Carr Idea: In Is Google Making Us Stupid? Carr believes that the highly intense use of the internet today is rewiring our brains and is making people more distracted and not capable of deep and focused thinking and reading. He also points out how the way that the people consume information online by skimming the text and words is making our ability to engage in a strong thoughtful process is weakened.
Turkle Idea: In The Empathy Diaries, Sherry Turkle explains how communication through technology and social media is ruining our ability to have meaningful and deep face-to-face conversations. Turkle also argues how constantly being glued to technology is diminishing people’s abilities to develop empathy and be able to obtain deep emotional connections.
Connection: Both Carr and Turkle’s ideas interact by the complications of technology within a human’s brain, as well as relationships. Carr tends to focus more on how the internet is changing the way people think, while Turkle expands her concern onto emotional intelligence and connection, which shows how the same type of technological habits has a negative impact to have the ability to engage deeply with other people. With both of their arguments, they suggest that technology isn’t just affecting people by being a distraction, but it is affecting people by making them less empathic as well as challenging people to rethink about how it is possible to balance their lives online and offline to help make stronger connections and be able to be deeply focused.
CARR IDEA: The brain as a machine; The human brain is malleable, it can be easily shaped and with consistent habits fully reprogrammed. People used to believe that by adulthood our brains were done changing, but researchers now are disproving that with lots of evidence. Page 4 paragraph 3
TURKLE IDEA: Lack of empathy; People, especially young children, have lost their ability to have empathy or meaningful social interaction. Many young adults find themselves avoiding potentially awkward or uncomfortable conversation, and retreating behind a screen. Page 344
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: These two ideas talk to each other in many ways. Carr’s idea is saying to Turkles that the brain’s malleability is directly related to the loss of empathy. If screens are creating comfort for humans to hide behind, the consistency of doing so will impact or brain and thus changing our instincts completely
CARR IDEA: Information as a commodity; Since almost ALL information can be found online, and now with AI help it’s extremely easy. Students are recalling information less, and just searching things up more. Yes, this can be a positive and negative thing.
TURKLE IDEA: Teachers in Holbrook Middle School claim students don’t talk to teachers or other students as much; It’s increasingly harder to get students to interact with each other or with teachers for multiple reasons, awkward conversations, fear of judgement, lack of energy, etc.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: These two ideas speak to each other in an interesting way. Carr’s ideas that information can be easily accessible now are a direct correlation to students’ lack of communication to teachers. Since help with school can be found online, students don’t feel the need to reach out to teachers, or help/confide in their peers about schoolwork. More students work independently because of online access. This results in a barrier.
Carr Idea:
Carr introduces the idea that Google is making us stupid. Google is making us stupid because it has trained us to absorb information through quick and immediate sources. This causes not just a change in our ability to read and write but also how we think, with quicker access to information we quickly become distracted or uninterested in things that require work, brain power, and time to be put in.
Turkle Idea:
Turkle introduces the idea that technology is making us all less connected to each other. Our heavy reliance on technology has stunted our ability to empathize with others and our ability to simply communicate face-to-face. This is because we rely on technology so much that we expect it to do it for us.
Carr and Turkle in convo:
In both essays, Carr and Turkle bring similar ideas to our attention. Although Turkle is focused on technology as a whole and Carr is mostly focused on how Google is affecting us, at their root the two ideas are very similar. Both ideas stem from our use of technology as a sort of crutch. We rely on technology to make connections for us because it’s easier and more comfortable than face-to-face; we rely on Google to tell us information because it’s easier and we can stay in the comfort of our homes rather than go out and look for information.
Carr Idea: Google/the internet is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply read texts, which in turn is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply think about what we are reading, and even the world around us.
