Literature Analysis On Technology’S Influence On People

Google “has declared that its mission is ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. ’ It seeks to ‘understand exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want. ’ ” This quote gives us the overall concept of the internet, specifically Google, but also, more broadly, of technology: We as a society want information as fast, easily, and efficiently as possible. Over years and years, society has invented new technology to help improve our lives and some relatively recent examples being mobile phones, computers, and printers. With phones and computer come other examples of technology like social media and Google which have had major impacts on society. For example, if we need to know what time a store closes or how long it takes to drive to Portland we just look it up on the internet which takes us mere seconds.

Nowadays, “Google is search. It’s the verb, to Google. It’s what we all do, all the time, whenever we want to know anything. We Google it”. In fact, the same article also states that “the site handles at least 63, 000 searches a second”. This goes to show you how frequently people turn to google for answers and opinions. Therefore, as society grows and technology advances, people’s opinions can greatly vary on this topic. Some say technology and google is helping us and is beneficial to humans while other say the complete opposite or are somewhere in between.

Personally, I think that google is doing both. I believe that as with any technology, people can abuse it and use it in the wrong way, but if it is used in the right way it can be extremely beneficial. Carr, the author of “Is google making us stupid?” begins by arguing that “The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many”. Thompson, the author of “Smarter than you think: How technology is changing our minds for the better” agreeing with Carr’s first point of view on the internet, similarly believes that “today’s digital tools help us see more, retain more, communicate more” While Thompson points of the advantages of technology, he also counters Carr’s and his own statements by demonstrating some of the cons. Thompson admits to how he constantly has to “fight the procrastinator’s urge to meander online, idly checking Twitter links and Wikipedia entries in a dreamy but pointless haze — until I look up in horror and realize I’ve lost two hours of work, a missing-time experience redolent of a UFO abduction. ” In other words, the internet is like a black hole with an intense gravitational pull you can’t escape from. While he does not report any “missing-time” experiences, Carr also believes that the internet has changed his online habits. He says that his “mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles”. Attached to that idea, Carr now compares himself to a guy on a jet ski zipping across the surface of the water, while he had formerly thought of himself as a scuba diver in a vast ocean of words. Piggybacking off of his previous statement, Carr also mentions how he used to be able to sit down and read for long stretch of time but has recently found that his “ concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. ”

Agreeing with Carr’s point, Thompson says that “Today’s multitasking tools really do make it harder than before to stay focused during long acts of reading and contemplation. ” This is where Cadwallader, the author of “Google, democracy, and the truth about internet search”, joins the conversation. Cadwallader, unlike Carr and Thompson has nothing good to say about the internet and technology. Subsequently, when Thompson says that technology can “leave us prey to the manipulation of the toolmakers”, she strongly asserts herself as an believer in that statement. She believes that “We have no way of knowing how our personal data is being mined and used to influence us”, as well as mentioning how websites create propaganda and affect/influence our views. Agreeing with both Thompson and Cadwalladr, Carr, in a similar manner, believes that websites are being injected with “hyperlinks, blinking ads, and other digital gewgaws” that lets the internet influence you easier and will most likely lead you to not see what you actually want to see, but instead what firms and advertisers want you to.

Personally, I agree with Thompson’s and Carr’s stance and articles more than Cadwalladr. In reading “Google, democracy, and the truth about internet search”, I found it hard to take anything she said to heart. She had very strong opinions and did not acknowledge the other side at all, unlike Carr and Thompson. I believe there are two sides to the story. Like Thompson and Carr, I see technology as having positive and negative sides. Having a resource like the internet to learn from and access so much information from is invaluable to me. Looking back 20 years, you can see how different and time-consuming learning was. I was not alive back then, of course, but over the years, I have heard stories from my relatives about how they had to go to the library whenever they needed to find something out or how they needed to pull out a dictionary whenever they needed to define a word. In fact, my father used to go to the library to look at car manuals whenever something would break. Now, everything is on the internet. Personally, I think Carr hits the bull-eye when he says that “the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind”. To summarize, the convenience and effectiveness of the internet is unparalleled to any book, or manual, and will probably continue to be.

Cadwalladr, on the other hand, writes in a extremely anti-internet way. She does not even fully acknowledge the good sides of the internet, she just has a very strong bias against it which makes me doubt her credibility. Therefore, I do not agree with her as an author. I do have to admit that she does bring up some good points in her argument though. When she talks about how ads are being used to target and influence us, I can not help but agree with her. As a society, I think advertisements are influencing us more than ever since we see them everywhere we look. We get ads on Spotify, Google, Instagram, etc and I do not think we know those ads are actually manipulating us into believing we want that advertised thing or service. In short, I agree with all three authors up to a point. Collectively, Thompson, Carr, and myself have very similar views on this topic of technology. They both talked about how technology has helped us grow with all of the information available to us now which I firmly believe in too. Cadwalladr, while I think she is not a very credible author, makes good points about how firms have the ability to influence and target us as individuals specifically using online ads. While some might say that technology has always been changing and we have always been adapting to it, now is a critical time. Society is changing exponentially with the internet, AI, robotics, and many more technologies and we have to be able to protect ourselves from the dangers of it as well as being able to use all this to our advantage and continue to use it in good ways.