Technology undeniably is something that affects most Americans today; 68 percent of American’s have smartphones, which is up 35 percent in four years (Anderson). Technology plays a large factor in my life, but I had never before considered its negative effects on this generation. I am not blinded of American’s constant reliance and usage of technology, but went into this debate with an undecided position on the case. The debate I listened too was an Intelligence Squared podcast covering the topic and debate questions of ‘Are we smarter now because of technology or are we more dependent on technology to do things for us’? was the topic of discussion.
The team for the motion that technology is making us dumb consisted of Andrew Keen and Nicholas Carr, against the opposing team Genevieve Bell and David Weinberger. When making their opening statements, Keen and Carr stated that it’s no secret we use technology excessively – 150 times a day spent looking at our phones, and about 6 minutes for every hour – which in most cases is just an unnecessary distraction. They focused on how we transfer information by moving memory from our conscious mind into our long term memory. But the capacity of our working memory/conscious side is very small and can only hold about 2 to 4 pieces of information for a short amount of time before either leaving the memory or being transferred to long-term memory. With the excessive distractions of technology and gathering of useless information such as social media, we are overloading the conscious side of our brain which leads to cognitive overload. This then diminishes our attentiveness. Lastly, they opened up the point that technology is causing the deaths of distance and professional culture such as newspapers, recorded music, and photographers. On the other side, Bell and Weinberger classified this generation as the renaissance of knowledge. Because of technology, we are exposed to many more abilities. We are able to understand more about this 14 billion old universe. Technology is in our everyday lives and we think with technology. It’s making us safer by sending weather, health and amber updates to our cell phones, but also smarter about danger and being aware. The Internet allows people to tell stories, to communicate and to get a real life perspective of what’s going on in the world. This is done through news videos, photographs, and articles. Bell and Weinberger believe to say technology is making us dumb is nearly impossible.
After explaining what I thought to be the best points each side presented, I think it is crucial and an error in the debate to define the terms of ‘dumb’. Bell (Pro technology) even mentioned with examples, is everyone who uses Facebook dumb? Everyone who uses GPS to get to their destination? People who use spell check? No. This is when I began to lean towards the side arguing for the positive benefits of technology. These examples are common motions performed by humans daily. But I would not classify the action of any of these as dumb, not even in the slightest. This is an advancement of technology that’s making positive benefits in our society. It’s making once difficult tasks more convenient, which can even turn into a learning experience. After using GPS to get somewhere, many times I no longer have to use it to return home or if I am going there again. It is ingrained in my memory. That goes with spell check too, it acts as a personal editor to catch mistakes you may have missed or may not have known about in the first place. These are learning experiences that are aided with the help of technology.
One of the questions asked to both sides was how can devices produce people to be smarter, especially for young children. Carr (against technology) discussed that kids grow and develop from a multitude of experiences, but when technology is involved, it consumes their brains and they spend most of their time on their devices. This then hinders their ability to become open minded and creative. While I would agree with his point that kids do need various forms of experiences to grow and learn, I would highly suggest that this is a parenting issue rather than a technology issue. If a child is young, yes, they will naturally play on their iPads or video game stations as long as they want to if not regulated by the parents. If their child is playing non-stop brainwashing games on their electrical devices, then the parents need to enforce more rules. Many tablets, computer games and even TV shows offer positive and beneficial messages for children. Interactive games and shows are created with the intention to solve problems, do math problems, even learn the alphabet and how to read. Technology can be a great aid in learning, as long as parents are exposing their children to the right proper programs.
There were a few additional points that stuck out to me, one was the discussion of Google’s search engine. Google can be seen as the world’s best friend — or at least one of mine. It seems to hold the answer to any question imaginable. But Carr (against technology) explained results of an interview with Google in regards to how well-formed people’s questions are. They found out that as the computers and advancements of Google have gotten smarter, people’s questions have gotten worse and lazier, showing their dependence on the internet to do the work for them. This is another point that I would disagree with, as would Bell and Weinburger. I believe that there is no such thing as a dumb question and an individual is using google as a source of information. I have grown up in an age where technology is prevalent. Most of my research is done using computers. Granted, I must express proper knowledge to recognize when a source is scholarly and credible, but I also have gained a wealth of knowledge from the extensive research I have done. For example, this debate would not have been accessible without the benefits of technology. Therefore, I highly disagree with the fact that we are becoming lazier as Google becomes smarter. I think we are both growing together.
Lastly, like Weinburger mentions in his closing statements, we live in a generation where “the access to information has never been this free. We have the ability to engage and participate in the creation of knowledge by asking questions, smart or dumb, wrong ideas and bad ideas, and reading open access to journals.” This is the smartest age we’ve ever had; people are more curious and making advancement that never before have been accomplished. Technology is shaping our future, it’s just up to us to filter out the negative aspects and really engage in its positive benefits. If right now is not the right use of technology, then what is?
After about halfway through the debate, I began to sway towards the side against the motion that technology is making us dumb. I was persuaded when the debaters tied in a connection that would relate to the audience: the use of GPS, social media, and spell check. After I had made up my mind, I definitely found myself focusing on the side that corresponded to my beliefs, expressing a little confirmation bias. Overall, the final results of the debate ended in a tie – both sides had an increase by ten percent from thoughts before and then after the debate.
Work cited:
Anderson, Monica. “Technology Device Ownership: 2015.” Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. Pew Research Center, 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2016