Turkle Idea: Technology is ruining our ability to form deep connections with people and is greatly impacting our ability to empathize with one another
When Carr starts unpacking the idea of how our decline in reading comprehension is impacting other elements of our life such as our ability to critically think, he is showing how technology shapes interactions between us and the pieces of media that we encounter. Turkle’s idea takes this concept and pushes it further, claiming that this shift from shallow to deep interactions with media also extends to our interactions with other people. As technology becomes a larger part of our lives, we lose our ability to form complex, deep connections and conversations with one another. This then leads to a lack of empathy for others around us, and creates a vicious cycle towards losing our connection with other people all together.
CARR IDEA: Google/the internet is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply read texts, which in turn is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply think about what we are reading, and even the world around us.
TURKLE IDEA: Technology is ruining our ability to form deep connections with people and is greatly impacting our ability to empathize with one another
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: When Carr starts unpacking the idea of how our decline in reading comprehension is impacting other elements of our life such as our ability to critically think, he is showing how technology shapes interactions between us and the pieces of media that we encounter. Turkle’s idea takes this concept and pushes it further, claiming that this shift from shallow to deep interactions with media also extends to our interactions with other people. As technology becomes a larger part of our lives, we lose our ability to form complex, deep connections and conversations with one another. This then leads to a lack of empathy for others around us, and creates a vicious cycle towards losing our connection with other people all together.
Carr Idea: In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Author Nicolas Carr believes that technology has devastated the practice of deep reading and deep thinking. Because of technology, humans are no longer able to think deeply about subjects of all kinds.
Turkle Idea: In “The Empathy Diaries” Author Sherry Turkle believes that technology is diminishing the emotions of its users. Turkle’s argument is that humans are too dependent on technology, focusing on the switch from in person to online conversations, which has caused humans to be unable to sense each other’s feelings in person.
Connection: In both Carr’s essay and Turkle’s essay, the main idea is that technology has detrimental effects to the human mind. I feel that although each essay discusses different concepts pertaining to technology, the root of their arguments is the same- technology is bad for humans. Carr’s uses his article to unpack the idea pertaining to technology regarding how humans have become reliant on it whereas Turkle’s essay focuses on the aftereffects of the relance of technology.
Turkle Idea: In “The Empathy Diaries” by Sherry Turkles believes that technology is damaging connections and emotions like empathy. Turkle believes that when we become too reliant on technology it impacts our ability to have meaningful relationships or even conversations because we lose the ability to put ourselves in others’ shoes.
Carr’s Idea: Nick Carr shares his view on the internet, specifically Google is making us lose the ability to think critically thinking or be focused since we have the access to get information and all types of answers at our fingertips. It damages the way we think, read, communicate and learn which is causing us to lose intelligence.
Comparison: Turkle and Carr both highlight overlapping damages from technology. While Turkle is concerned with how technology diminishes our emotional and social skills, Carr is interested in how it damages our brains and the way we think. Together, their arguments bring a shift in the more we use technology, the more we risk losing our relationships and our minds.
Key Concepts #1:
CARR IDEA – Carr argues that the access to indispensable knowledge that the internet provides is taking a large toll on our own human intelligence. It spreads us thin and makes up lack intellectual depth.
TURKLE IDEA – Turkle argues that an increase focus on technological conversation has resulted in a lack of genuine conversation which, in turn, is having detrimental impacts on the development of social skills such as empathy.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO – Carr argues that the access to indispensable knowledge that the internet provides is taking a large toll on our own human intelligence. It spreads us thin and makes up lack intellectual depth. Specifically, Carr harps on ideas of losing concentration and specialized knowledge. Turkle complements this argument by introducing another area that has been deteriorated through an increase focus on technology: empathy. The combination of Carr and Turkle’s ideas highlight the negative impacts that technology is having on our minds. We are lacking emotional and specialized intelligence.
Key Concepts #2:
CARR IDEA – Carr claims that the internet had not led to a lack of reading, however it has changed how we read. He highlights that we have become mere scanners of text, prioritizing efficiency and speed over deep reading and deep thinking.
