Carr and Turkle share the sentiment that technology has damaged our capacity for in-depth conversation, but they address it in different ways. For example, Carr discusses the deficit of deep thinking when he writes, “My mind now expects to take in information the same way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (2). In this quote, Carr is using a metaphor to explain how the internet has altered his thought process to be more similar to how the internet itself functions. He is no longer able to achieve the deep critical thinking he once was able to, and, similar to how the internet offers information, is now a more surface-level, shallow thinker. He is no longer able to engage with media in a way that stirs up complex conversations in his mind, and instead is only looking for the easiest pathways to get the information he needs. Turkle expands this idea from internal conversations to conversations with other people. Moving past the internet to technology in general, Turkle writes, “It all adds up to a flight from conversation – at least from conversation that is open-ended and spontaneous, conversation in which we play with ideas, in which we allow ourselves to be fully present and vulnerable. Yet these are the conversations where empathy and intimacy flourish and social action gains strength.” Turkle is stating that technology has pushed us away from having deep conversations with the people around us, and is only promoting shallow, meaningless small talk. She believes that people are more afraid of being vulnerable and open to one another, and technology has given us an easy way to opt out of it. This lack of interpersonal conversation aligns with Carr’s ideals, as not only does technology harm our ability to think deeply, it also harms our ability to communicate deeply. This then leads to a lack of compassion for ourselves and others around us, and creates a vicious cycle towards losing our connection not only with other people, but with ourselves.
In “The Empathy Diaries” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid” both Sherry Turkle and Nicholas Carr argue that technology damages the human brain. In “The Empathy Diaries”, author Sherry Turkle argues that humans have become too reliant on technology, which has diminished their ability to sense each other’s emotions. Turkle writes that “[The seventh grader] was almost robotic in her response. She said, “I don’t have feelings about this [excluding her fellow student on the playground]”. She couldn’t read the signals that the other student was hurt” (345). Because humans have spent so much time behind their screens, their time interacting with others in person has severely decreased and in turn caused them to lose the ability to feel for others. In a similar manner, in his essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr argues that technology has created an automation of the human mind which has led to a decrease in deep reading and deep thinking. Carr writes that, “Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose and commonplace (3). In other words, the reading done on the “Net” has transformed the traditional way of reading, with an emphasis on learning and understanding the subject, to be a chore and doing what it takes to complete the reading as soon as possible. Technology causing the automation of the human mind is synonymous with Turkle’s belief that technology is oversimplifying human emotions as humans lose the ability for emotional connection. Both Turkle and Carr use real-world experiences to showcase the effect of technology on the human mind. Carr uses his article to unpack the idea about technology regarding how humans have become reliant on it which has led to. In contrast, Turkle’s essay focuses on the aftereffects of the reliance on technology and how it has led to humans lacking emotion.
Turkle and Carr both emphasize the point that technology is harmful to us. Turkle, when discussing how technology interrupts kid’s relationships says, “Time with people teaches children how to be in a relationship, beginning with the ability to have conversation” (Turkle 346). This quote helps my claims because Turkle is telling us how technology is destroying how kids are able to talk to people. Having meaningful conversations is very difficult for them because they have been adjusted to this lifestyle where they don’t need to have these conversations. Carr when talking about how the internet is destroying the way people in general think deeply about things and how mental capacity is deteriorating over time says: “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). Both of these paragraphs help with the overarching theme of the negative effects of technology. They both illustrate the point of how negative these advancements in technology can be if not mitigated properly. With the ever growing use of phones and other technologies that people have easy access to, we need to make sure that we keep kids away from it because it can affect them in very negative ways.
