forever elsewhere. At class or at church or business meetings, we pay attention to what interests us and then when it doesn’t, we look to our devices to find something that does”(Turkle 344). Essentially, we are never fully present because we are always so distracted by what technology holds for us. We want to be on our phones instead of talking to someone and would rather doom-scroll than talk to a stranger or try a new activity. Digital technology, our phones in particular, has conditioned us to live a certain way, to be a certain way, and to think a certain way. In this, we think less and less. Nicholas Carr, a writer and author, describes a similar experience in his work: Is Google Making Us Stupid?. He details his and other writers’ experiences while researching, reading, writing, and even just being online in his free time in conjunction with research on the issue. Carr says that the internet as a universal medium, introduces the majority of the information that flows through us. However, while the internet supplies information to facilitate thought, it also “shapes[s] the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles” (Carr 2). Carr is essentially saying that we are always distracted, even when thinking because we are conditioning ourselves to allow the internet to do the thinking for us. It changes the way we think. Our new way of thinking is scattered and surface level, no longer concentrated and deep. Our ability to think is declining, along with our ability to focus on a task or read for more than a page or two, and it seems to be directly caused by digital technology.
13 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 11”
Turkle and Carr have a very simpler message and I agree with them both. Carr has a very good point that us humans don’t have a lot of patience because google and technogly are so fast so when we don’t get something fast enough we get upset and annoyed. this goes along very well with Turkle because she says a lot with how technogly affects us in conversation and public areas with conversation. another thing I really liked in Carrs essay was that he explained how bad our handwriting has gotten as a community and we only type now so no one really has that special touch of a letter with there own hand writing on it which is very special. Carr and turtles essay gives up very good points about how technogly and social media has changed us as a world for the good but mostly bad and how we need to change.
With the increasing power and abilities of technology it has begun to take over our abilities as humans to do things on our own. There are many ways we use technology whether it be social media, using the internet or simply just on your phone or other devices, and all those things have changed how we live. The idea of having a conversation with someone, being able to talk with someone has diminished. In “The Empathy Diaries” written by Sherry Turkle she says “But these days we find ways around conversation. We hide from each other even as we’re constantly connected to each other” (Turkle 344). Turkle explains how technology takes away from the simple abilities we should have, like as simple as being able to have a conversation with someone. All of the ways we hide from it using technology as a gateway to hide from the real world. Technology starts to take over and control us. Nicholas Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” says “I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory” (Carr 1). We have allowed technology to have the power to take over our brains and control what we do and how we go about our lives in the real world.
In Sherry Turkle’s Memoir she argues that technology, Particularly the internet and social media, is altering the way people communicate and form relationships, often leading to more superficial connections. As she observes, “ we are together, but each of us is in our own bubble, furiously connected to keyboards and touchscreens.” It emphasizes how digital connectivity can isolate individuals in their own virtual worlds, despite being in the same space. Turkle critiques how technology, while connecting us to distant networks, often disconnects us from meaningful, face-to-face interactions. Nicholas Carr shares a similar concern, though his focus is on how the internet impacts cognitive processes. He notes, “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” Together, their views highlight a broader issue. Digital technologies are reshaping both our social and interactions and our intellectual capacities in ways that may diminish the depth of both. Turkle emphasizes that while we appear more connected that ever, these connections are often devoid of genuine intimacy or emotional investment, a phenomenon she refers to as being “alone together” Carr, in contrast, discusses how the internet fragment our attention, discouraging deep, sustained reading or thinking. He describes how this constant distraction rewires our brains, leading to a more scattered and superficial way of processing information. The common thread between Turkle and Carr is their concern for depth—whether in relationships or thought. Both see technology as encouraging breadth over depth, with Turkle focusing on the emotional consequences and Carr on the cognitive. Thus, they present a compelling case that while digital technologies offer convenience and connection, they come at the cost of the richer, more meaningful experiences that arise from sustained attention and deeper engagement, both with people and ideas.
Jaidin Fuentes
Journal #11
Nicholas Carr and Sherry Turkle both say the internet and technology have a negative effect on our attention spans, which hurts our relationships with one another. Nicholas Carr says in his work Is Google Making Us Stupid? “The more they use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr 8). When we browse on the web or internet in general, we are fed fast and efficient information. This not only has a negative effect on writing but our ability to focus on any task at hand, including conversations. Sherry Turkle also expresses agreement with this idea by saying in her work Empathy Diaries “We have become accustomed to a constant feed of connection” (Turkle 344) and “Students don’t seem to be making friendships as before. They make acquaintances, but their connections seem superficial” (Turkle 345). Turkle seems to be saying that the internet is hurting our ability to focus on friendships and relationships. Sherry Turkle emphasizes this point strongly throughout her essay. Nicholas Carr agrees with this point by saying the cause is humans becoming to use to quick and easy to gain information from the internet that we struggle to focus on topics that require more effort. Both authors believe there needs to be a change in the way we interact with the internet in order to correct these issues in order to solves these problems.