TURKLE IDEA – Turkle explains that there is an unawareness of the deterioration of conversation in the current generation. They were born into such a technologically-engulfed world that there is a lack of realization that the avoidance of genuine conversation is an issue that has consequences.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO – Carr claims that the internet has not led to a lack of reading, however it has changed how we read. We become mere scanners of text, prioritizing efficiency and speed over deep reading and deep thinking. This same idea laid out by Carr can be applied to Turkle’s arguments. We are conversing more than ever, however the way in which we are doing so has changed dramatically. The current generation was born into such a technologically-engulfed world there is a lack of realization that the avoidance of genuine, in-person conversation even poses an issue that has consequences.
Carr’s idea: Nick Carr is trying to share with us the effect of how google is distracting us from being focused because of how easy it is to get access to the information we need. Making it so that we don’t have to think as much as we would if we were physically engaged with a task.
Turkle’s idea: Sherry Turkle believes that because of technology we are lacking connection with the social world and lacking empathy. Turkles thinks technology is affecting our current relationships and friendship because of the fact that without empathy you don’t understand another person’s perspective.
Comparison:Turkles and Carr both focus and agree on the fact that technology affects us in a bad way. Carr is more concerned with how Technology is affecting our brains and the way they think. Meanwhile Turkle is more focused on how it affects our emotions and the way we conversate and understand others. They both think we are gonna lose something.
Carr idea:
Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, an idea that gets brought up is how we interact with the access to almost limitless information. With access to millions of databases, critical thinking on the spot and the ability to have human interactions have been lost to the virtual world.
Turkle idea:
In “The Empathy Diaries”, Sherry Turkle wrote about how identity through conversation has been put to the back burner and its replacement is the evolution of technology and how we weave into our lives. Turkle writes highly about the many complexities of authenticity in trying to maintain those bonds and emphasizes human traits cannot be replaced by machines.
Carr and Turkle in convo:
In Carr’s passage on page 3 paragraph 3, he mentions “The ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply”, this is an interesting point on how he views not only from an educational perspective, but also from the perspective of how our ability to recognize a language could decline and not having the ability to break down and apply the write-up of that information. Turkle writes on page 357 paragraph 5, “We are being silenced by our technologies – in a way, cured of talking”, this is almost a perfect tandem to Carr’s idea of deep understanding comes from the ability to interpret and connect to the text in front of us.
Carr brings up the discussion of how the internet is making the deep thinking in his brain deteriorate over time: “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” (Carr 2). One line from Turkle’s essay that helps summarize her thoughts is “Time with people teaches children how to be in a relationship, beginning with the ability to have conversation” (Turkle 346). This line shows how it is necessary to have conversations with people and that technology is destroying that ability.
CARR IDEA: Carr makes the point that people who are exposed to the Internet are more likely to have a lack of energy, which directly causes people to be more distracted. These distractions include clicking from link to link, unable to read longer articles, and skimming even the smallest paragraphs.
TURKLE IDEA: Throughout her paper, Turkle declares that even when people have conversations, they are distracted by even the mere presence of their phone. Most people claim that their phones do not have that much of an effect on their lives, until they are unable to hold a conversation with others because they refuse to take their eyes off their phones.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: Even though Turkle and Carr talk about two different ideas in their papers, they both add on to what each other has to say. In Carr’s paper he focuses on how easily people are distracted by links, but Turkle takes it a step further by saying that even having a phone in sight causes someone to instantly forget about everything else. Turkle, however, claims that the phone itself is the reason why people are easily distracted, whereas Carr states that it is the Internet that causes people to be more distracted.
CARR IDEA: One of Carr’s big ideas is how the Internet has changed how the way we read and write, specifically the way we communicate. This includes creating acronyms for sentences, lacking emotion while writing, and the inability to read articles that are “too long.”