With the increasing need for technology, it is not only changing the way that people think and view themselves, but also their ability to be able to connect deeply with others. In Is Google Making Us Stupid? By Nicholas Carr, he argues that the internet is rewiring our brains because of the convenience of instant access to information, as well as skimming what people read rather than focusing on the deeper parts of it. Carr states that “our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged” (3). He suggests that because of the internet’s convenience, people are no longer able to engage deeply with information, leading to a decline in critical thinking and meaningful interpretation. This proposal aligns with technology not just changing a cognitive process, but also relationships. If people are struggling to engage deeply with reading as well as thinking, they might also struggle to engage deeply with one another. Sherry Turkle, in The Empathy Diaries, expands this concern to human relationships, with an emphasis on having constant connectivity through the internet and technology is ruining people’s abilities to hold face-to-face conversations, resulting in more less meaningful and shallow connections. Turkle warns people that “We are being silenced by our technologies- in a way, ‘cured of talking.’ These silences-often through the presence of our children-have led to a crisis of empathy that has diminished us at home, at work, and in public life. I’ve said that the remedy, most simply, is a talking cure.” (347). Her perspective reinforces Carr’s argument, which is showing how technology is not only running deep thinking, but it is also weakening emotional connections. When people start to rely on digital interactions, like how many already have, they are risking losing their ability to engage and connect with others in meaning conversations. Both Carr and Turkle push forward the idea of how technology, even though it is convenient, is ultimately changing people’s abilities to think deeper, and connect emotionally. Their strong arguments urge people to think about their reliance on technology and even seek out a balance that is able to preserve both human connections, as well as intellectual depth.
Sherry Turkle’s exploration of how technology affects kids’ empathy can be backed up by Nicolas Carr’s analysis of how google and technology changes the way we think. In Turkle’s essay, “The Empathy Diaries” she informs the reader of how when kids have access to technology their ability to connect and empathies with others gets interrupted “Technology disrupts this virtuous cycle.” (Turkle, 348). The virtuous cycle is where conversation enables us to form empathy and self-reflection, and with the disruption of technology kids and even adults will end up blocking their ability to empathize with others. Introduces to us in Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, he brings up the point that with the evolution of technology the way people view our brains also evolved into, “[the] idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines.” (Carr, 7). Essentially, as technology gets faster at information processing, we expect our brains to also increase in speed when going through information and day-to-day activities. This idea can help us visualize why technology and the internet stunts empathy because technology as an entity is analytical and logical, void of emotion. So, when we begin to see ourselves and minds as something akin to technology, we also may be embodying these traits of logic over emotion.
The human brain is a powerful machine that we might not fully understand yet; its capabilities to process vast amounts of information, and adapt to new challenges. Carr touches upon this topic in his writing, stating that “The human brain is almost infinitely malleable. People used to think that our mental meshwork was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case… ‘The brain,’ according to [James] Olds, ‘has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions’”(Carr, 4). This quote emphasizes the brain’s flexibility and the general public’s limited knowledge about its capacities. We as humans are blinded by technology’s alluring features that we don’t see the real impacts it has on our brain chemistry. Studies have shown that young adults are very susceptible to these changes. Sherry Turkle states in her memoir just that, “It is a struggle to get children to talk to each other in class, to directly address each other. It is a struggle to get them to meet with faculty…These students seem to understand each other less”(Turkle, 344). These struggles are directly related to the overuse of screens. It’s impacting children’s mental health in schools just as much as it does to adults in the work setting. Turkle and Carr both analyze these effects in their writing, and it speaks to one another clearly in a way that says technology is inherently bad for our brain chemistry.
Technology and the Internet have had an immeasurable impact on society as a whole, specifically with the way that our brain’s function. Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and Turkle in “The Empathy Diaries” both have separate arguments about the ways that technology and the Internet have changed us, but they agree on several aspects. Carr explains that “I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory” (1). In this quote, Carr states that he feels that there is something, referring to the Internet, that is rewiring the way he thinks. Due to the influence that the Internet has on our day and age, Carr believes that we are losing our ability to create our own thoughts. Turkle also mentions this idea in her essay by arguing that “We are forever elsewhere” (344). Sherry Turkle has a very negative view towards technology and how it has caused people to shy away from reality by hiding behind their phones. This inability to shy away from something as small as a phone has made both Turkle and Carr concerned for what society has become. Even though Turkle talks about technology and Carr turns his focus to the Internet, they both agree that these two ideas are forming a less empathetic and intellectual society. We do not fully understand something as large as the Internet and the accessibility has ultimately changed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us.