Technology is convenient and with easy access to the social world it allows us to create various connections, but it has become common today to underestimate the impact on our abilities to obtain focus and empathize in deeper connections. Turkle articulates that “conversation advances self-reflection, the conversations with ourselves that are the cornerstone of early development and continue throughout life” (Sherry Turkle 344). If technology is present during early development, it can factor in effects on a kid’s capacity of attention and meaningful connections. Although our brains are neuroplastic, meaning it can create new pathways or lose them. Therefore, it’s also affecting adults as we are making new pathways associated with our use of technology. As time goes on, we are seeing the advances in technology and Carr ultimately feels that “I’m not thinking the way I used to think” (Carr 1). That’s the vague way of saying technology is rewiring the way our brain works. The internet takes your past activity and creates a personalized feed for you, with short spurts of information at a fast pace. This doesn’t require us to think and read into a deeper context. It essentially adjusts us to the flow of fast paced reading, so now when we try to read long essays we can’t seem to keep focus the whole time.
Technology is a relatively new feature to many. While most didn’t grow up with it, the entirety of my generation did, in one way or another. I think technology is a great tool for learning and life. If used responsibly, it won’t always have negative effects on human minds. Sherry Turkle, a MIT sociologist, does not share this view. She believes that technology is hindering the human ability to be bored. She writes, “We check our messages during a quiet moment or when the pull of the online world simply feels irresistible.” She is essentially saying that technology has a negative effect on a very human trait, boredom, which can be healthy (especially for children). Similarly, Nicholas Carr writes about losing the ability to think deeply in his article, Is Google Making Us Stupid? He writes, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think…Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore.” Carr is frustrated with losing his ability to read deeply like he once could and blames it on the internet for having so much information that is so easy to access and so easy to distract oneself with. Both Turkle and Carr believe technology is messing with attention spans in very deep, very consequential ways. Though I agree that the inability to put the phone down and the inability to read deeply could have very detrimental effects very soon, I also believe that this isn’t the issue for everyone, nor is it as extreme as they make it out to be. I believe that with time, people will learn how to coexist with technology in a way that is most beneficial to us. Currently, since technology is so new, we don’t know how to use it the correct way yet. But, like everything else, we will adapt and be able to use technology mindfully and retain the ability to have deep thoughts.
These days technology creates many distractions surrounding our abilities to think deeply. The constant updates, notifications, and amount of information available tend to be overwhelming to us making it harder to focus on one thing and splitting our attention between too many things. This concern is shown by both Sherry Turkle in her essay The Empathy Diaries and Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid. Turkle says that “we are more connected than ever, but we are also more alone.” This quote talks about the idea that even though technology is a way for us to be connected constantly, it serves as a distraction from more meaningful connections at the same time. Similarly to this Carr states that “They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away at my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” In this quote Carr is saying that while the internet is the place providing us with all this information available constantly it is also the reason as to why we think differently. He argues that the way online content is formatted in fragmented ways, makes our concentration more limited and us more likely to just skim around things instead of gaining a deep understanding.
Technology is negatively affecting our brains; it distracts us from the information in front of us and causes us to have shorter attention spans. I think technology can be a helpful tool but also can distract us from things that actually need to get done. As Turkle says “we turn to our phones when we’re “bored”. And we often find ourselves bored because we have become accustomed to a constant feed of connection, information, and entertainment. We are forever elsewhere.” (Sherry Turkle 344). While I may need to be doing homework or talking to a friend, I get bored and want stimulation. I instead turn to my phone to play a game or scroll social media, taking breaks from something that would be done so quickly if I could just focus to get it finished. As Carr puts it in his piece “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do.” (Nicholas Carr 1) In Carr’s piece, he talks more about how he feels his brain is being “remapped” and “tinkered” with. This obsession with technology, to constantly want to scroll, is slowly affecting our brains to the point where we cannot focus on small tasks without needing to take a break. It distracts us from everything, and makes tasks take even longer than they should.
