The Shallows: Technology's Negative Effects On Our Society
1896 Words8 Pages
Over the last few decades, cellular devices, iPads, iPods, computers, and most importantly the Internet have completely changed the way our society functions. Although these new technologies are doing a lot of great things, they are also negatively affecting our society. People should be taught at a young age how to control their use of technology so that they don’t fall into the negative consequences that come with these technological advances. Some of these negative consequences include technology having control over out lives, technology making it much more difficult to pay attention, increasing bullying and inequality, affecting relationships, wastes our time, and distances us from each other.
The Internet is the world's largest computer…show more content… This is a negative consequence because a person's capability to think, reflect, and reason is what makes us human and has enabled us to create the society we now live in. Without this ability, people would not be able to communicate and grow (Taylor). "The depth of our intelligence hinges on our ability to transfer information from working memory, the scratch pad of consciousness, to long-term memory, the mind’s filing system," Nicholas Carr, author of “The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains”, wrote in Wired in 2010,"When facts and experiences enter our long-term memory, we are able to weave them into the complex ideas that give richness to our thought." Even though our long-term memory capacity is almost unlimited, our short-term memory can hold a lot less information and is more easily forgotten. "A break in our attention can sweep its contents from our mind," Carr explains (Carr). Every single time we use the Internet it makes it increasingly more difficult for us to place information within our memory, according to Erik Fransen, computer science professor at Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Fransen). According to Tony Schwartz, productivity expert and author of “The Way We're Working Isn't Working”, most of us aren't capable of effectively managing all of the information that is being thrown at us (Schwartz). Studies performed by Jim…show more content… Increasing dependence on mediated communications in relationships and communities’ impacts people by allowing them to believe that the only way to communicate is through social media. A 2012 Nielsen survey found that the average American spends eleven hours on social media. He also found that more than half of that time is spent looking at a smartphone or tablet. This large usage of the Internet causes people to be more isolated, disconnected, and lonely and this is because of today’s technological advances. Studies have found that ten percent of Internet users who are married say that the Internet has had a “major impact” on their relationship. Another interesting statistic would be that seventy-two percent of married adults or adults committed online said the Internet has “no real impact at all” on their partnership. Also, seventy-four percent of the adult Internet users who report that the Internet had an impact on their marriage or partnership say the impact was positive. Still, twenty percent said the impact was mostly negative and even though majority of the people said that technology has had little effect of their relationships, people don’t realize the full extent of todays technological advances and how the Internet is manipulating us (Leader). There are many examples of people’s relationships ending or starting