Having constant access to the internet and the connection and stimulation it provides is having detrimental effects on our abilities to concentrate and be with our own thoughts. When summarizing an intriguing experiment about individuals willingness to shock themselves out of boredom, Sherry Turkle elaborates on this idea when she writes, “These days, we see that when people are alone at a stop sign or in the checkout line at the supermarket, they seem almost panicked and they reach for their phones. We are so accustomed to be always connected that being alone seems like a problem technology should solve” (48). We are so quick to take out our phones and check them aimlessly at any chance we get, not to get something done, but to avoid being alone. However, this constant access to connection and blatant avoidance of being alone is having serious, obvious, impacts on tasks that require us to think deeply and focus. Nicholas Carr presents this turmoil through a personal anecdote in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. Carr writes, “Immersing myself in a book or a 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. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text” (1). Tasks such as reading require being alone with your mind, being present, and thinking deeply, a task that is growing ever more difficult with our need to be constantly connected. Although, Carr writes this struggle through the first person view, it is clear that he included this as it is becoming a shared experience. As Turkle claims that our newfound ability to be ever connected is making us avoid being alone, Carr complements her claim by illustrating the tangible effects this accustomization is having on the brain and its ability to concentrate on tasks that require deep thinking.
In both Sherry Turkle’s “The Empathy Diaries” and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” they explore how technology is affecting our ability to connect with others emotionally. Turkle argues that when kids have access to technology, it interrupts the natural cycle where conversation helps us develop empathy and self-reflection. She explains, “Technology disrupts this virtuous cycle” (348). When tech gets in the way, it makes it harder for people to truly connect with each other. Carr touches on a similar idea, explaining how as technology evolves, we start to think of our minds as a way to process data. “The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines” (7). We expect our brains to work faster, just like the technology we use, but this emphasis on speed and logic can push emotion and empathy to the side. Both Turkle and Carr point out that the more we embrace technology’s focus on efficiency, the harder it becomes to connect with others emotionally, since we start to prioritize logic over feelings.
In the eyes of Nicholas Carr and Sherry Turkle, they have both written detailed articles about how the influence of technology has a mostly negative effect on humans and the interactions with others that follow. Efficiency may not always be the most effective, we as humans constantly look for the easiest avenue to the finish line in a race where we already start in a deficit. In Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, page 3 introduces a study about the “power browse” for gaining some amount of information. From paragraph 2, Maryanne Wolf from the study calls this idea the, “We are how we read”, where she worries the immediate effect in which we aggressively chase is weaking the capacity to how we can deeply interact with a text. This is nearly parallel to how humans have become so addicted to the screen and dragging us away from the necessary exposure to interaction where we clearly have more social impact both as an observer and speaker. In Turkle’s, “The Empathy Diaries”, she seems to agree with this and hits the nail right on the head by following up on page 346 paragraph 3 stating, “Because, face-to-face, people ask for things that computers never do”. Both of these ideas pursue the process of how these technologies that we push to the limit of advancement yet limit us and blockade the flow of free thinking and expressiveness in connections we seek in day-to-day life. It is the time that we spend within these interactions where we learn and grow as part of an ever-evolving society.
While Carr and Turkle don’t express their ideas in the same way, they both acknowledge the notion of the damage technology has done to people’s minds and how they perceive information around them. For instance, Turkle quotes a conversation between the dean of a school and a seventh grader who hurt her classmate’s feelings, Turkle writes, “was almost robotic in her response. She said, “I don’t have feelings about this.” She couldn’t read the signals that the other student was hurt.” (345). Turkle uses this quote as an example of how kids spend more time using technology than socializing with others. This lack of social interaction with others has caused them to be unable to develop empathy or read the emotional signals of the people around them. Carr also recognizes this inability to absorb information as he recalls all of these blog posts of people who are no longer able to read, think, or even comprehend information as they used to, when he writes, “the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” (2). Carr uses this quote to show that anyone who uses the internet could fall victim to this cognitive alteration, which can create a poor ability to take in information. This idea of a weaker mental ability to soak up information being caused by technology that Carr presents, parallels Turkle’s idea of technology causing kids to be emotionally underdeveloped. Both of these ideas latch onto the thought that technology causes damage to people’s minds and how they perceive information around them.
