McDaniel 1 Justin McDaniel Mr. Edd English 1-A 07/18/2020 Final Technology Essay Technology has become an ever-present part of everyday life, which is good right? Well, as you’d expect its quite a complicated subject. There is undeniable good that technology has done while there’s also undeniable bad it has caused. But between those two objectives there lies a sea of less obvious and in your face effects technology has on our lives and the lives of those around us. A sea of opinions with backings on both sides provided by six distinct authors. Using their opinions and my own, I hope to put forward a mindful discussion on technology and its effects in the modern era. To start, a couple of the readings detail the positive effects of technology, both the effects to relationships in current times and the hopeful future tech could offer. These days people have friends and family all around the globe and technology allows them to stay connected better than ever before as detailed in social media expert, marketing strategist, and author Lynn Serafinn’s “10 Ways Technology Can Create and Grow Better Relationships”. Serafinn speaks of her own experiences where through technology she has been able to not just maintain but build new connections and relationships. Attributing this to the rise of social media and how with it you can easily share experiences with family and friends that through a multitude of circumstances could have been impossible. Photos and videos both new and old that allow people to be there with you even when they can’t be. As for the future, while it is just hopes and educated guesses for now, some choose McDaniel 2 to hope for a brighter, tech-fueled tomorrow. Famed inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil comes across one of those hopefuls in his interview with Qualcomm titled “The Man-Machine Merger” in which he speaks of such a merger. Kurzweil believes that at the current pace of innovation, we’ll reach a point where we cannot keep up with our own advancements, needing to make technologies that advance our capabilities which will then lead to a new ceiling, thus causing a cycle of exponential improvement. This would skyrocket not just productivity but our mental capabilities to levels we can’t even imagine, leading mankind to who knows where. While once again this is currently futurology now, Kurzweil expects this to reach such a point that “our devices are literally embedded in our bodies” (2, 7). Of course, every coin has two sides and our remaining authors speak a cautionary tale of what technology has caused and could cause in the future. These ranging from how tech affects our children’s productivity to how technology could be making us less human in the long run. Bright and very capable students fall victim to mediocre grades and poor studying habits due to technology as detailed in Author and New York Times journalist Matt Richtel’s “Growing up Digital”. Richtel lists a multitude of examples in which children choose tech and fall behind in school, nicely wrapped up by a quote from Vishal, the focus child of the article, which states “I realized there were choices, Homework wasn’t the only option” (3, 8). This shows that children realize that slacking off in school is a choice, that often they choose to go with. However, schoolchildren aren’t the only ones at risk due to technology. While earlier we discussed the advantages technology has for relationships and our social lives as a whole, there are definite downsides tech can have in this field. CEO of social media company PureMatter Bryan Kramer acknowledges the good technology can perform for staying connected and forming new relationships but wants to bring to light the bad it can bring as well. In Kramer’s blog post McDaniel 3 “How Technology Affects Relationships”, he speaks on how conversations over the wire can lack context, empathy, and that feeling of knowing another person is with you, speaking to you . Not just that but Kramer brings up how the acceleration of online relationships can be a bad thing despite the possibility of good and how social media encourages people to take on “cocooning” (3) practices. Once again that’s all effects we can feel in the present, but what of the future? What long term negative effects could technology have on us as a people? Some fear that technological evolution won’t take the same path as biological evolution, that is that it won’t always be beneficial and may happen too rapidly. One such person who feels this way is Colombia Law professor and major voice in tech Tim Wu who speaks about what tech could do to us as a society in the future in the reading “As Technology Gets Better, Will Society Get Worse”. Wu’s main points are that the tech industry is starting to cater only to comfort and sales numbers rather than innovation, and if this trend continues it could lead to a “sofalarity” (3, 5). That is, defined by Wu, “a future defined not by an evolution toward super-intelligence but by an absence of discomforts” (3, 5), leading to a people who are content and stagnant, rather than looking to innovate. In the same vein, cognitive neuroscientist Andrea Kuszewski believes that as we become more and more connected and reliant on our technology, we could end up losing our humanity. In her response to Kurzweil titled “Is Technology Making Us Less Human”, Kuszewski talks of how overreliance on technology will cause us to use our brain less, in which case our “skills will start to atrophy” (1, 5). Kuszweski also brings up that as we get closer to this singularity, this man-machine merger detailed by Kurzweil, we will have to give up our creativity, and by extent our humanity. Now that I have detailed each author’s main points, it’s clear to see they all make good points. The takeaway here for me is that through its up and downs, tech seems to be a net McDaniel 4 positive for our society, but we should remain mindful of the downsides and the warnings of what may come to pass. Especially in this climate, being distant even from those who would be normally within reach, the connectivity that Serafinn speaks of is invaluable. Being able to speak with and share experiences with those close to you is holding some people together these days, even if we’re all forced to do a little “cocooning” as Kramer would put it. As for the future of technology, it certainly sounds scary on paper. However, that is only because the futurology discussed by Kurzweil and Kuszewski is unknown to us, alien even. I feel as though it is a promising future, though I doubt it will play out in the way either describes. Regardless of which way the future moves, it is important we remain mindful of warnings of minds like Kuszewski and Wu, while keeping the hope in innovation that Kurzweil holds. Writer and Professor of Biochemistry Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) once said, “I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them”. I feel this is encapsulates a general feeling towards technology these days. Technology isn’t just everywhere; it has become intertwined with our society and multiple generations have been raised on technology at this point. This alone doesn’t mean that technology is good for us, but I feel that now more than ever, we are able to see major positives in our daily lives due to tech and the tech industry. Along with this, we can see that by heeding to the warnings laid before us, we can guide tech to flourish into something wonderful and revolutionary for us all. McDaniel 5 Works Cited Serafinn, Lynn. “10 Ways Technology Can Create and Grow Better Relationships” “7 Graces of Marketing” Blog. 17 September 2015. Web. http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/2015/09/10-ways-technology-can-create-and-growbetter-relationships/ Kurzweil, Ray. “The Man-Machine Merger” QnQ Blog. 11 September 2012 Web. https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2012/09/11/man-machine-merger Richtel, Matt. “Growing Up Digital” The New York Times. 21 November 2010 Web. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html Kramer, Bryan. “How Technology Affects Relationships” BKBryanKramer Blog. 14 September 2015 Web. http://bryankramer.com/how-technology-affects-human-relationships/ Wu, Tim. “As Tech Gets Better, Will Society Get Worse” The New Yorker Magazine. 6 February 2014 Web. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/as-technology-gets-better-will-societyget-worse Kuszewski, Andrea. “Is Tech Making Us Less Human” QnQ Blog. 11 September 2012 Web. https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2012/09/11/technology-making-us-less-human Asimov, Isaac. “Computers for Business, a Book of Readings” January, 1980