Technology has many negative and positive effects on the human population. Sherry Turkle, a doctorate holder from Harvard, and Nicholas Carr, an American journalist and writer, have similar views on the negative impacts of technology. They both believe technology breaks down our attention span. Turkle says, “Afraid of being alone, we struggle to pay attention to ourselves. And what suffers is our ability to pay attention to each other”(Turkle 348). She mentions how technology is always there to distract us when we are alone so we never have time to pay attention to anything other than our devices. I believe this to be true because whenever myself or the people around me have free time, it’s usually spent on devices so my mind is always stimulated and I can never focus. Similarly Carr says, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it mostly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages”(Carr 1). It’s impossible to focus on anything for long periods of time because our brains have gotten so used to so many things popping up on our devices to distract us. I agree with both Turkle and Carr that technology has shortened our attention span. As I’ve grown up, my attention span has definitely gotten shorter and I can see it in the younger generations.
Google and the other services that the internet offers, has such a large impact on many aspects of our daily lives. Technology offers many opportunities and with it just as many distractions. We spend so much time everyday using our devices for communication, education, accessibility necessities, and so much more. Carr explains “Never has a communication system played so many roles in our lives – or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts – as the internet does today (Carr 3).” This frequent and heavy usage has inadvertent effects on our lives and the lives of our children. When we rely so heavily upon these services, we don’t realize that we are giving up some of our intuitions and becoming dependent on our devices. Turkle states, “Despite the pull of technology, we are resilient. For example, in only five days at a summer camp that bans all electronic devices, children show an increased capacity for empathy as measured by their ability to relate to the feelings of others by looking at photographs and videos of people’s faces (Turkle 348).” When we are able to step away from the technology that is ruling our lives we can really connect to ourselves and begin to repair the negative effects that technology poses upon us.
Technology hinders our ability to think and communicate, weakening our connection with others. Sherry Turkle, author of “The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir,” explains throughout her work that technology is ruining empathy in both older and newer generations. She begins the passage with the sentence, “…we turn to our phones instead of each other” (Turkle 343). This means that instead of having social interactions with others, we tend to prefer the safety behind a screen. It is easier to communicate over the phone, but it is often shallow and lacks meaning. Face-to-face interaction is necessary, because “It’s where we develop the capacity for empathy” (Turkle 344). Likewise, Nicholas Carr’s essay displays the idea that having convenient access to online information is negatively affecting our ability to think deeply and it is a distraction in our lives. He explains that “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Carr 2). Carr believes that the internet has affected his own mind, making him less capable of analyzing large pieces of literature and resorting to the Net for quick, correct answers. Although he is finding the answers he is looking for, he isn’t improving his ability to think and comprehend large pieces of information. Both passages referenced above help prove that technology does not teach deep thinking or communication skills, but is a convenient distraction from real-life interactions.
There is only one way which is most beneficial and efficient for everyone. That is a belief that both Sherry Turkle and Nicholas Carr share. In the context of the internet Carr believes that “The internet is a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information, and its legions of programmers are intent on finding the “one best method” —the perfect algorithm-to carry out every mental movement of what we’ve come to describe as “knowledge work.”. While Sherry Turkle makes a point of defining and improving conversation she says that society is “more lonely than before, that our children are less empathic than they should be for their age…”. Despite the fact that Carr is referring to the way the internet is programmed and Turkle about the way we are losing key values, they both believe in a singular best method.
Digital technology causes distraction – in everyday activities, work, conversation, and, arguably most important, thinking. Sherry Turkle, a Harvard graduate and MIT professor, addresses this issue in her work: The Empathy Diaries. Turkle discusses many problems stemming from the use of digital technology and the internet such as lack of empathy, poor conversation skills, and the inability to think. She states that “..we turn to our phones when we’re ‘bored.’ And we often find ourselves bored because we have become accustomed to a constant feed of connection, information, and entertainment. We are forever elsewhere. At class or at church or business meetings, we pay attention to what interests us and then when it doesn’t, we look to our devices to find something that does”(Turkle 344). Essentially, we are never fully present because we are always so distracted by what technology holds for us. We want to be on our phones instead of talking to someone and would rather doom-scroll than talk to a stranger or try a new activity. Digital technology, our phones in particular, has conditioned us to live a certain way, to be a certain way, and to think a certain way. In this, we think less and less. Nicholas Carr, a writer and author, describes a similar experience in his work: Is Google Making Us Stupid?. He details his and other writers’ experiences while researching, reading, writing, and even just being online in his free time in conjunction with research on the issue. Carr says that the internet as a universal medium, introduces the majority of the information that flows through us. However, while the internet supplies information to facilitate thought, it also “shapes[s] the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles” (Carr 2). Carr is essentially saying that we are always distracted, even when thinking because we are conditioning ourselves to allow the internet to do the thinking for us. It changes the way we think. Our new way of thinking is scattered and surface level, no longer concentrated and deep. Our ability to think is declining, along with our ability to focus on a task or read for more than a page or two, and it seems to be directly caused by digital technology.