11 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 13”
Carr and Turkle share the sentiment that technology has damaged our capacity for in-depth conversation, but they address it in different ways. For example, Carr discusses the deficit of deep thinking when he writes, “My mind now expects to take in information the same way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (2). In this quote, Carr is using a metaphor to explain how the internet has altered his thought process to be more similar to how the internet itself functions. He is no longer able to achieve the deep critical thinking he once was able to, and, similar to how the internet offers information, is now a more surface-level, shallow thinker. He is no longer able to engage with media in a way that stirs up complex conversations in his mind, and instead is only looking for the easiest pathways to get the information he needs. Turkle expands this idea from internal conversations to conversations with other people. Moving past the internet to technology in general, Turkle writes, “It all adds up to a flight from conversation – at least from conversation that is open-ended and spontaneous, conversation in which we play with ideas, in which we allow ourselves to be fully present and vulnerable. Yet these are the conversations where empathy and intimacy flourish and social action gains strength.” Turkle is stating that technology has pushed us away from having deep conversations with the people around us, and is only promoting shallow, meaningless small talk. She believes that people are more afraid of being vulnerable and open to one another, and technology has given us an easy way to opt out of it. This lack of interpersonal conversation aligns with Carr’s ideals, as not only does technology harm our ability to think deeply, it also harms our ability to communicate deeply. This then leads to a lack of compassion for ourselves and others around us, and creates a vicious cycle towards losing our connection not only with other people, but with ourselves.
In “The Empathy Diaries” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid” both Sherry Turkle and Nicholas Carr argue that technology damages the human brain. In “The Empathy Diaries”, author Sherry Turkle argues that humans have become too reliant on technology, which has diminished their ability to sense each other’s emotions. Turkle writes that “[The seventh grader] was almost robotic in her response. She said, “I don’t have feelings about this [excluding her fellow student on the playground]”. She couldn’t read the signals that the other student was hurt” (345). Because humans have spent so much time behind their screens, their time interacting with others in person has severely decreased and in turn caused them to lose the ability to feel for others. In a similar manner, in his essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr argues that technology has created an automation of the human mind which has led to a decrease in deep reading and deep thinking. Carr writes that, “Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose and commonplace (3). In other words, the reading done on the “Net” has transformed the traditional way of reading, with an emphasis on learning and understanding the subject, to be a chore and doing what it takes to complete the reading as soon as possible. Technology causing the automation of the human mind is synonymous with Turkle’s belief that technology is oversimplifying human emotions as humans lose the ability for emotional connection. Both Turkle and Carr use real-world experiences to showcase the effect of technology on the human mind. Carr uses his article to unpack the idea about technology regarding how humans have become reliant on it which has led to. In contrast, Turkle’s essay focuses on the aftereffects of the reliance on technology and how it has led to humans lacking emotion.
Turkle and Carr both emphasize the point that technology is harmful to us. Turkle, when discussing how technology interrupts kid’s relationships says, “Time with people teaches children how to be in a relationship, beginning with the ability to have conversation” (Turkle 346). This quote helps my claims because Turkle is telling us how technology is destroying how kids are able to talk to people. Having meaningful conversations is very difficult for them because they have been adjusted to this lifestyle where they don’t need to have these conversations. Carr when talking about how the internet is destroying the way people in general think deeply about things and how mental capacity is deteriorating over time says: “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). Both of these paragraphs help with the overarching theme of the negative effects of technology. They both illustrate the point of how negative these advancements in technology can be if not mitigated properly. With the ever growing use of phones and other technologies that people have easy access to, we need to make sure that we keep kids away from it because it can affect them in very negative ways.
