There are both positive and negative aspects to using technology but lately, we’ve been focusing on the latter. We talk about how technologies such as smartphones, laptops and social networking sites are taking over our everyday lives and the negative impacts they have on us. Our generation has become very dependent on technology and the question at hand is, “Is that necessarily a bad thing?”
Carr mentions beneficial technologies that are available to us in The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. When we hear the word “technology”, we think of the examples that were mentioned previously and forget that we are not only limited to those. We forget that something as simple and helpful as a newspaper is also considered a technology. Some people prefer to read a newspaper over reading news on the Internet, and it is their only source of information about the world around us. Technology doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but it just all depends on what you view as a “technology”.
I do agree that some technologies are taking over our lives, which is why I believe that self-control is key. Smartphone and Facebook usage have soared and are big forms of distraction from our work. We are constantly checking our phones for new emails and texts and our Facebook profiles for new notifications and messages-habits that cut into our focus. After reading the first few chapters of Carr’s book, I decided to change my habits. I use to constantly check my email or be on Facebook whenever I was bored or didn’t feel like doing work. Carr was right. I forgot how it felt to hold a leisure book and realized that I had become too dependent on distracting technologies and needed some self-control. I made a promise to myself to only go on Facebook once a day during the school week to focus on schoolwork more. Self-control is an important thing that we all need to learn and use.
Self-control: don't eat the whole jar of cookies!