My Questions
Chaya Leverton on Oct 30th 2012
Some of my questions that I want to explore are the following:
- How does advanced technology makes us more dependent and less self-sufficient?
- How does the digital age necessitate national and global cooperation and collaboration?
- Is our high-tech industrial society actually started to look like an industry itself? In other words, is our society starting to operate like a factory, where each person only knows how to complete one step in a long, complex process?
- Ultimately, is advanced technology making us more human by requiring us to connect and work together?
- What are the drawbacks and benefits of living in a technological, inter-dependent society?
These questions are really good. I am so interested in your topic, by each question I think, “ya? why is it like that??”
The reason I am interested in your blog is that it is so prevalent to today’s society, and to each individual person. We are really becoming more dependent on the web, and as a result, on everyone around us. I wonder, are you looking at this as a positive or negative thing? Is our growing dependency empowering or weakening?
I think the first four are clearly related and can lead you toward a great essay. (The last question is more like a general overview of the idea, a starting point for several possible arguments, including one with your focus on inter-dependence–so to me, that one’s less relevant or interesting.) What I like is that in the questions, you’re already considering the two sides (e.g. is this a question of a loss of self-sufficiency (bad) or a gain of cooperation skills (good), so you will have built-in complexity and room for counterargument.
The questions you pose and thought provoking and they will make for a very interesting essay. I especially like fourth one, because I kind of get the feeling that you’re going to set it up and undercut it. If you want to counterargue the idea that technology helps to make us more human, maybe go back to Amber Case? I know her point seemed a little mixed up, but I think you’ll be able to find a pretty juicy quote from her that will work to your advantage.