With the increasing need for technology, it is not only changing the way that people think and view themselves, but also their ability to be able to connect deeply with others. In Is Google Making Us Stupid? By Nicholas Carr, he argues that the internet is rewiring our brains because of the convenience of instant access to information, as well as skimming what people read rather than focusing on the deeper parts of it. Carr states that “our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged” (3). He suggests that because of the internet’s convenience, people are no longer able to engage deeply with information, leading to a decline in critical thinking and meaningful interpretation. This proposal aligns with technology not just changing a cognitive process, but also relationships. If people are struggling to engage deeply with reading as well as thinking, they might also struggle to engage deeply with one another. Sherry Turkle, in The Empathy Diaries, expands this concern to human relationships, with an emphasis on having constant connectivity through the internet and technology is ruining people’s abilities to hold face-to-face conversations, resulting in more less meaningful and shallow connections. Turkle warns people that “We are being silenced by our technologies- in a way, ‘cured of talking.’ These silences-often through the presence of our children-have led to a crisis of empathy that has diminished us at home, at work, and in public life. I’ve said that the remedy, most simply, is a talking cure.” (347). Her perspective reinforces Carr’s argument, which is showing how technology is not only running deep thinking, but it is also weakening emotional connections. When people start to rely on digital interactions, like how many already have, they are risking losing their ability to engage and connect with others in meaning conversations. Both Carr and Turkle push forward the idea of how technology, even though it is convenient, is ultimately changing people’s abilities to think deeper, and connect emotionally. Their strong arguments urge people to think about their reliance on technology and even seek out a balance that is able to preserve both human connections, as well as intellectual depth.
Sherry Turkle’s exploration of how technology affects kids’ empathy can be backed up by Nicolas Carr’s analysis of how google and technology changes the way we think. In Turkle’s essay, “The Empathy Diaries” she informs the reader of how when kids have access to technology their ability to connect and empathies with others gets interrupted “Technology disrupts this virtuous cycle.” (Turkle, 348). The virtuous cycle is where conversation enables us to form empathy and self-reflection, and with the disruption of technology kids and even adults will end up blocking their ability to empathize with others. Introduces to us in Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, he brings up the point that with the evolution of technology the way people view our brains also evolved into, “[the] idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines.” (Carr, 7). Essentially, as technology gets faster at information processing, we expect our brains to also increase in speed when going through information and day-to-day activities. This idea can help us visualize why technology and the internet stunts empathy because technology as an entity is analytical and logical, void of emotion. So, when we begin to see ourselves and minds as something akin to technology, we also may be embodying these traits of logic over emotion.
The human brain is a powerful machine that we might not fully understand yet; its capabilities to process vast amounts of information, and adapt to new challenges. Carr touches upon this topic in his writing, stating that “The human brain is almost infinitely malleable. People used to think that our mental meshwork was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case… ‘The brain,’ according to [James] Olds, ‘has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions’”(Carr, 4). This quote emphasizes the brain’s flexibility and the general public’s limited knowledge about its capacities. We as humans are blinded by technology’s alluring features that we don’t see the real impacts it has on our brain chemistry. Studies have shown that young adults are very susceptible to these changes. Sherry Turkle states in her memoir just that, “It is a struggle to get children to talk to each other in class, to directly address each other. It is a struggle to get them to meet with faculty…These students seem to understand each other less”(Turkle, 344). These struggles are directly related to the overuse of screens. It’s impacting children’s mental health in schools just as much as it does to adults in the work setting. Turkle and Carr both analyze these effects in their writing, and it speaks to one another clearly in a way that says technology is inherently bad for our brain chemistry.
Technology and the Internet have had an immeasurable impact on society as a whole, specifically with the way that our brain’s function. Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and Turkle in “The Empathy Diaries” both have separate arguments about the ways that technology and the Internet have changed us, but they agree on several aspects. Carr explains that “I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory” (1). In this quote, Carr states that he feels that there is something, referring to the Internet, that is rewiring the way he thinks. Due to the influence that the Internet has on our day and age, Carr believes that we are losing our ability to create our own thoughts. Turkle also mentions this idea in her essay by arguing that “We are forever elsewhere” (344). Sherry Turkle has a very negative view towards technology and how it has caused people to shy away from reality by hiding behind their phones. This inability to shy away from something as small as a phone has made both Turkle and Carr concerned for what society has become. Even though Turkle talks about technology and Carr turns his focus to the Internet, they both agree that these two ideas are forming a less empathetic and intellectual society. We do not fully understand something as large as the Internet and the accessibility has ultimately changed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us.