TURKLE IDEA: Turkle argues that there has been a switch to communication through cell phone use rather than in person conversation. Avoidance of in person conversation is a result of people being uncomfortable and when they use their phone, it allows them to say things that they would never say in person or make themselves out to be somebody they are not.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: These two both cover the big idea of communication and how the way we communicate with other people has changed. Carr has a surface level argument that reading and writing has become simplified and does not provide deeper meaning. According to Carr, the reason that writing has become simplified is because of people lacking the “time” to care about what they are saying, especially because everything is just one click away. Turkle makes a more complicated argument by saying how people are scared to show their emotions, and that is why they hide behind their phone and choose to communicate that way.
Carr Idea: Nicolas Carr argues that because of having instant access to any information one could need is a convenience, however it also constrains our ability to think deeper, and retain knowledge.
Turkle Idea: Sherry Turkle explains how constant access to information having as well as communication affects our relationships with one another as well as oneself. People tend to go for technology for answers and even validation to avoid certain conversations or problems that they don’t know how the outcome will turn out.
Connection: Carr and Turkle’s ideas connect with both of their concern that having instant access to information as well as communication is diminishing deep thinking as well as deep connections. Carr argues that when relying on the internet for answers more quickly, it weakens people’s abilities to think critically, however Turkle expands upon this by explaining how that same habit is making people less willing to talk and engage with others and oneself. They both put forward how digital convenience is showing a more surface level or engage which affects both intellectual and emotional depth.
The more technology evolves the more that people expect the human brain to evolve the same. People want our brains to function more similarly to computers. (Carr)
Turkle Idea
Digital technology is affecting kids’ empathy. They struggle to identify human emotions and do not understand the concepts of others’ feelings. (Turkle)
Carr and Turkle in Convo
Carr’s essay can be seen to expand off what Turkle talks about in her essay. Since Turkle identifies how technology affects kids’ empathy Carr can expand on how we expect our brains to function like computers which are more analytical and logical than emotional. The evolution of the way we see our brains may be linked to our lack of empathy.
14 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 12”
Carr Idea: In Is Google Making Us Stupid? Carr believes that the highly intense use of the internet today is rewiring our brains and is making people more distracted and not capable of deep and focused thinking and reading. He also points out how the way that the people consume information online by skimming the text and words is making our ability to engage in a strong thoughtful process is weakened.
Turkle Idea: In The Empathy Diaries, Sherry Turkle explains how communication through technology and social media is ruining our ability to have meaningful and deep face-to-face conversations. Turkle also argues how constantly being glued to technology is diminishing people’s abilities to develop empathy and be able to obtain deep emotional connections.
Connection: Both Carr and Turkle’s ideas interact by the complications of technology within a human’s brain, as well as relationships. Carr tends to focus more on how the internet is changing the way people think, while Turkle expands her concern onto emotional intelligence and connection, which shows how the same type of technological habits has a negative impact to have the ability to engage deeply with other people. With both of their arguments, they suggest that technology isn’t just affecting people by being a distraction, but it is affecting people by making them less empathic as well as challenging people to rethink about how it is possible to balance their lives online and offline to help make stronger connections and be able to be deeply focused.
CARR IDEA: The brain as a machine; The human brain is malleable, it can be easily shaped and with consistent habits fully reprogrammed. People used to believe that by adulthood our brains were done changing, but researchers now are disproving that with lots of evidence. Page 4 paragraph 3
TURKLE IDEA: Lack of empathy; People, especially young children, have lost their ability to have empathy or meaningful social interaction. Many young adults find themselves avoiding potentially awkward or uncomfortable conversation, and retreating behind a screen. Page 344
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: These two ideas talk to each other in many ways. Carr’s idea is saying to Turkles that the brain’s malleability is directly related to the loss of empathy. If screens are creating comfort for humans to hide behind, the consistency of doing so will impact or brain and thus changing our instincts completely
CARR IDEA: Information as a commodity; Since almost ALL information can be found online, and now with AI help it’s extremely easy. Students are recalling information less, and just searching things up more. Yes, this can be a positive and negative thing.
