Spencer Sherck

10-6-23

English comp.

Essay 1, Part 2 Final

Nicolas Carr’s essay has really stuck with me as a reader. He really caught me by connecting what we already know to what we don’t know. I was intrigued when he started connecting things about technology advancing and our brains feeling like they were changing. I like how Caden’s essay is saying how the internet is now almost running our lives. I also like how he uses his life experiences in his essay. It helps me connect and be engaged as a reader. In Siobhan’s essay she connects with our social life. This is a big part of our society, having good friends as an example that she uses. I can see this especially now in college because without social media I would not be able to communicate with my friends from high school so if it wasn’t for technology I wouldn’t be able to talk to them when i’m away from home. Without friends its hard to help shape who you are. So in that aspect technology helps shape who you are and who you’ll become.

Carr in my opinion is a very good writer and I think this topic can get really boring and he kept me interested in it and wanting to know more. I like on page 1, paragraph 2 where he says, “I get fidgety, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do.” I can really relate to this when reading because I can’t sit still and even right now writing this paper I lose track of myself and find myself doing something else. You go down that rabbit hole of doing one thing then doing another and just getting lost. I can relate this to when Caden says, “I agree with Nichloas Carr in a way where he thinks that people are too focused on their devices, that they are not really connected with the world, they are more focused on their device.” What I take out of that and connect it to Carr is people losing focus because they just want to go on their phone and do something instead of the task at hand. I can see this in schools because kids just want to be on their phone in class. But what makes this worse is schools putting more and more restrictions on phones so it makes kids stay off them but as a kid it makes you want to be on it even more. What I can take out of Siobhan’s essay that speaks to me about all of this is, “ To this day I struggle with reading comprehension and technology is not making it any easier. The majority of books are now ebooks and not having the physical book in hand to read along with makes my education struggles even more extreme. I also learn more from writing my work and with having everything online that aspect of my education is completely eliminated. There are many resources around me from teachers to tutors that can help me with my education struggles because of technology, but not every student has access to these resources. These struggles are only going to get worse with the ongoing advancements in technology but I hope others with my struggles can get the help they need in the classroom.” I can really relate to this and I see it in the quote from Carr. It is very easy to get distracted when something gets hard. When something gets hard i tend to “take a break” but i just get distracted and procrastinate and do something easier and save the harder stuff for last. Also with education going to more and more online is harder for younger kids. It’s very easy for them to do something they are not supposed to do. Then this leads to educators having to put more restrictions and more rules in place. Schools have even blocked almost everything that isn’t school related on school issued computers. 

Where I think technology comes in handy is the research aspect because you have everything you could possibly need in one spot. It makes doing projects a lot easier and is a lot more organized than having 5 different textbooks in front of you, you can just have 5 tabs open and if you need a quote you can copy and paste it in. Also instead of having to read the book and write about it you can have a split screen going and write directly what you have from the web on your document.  Carr says, “The web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes.” This is very true to me, But then it reconnects to me getting distracted really easily. In Caden’s essay he says, “I have so much more control with my writing when using the internet because I have learned so much just from the palm of my hands. The internet and the technology that has come with it, has made writing a lot easier to just do in general. It has opened my mind to so many different options for learning and it still expands my mind every day.” I can relate because it helps my writing with all the tools given to me. What i first think of is google, any question i have i go right to google. On the other hand Siobhan disagrees, She says “ There is rarely pen and paper used in classrooms anymore; it is all computers and projectors. Some think this is the greatest technological advancement that could have ever happened for teachers and students, but personally as a student it has made my learning experience extremely difficult.” Pen and paper eliminates all the outside factors but it overall just harder for me. Being able to type assignments with auto correct and all the tools making everything so much easier. Making school easier shouldnt be the point though. Its hard with grammar because you can type a word wrong and not know how to spell it correctly because it did it for you. 

Overall I think technology has improved the world overall but has also given us some setbacks that can be eliminated. These setbacks can be hard for generations to fix but can be fixed overtime trying to change old habits or even improving technology. Our generation has become very comfortable with what we have and become too comfortable that we are taking advantage of these things and turning the positive into a big negative. You can really see this in Siobhan and Caden’s essays. Its really important to also see that Siobhan and Caden are young where Carr is a lot older so his perspective on things like this are coming from a totally different place. Growing up with all the technology gives a totally different perspective than it coming in, in the middle of your life. As i was young touchscreen phones with all these new features were being introduced where Carr was already all grown it seems totally different. But as an overall perspective technology is changing the way we do things and can be very bad for humanity. These things can keep getting worse and worse because we do not acknowledge them and won’t admit that it’s a problem.  

Work Cited

3 sources

Siobhan Smiths Essay 1, Part 1

Caden Colburns Essay 1, Part 1

Nicholas Carr “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”