Having constant access to the internet and the connection and stimulation it provides is having detrimental effects on our abilities to concentrate and be with our own thoughts. When summarizing an intriguing experiment about individuals willingness to shock themselves out of boredom, Sherry Turkle elaborates on this idea when she writes, “These days, we see that when people are alone at a stop sign or in the checkout line at the supermarket, they seem almost panicked and they reach for their phones. We are so accustomed to be always connected that being alone seems like a problem technology should solve” (48). We are so quick to take out our phones and check them aimlessly at any chance we get, not to get something done, but to avoid being alone. However, this constant access to connection and blatant avoidance of being alone is having serious, obvious, impacts on tasks that require us to think deeply and focus. Nicholas Carr presents this turmoil through a personal anecdote in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. Carr writes, “Immersing myself in a book or a 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. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text” (1). Tasks such as reading require being alone with your mind, being present, and thinking deeply, a task that is growing ever more difficult with our need to be constantly connected. Although, Carr writes this struggle through the first person view, it is clear that he included this as it is becoming a shared experience. As Turkle claims that our newfound ability to be ever connected is making us avoid being alone, Carr complements her claim by illustrating the tangible effects this accustomization is having on the brain and its ability to concentrate on tasks that require deep thinking.
In both Sherry Turkle’s “The Empathy Diaries” and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” they explore how technology is affecting our ability to connect with others emotionally. Turkle argues that when kids have access to technology, it interrupts the natural cycle where conversation helps us develop empathy and self-reflection. She explains, “Technology disrupts this virtuous cycle” (348). When tech gets in the way, it makes it harder for people to truly connect with each other. Carr touches on a similar idea, explaining how as technology evolves, we start to think of our minds as a way to process data. “The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines” (7). We expect our brains to work faster, just like the technology we use, but this emphasis on speed and logic can push emotion and empathy to the side. Both Turkle and Carr point out that the more we embrace technology’s focus on efficiency, the harder it becomes to connect with others emotionally, since we start to prioritize logic over feelings.
In the eyes of Nicholas Carr and Sherry Turkle, they have both written detailed articles about how the influence of technology has a mostly negative effect on humans and the interactions with others that follow. Efficiency may not always be the most effective, we as humans constantly look for the easiest avenue to the finish line in a race where we already start in a deficit. In Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, page 3 introduces a study about the “power browse” for gaining some amount of information. From paragraph 2, Maryanne Wolf from the study calls this idea the, “We are how we read”, where she worries the immediate effect in which we aggressively chase is weaking the capacity to how we can deeply interact with a text. This is nearly parallel to how humans have become so addicted to the screen and dragging us away from the necessary exposure to interaction where we clearly have more social impact both as an observer and speaker. In Turkle’s, “The Empathy Diaries”, she seems to agree with this and hits the nail right on the head by following up on page 346 paragraph 3 stating, “Because, face-to-face, people ask for things that computers never do”. Both of these ideas pursue the process of how these technologies that we push to the limit of advancement yet limit us and blockade the flow of free thinking and expressiveness in connections we seek in day-to-day life. It is the time that we spend within these interactions where we learn and grow as part of an ever-evolving society.
While Carr and Turkle don’t express their ideas in the same way, they both acknowledge the notion of the damage technology has done to people’s minds and how they perceive information around them. For instance, Turkle quotes a conversation between the dean of a school and a seventh grader who hurt her classmate’s feelings, Turkle writes, “was almost robotic in her response. She said, “I don’t have feelings about this.” She couldn’t read the signals that the other student was hurt.” (345). Turkle uses this quote as an example of how kids spend more time using technology than socializing with others. This lack of social interaction with others has caused them to be unable to develop empathy or read the emotional signals of the people around them. Carr also recognizes this inability to absorb information as he recalls all of these blog posts of people who are no longer able to read, think, or even comprehend information as they used to, when he writes, “the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” (2). Carr uses this quote to show that anyone who uses the internet could fall victim to this cognitive alteration, which can create a poor ability to take in information. This idea of a weaker mental ability to soak up information being caused by technology that Carr presents, parallels Turkle’s idea of technology causing kids to be emotionally underdeveloped. Both of these ideas latch onto the thought that technology causes damage to people’s minds and how they perceive information around them.