TURKLE IDEA: Teachers in Holbrook Middle School claim students don’t talk to teachers or other students as much; It’s increasingly harder to get students to interact with each other or with teachers for multiple reasons, awkward conversations, fear of judgement, lack of energy, etc.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: These two ideas speak to each other in an interesting way. Carr’s ideas that information can be easily accessible now are a direct correlation to students’ lack of communication to teachers. Since help with school can be found online, students don’t feel the need to reach out to teachers, or help/confide in their peers about schoolwork. More students work independently because of online access. This results in a barrier.
Carr Idea:
Carr introduces the idea that Google is making us stupid. Google is making us stupid because it has trained us to absorb information through quick and immediate sources. This causes not just a change in our ability to read and write but also how we think, with quicker access to information we quickly become distracted or uninterested in things that require work, brain power, and time to be put in.
Turkle Idea:
Turkle introduces the idea that technology is making us all less connected to each other. Our heavy reliance on technology has stunted our ability to empathize with others and our ability to simply communicate face-to-face. This is because we rely on technology so much that we expect it to do it for us.
Carr and Turkle in convo:
In both essays, Carr and Turkle bring similar ideas to our attention. Although Turkle is focused on technology as a whole and Carr is mostly focused on how Google is affecting us, at their root the two ideas are very similar. Both ideas stem from our use of technology as a sort of crutch. We rely on technology to make connections for us because it’s easier and more comfortable than face-to-face; we rely on Google to tell us information because it’s easier and we can stay in the comfort of our homes rather than go out and look for information.
Carr Idea: Google/the internet is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply read texts, which in turn is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply think about what we are reading, and even the world around us.
Turkle Idea: Technology is ruining our ability to form deep connections with people and is greatly impacting our ability to empathize with one another
When Carr starts unpacking the idea of how our decline in reading comprehension is impacting other elements of our life such as our ability to critically think, he is showing how technology shapes interactions between us and the pieces of media that we encounter. Turkle’s idea takes this concept and pushes it further, claiming that this shift from shallow to deep interactions with media also extends to our interactions with other people. As technology becomes a larger part of our lives, we lose our ability to form complex, deep connections and conversations with one another. This then leads to a lack of empathy for others around us, and creates a vicious cycle towards losing our connection with other people all together.
CARR IDEA: Google/the internet is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply read texts, which in turn is leading to a decline in our ability to deeply think about what we are reading, and even the world around us.
TURKLE IDEA: Technology is ruining our ability to form deep connections with people and is greatly impacting our ability to empathize with one another
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: When Carr starts unpacking the idea of how our decline in reading comprehension is impacting other elements of our life such as our ability to critically think, he is showing how technology shapes interactions between us and the pieces of media that we encounter. Turkle’s idea takes this concept and pushes it further, claiming that this shift from shallow to deep interactions with media also extends to our interactions with other people. As technology becomes a larger part of our lives, we lose our ability to form complex, deep connections and conversations with one another. This then leads to a lack of empathy for others around us, and creates a vicious cycle towards losing our connection with other people all together.
Carr Idea: In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Author Nicolas Carr believes that technology has devastated the practice of deep reading and deep thinking. Because of technology, humans are no longer able to think deeply about subjects of all kinds.
Turkle Idea: In “The Empathy Diaries” Author Sherry Turkle believes that technology is diminishing the emotions of its users. Turkle’s argument is that humans are too dependent on technology, focusing on the switch from in person to online conversations, which has caused humans to be unable to sense each other’s feelings in person.
Connection: In both Carr’s essay and Turkle’s essay, the main idea is that technology has detrimental effects to the human mind. I feel that although each essay discusses different concepts pertaining to technology, the root of their arguments is the same- technology is bad for humans. Carr’s uses his article to unpack the idea pertaining to technology regarding how humans have become reliant on it whereas Turkle’s essay focuses on the aftereffects of the relance of technology.
Turkle Idea: In “The Empathy Diaries” by Sherry Turkles believes that technology is damaging connections and emotions like empathy. Turkle believes that when we become too reliant on technology it impacts our ability to have meaningful relationships or even conversations because we lose the ability to put ourselves in others’ shoes.
Carr’s Idea: Nick Carr shares his view on the internet, specifically Google is making us lose the ability to think critically thinking or be focused since we have the access to get information and all types of answers at our fingertips. It damages the way we think, read, communicate and learn which is causing us to lose intelligence.
Comparison: Turkle and Carr both highlight overlapping damages from technology. While Turkle is concerned with how technology diminishes our emotional and social skills, Carr is interested in how it damages our brains and the way we think. Together, their arguments bring a shift in the more we use technology, the more we risk losing our relationships and our minds.
Key Concepts #1:
CARR IDEA – Carr argues that the access to indispensable knowledge that the internet provides is taking a large toll on our own human intelligence. It spreads us thin and makes up lack intellectual depth.
TURKLE IDEA – Turkle argues that an increase focus on technological conversation has resulted in a lack of genuine conversation which, in turn, is having detrimental impacts on the development of social skills such as empathy.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO – Carr argues that the access to indispensable knowledge that the internet provides is taking a large toll on our own human intelligence. It spreads us thin and makes up lack intellectual depth. Specifically, Carr harps on ideas of losing concentration and specialized knowledge. Turkle complements this argument by introducing another area that has been deteriorated through an increase focus on technology: empathy. The combination of Carr and Turkle’s ideas highlight the negative impacts that technology is having on our minds. We are lacking emotional and specialized intelligence.
Key Concepts #2:
CARR IDEA – Carr claims that the internet had not led to a lack of reading, however it has changed how we read. He highlights that we have become mere scanners of text, prioritizing efficiency and speed over deep reading and deep thinking.
TURKLE IDEA – Turkle explains that there is an unawareness of the deterioration of conversation in the current generation. They were born into such a technologically-engulfed world that there is a lack of realization that the avoidance of genuine conversation is an issue that has consequences.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO – Carr claims that the internet has not led to a lack of reading, however it has changed how we read. We become mere scanners of text, prioritizing efficiency and speed over deep reading and deep thinking. This same idea laid out by Carr can be applied to Turkle’s arguments. We are conversing more than ever, however the way in which we are doing so has changed dramatically. The current generation was born into such a technologically-engulfed world there is a lack of realization that the avoidance of genuine, in-person conversation even poses an issue that has consequences.
Carr’s idea: Nick Carr is trying to share with us the effect of how google is distracting us from being focused because of how easy it is to get access to the information we need. Making it so that we don’t have to think as much as we would if we were physically engaged with a task.
Turkle’s idea: Sherry Turkle believes that because of technology we are lacking connection with the social world and lacking empathy. Turkles thinks technology is affecting our current relationships and friendship because of the fact that without empathy you don’t understand another person’s perspective.
Comparison:Turkles and Carr both focus and agree on the fact that technology affects us in a bad way. Carr is more concerned with how Technology is affecting our brains and the way they think. Meanwhile Turkle is more focused on how it affects our emotions and the way we conversate and understand others. They both think we are gonna lose something.
Carr idea:
Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, an idea that gets brought up is how we interact with the access to almost limitless information. With access to millions of databases, critical thinking on the spot and the ability to have human interactions have been lost to the virtual world.
Turkle idea:
In “The Empathy Diaries”, Sherry Turkle wrote about how identity through conversation has been put to the back burner and its replacement is the evolution of technology and how we weave into our lives. Turkle writes highly about the many complexities of authenticity in trying to maintain those bonds and emphasizes human traits cannot be replaced by machines.
Carr and Turkle in convo:
In Carr’s passage on page 3 paragraph 3, he mentions “The ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply”, this is an interesting point on how he views not only from an educational perspective, but also from the perspective of how our ability to recognize a language could decline and not having the ability to break down and apply the write-up of that information. Turkle writes on page 357 paragraph 5, “We are being silenced by our technologies – in a way, cured of talking”, this is almost a perfect tandem to Carr’s idea of deep understanding comes from the ability to interpret and connect to the text in front of us.
Carr brings up the discussion of how the internet is making the deep thinking in his brain deteriorate over time: “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” (Carr 2). One line from Turkle’s essay that helps summarize her thoughts is “Time with people teaches children how to be in a relationship, beginning with the ability to have conversation” (Turkle 346). This line shows how it is necessary to have conversations with people and that technology is destroying that ability.
CARR IDEA: Carr makes the point that people who are exposed to the Internet are more likely to have a lack of energy, which directly causes people to be more distracted. These distractions include clicking from link to link, unable to read longer articles, and skimming even the smallest paragraphs.
TURKLE IDEA: Throughout her paper, Turkle declares that even when people have conversations, they are distracted by even the mere presence of their phone. Most people claim that their phones do not have that much of an effect on their lives, until they are unable to hold a conversation with others because they refuse to take their eyes off their phones.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: Even though Turkle and Carr talk about two different ideas in their papers, they both add on to what each other has to say. In Carr’s paper he focuses on how easily people are distracted by links, but Turkle takes it a step further by saying that even having a phone in sight causes someone to instantly forget about everything else. Turkle, however, claims that the phone itself is the reason why people are easily distracted, whereas Carr states that it is the Internet that causes people to be more distracted.
CARR IDEA: One of Carr’s big ideas is how the Internet has changed how the way we read and write, specifically the way we communicate. This includes creating acronyms for sentences, lacking emotion while writing, and the inability to read articles that are “too long.”
TURKLE IDEA: Turkle argues that there has been a switch to communication through cell phone use rather than in person conversation. Avoidance of in person conversation is a result of people being uncomfortable and when they use their phone, it allows them to say things that they would never say in person or make themselves out to be somebody they are not.
CARR AND TURKLE IN CONVO: These two both cover the big idea of communication and how the way we communicate with other people has changed. Carr has a surface level argument that reading and writing has become simplified and does not provide deeper meaning. According to Carr, the reason that writing has become simplified is because of people lacking the “time” to care about what they are saying, especially because everything is just one click away. Turkle makes a more complicated argument by saying how people are scared to show their emotions, and that is why they hide behind their phone and choose to communicate that way.
Carr Idea: Nicolas Carr argues that because of having instant access to any information one could need is a convenience, however it also constrains our ability to think deeper, and retain knowledge.
Turkle Idea: Sherry Turkle explains how constant access to information having as well as communication affects our relationships with one another as well as oneself. People tend to go for technology for answers and even validation to avoid certain conversations or problems that they don’t know how the outcome will turn out.
Connection: Carr and Turkle’s ideas connect with both of their concern that having instant access to information as well as communication is diminishing deep thinking as well as deep connections. Carr argues that when relying on the internet for answers more quickly, it weakens people’s abilities to think critically, however Turkle expands upon this by explaining how that same habit is making people less willing to talk and engage with others and oneself. They both put forward how digital convenience is showing a more surface level or engage which affects both intellectual and emotional depth.
Carr Idea
The more technology evolves the more that people expect the human brain to evolve the same. People want our brains to function more similarly to computers. (Carr)
Turkle Idea
Digital technology is affecting kids’ empathy. They struggle to identify human emotions and do not understand the concepts of others’ feelings. (Turkle)
Carr and Turkle in Convo
Carr’s essay can be seen to expand off what Turkle talks about in her essay. Since Turkle identifies how technology affects kids’ empathy Carr can expand on how we expect our brains to function like computers which are more analytical and logical than emotional. The evolution of the way we see our brains may be linked to our lack of empathy.