The Good and Bad of Technology in Today’s Modern World
Everybody will agree that technology is widespread in today’s society. The majority of people who possess a piece of technology rely on it for communication, entertainment, and informational purposes. Think about it, when is the last time you went more than 4 hours without looking at your phone to see the latest news or your Instagram and Twitter feeds? Many will say that people in today’s society are dependent on technology; some may even argue that it is taking over human intellect. Technology definitely has its pros and cons. “Hal and Me” by Nicholas Carr and “The Rise of the Centaurs” by Clive Thompson both explore the good and bad of modern technology.
In “Hal and Me”, Carr explains his own personal experiences with technology and how they shaped him into the person he is today. The reading starts off with Carr expressing how he feels his mind is changing for the worse. He believes that technology is the reason why he is unable to stay focused while reading long articles, and his memory is getting blurry. Carr explains how the internet is extremely helpful for him for research purposes but also touches on the fact that it causes a lot of procrastination. The convenience of the internet makes databases full of facts just clicks away, “A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or the pithy quote I was after” (Carr 6). Carr also discusses conversations he has had with his peers about the negative effects of technology. We learn that Carr’s bad reading habit is not an outlier: in fact many of his peers struggle to be an attentive reader as well. The author also touches on the constant advancement and upgrades in technology. He says that he feels the need to have the latest piece of tech to keep up with society. Overall, Carr shows that technology has had more of a negative effect on himself. At the end of the article, Carr states “I missed my old brain” (18). This quote represents how Carr believes technology has been detrimental to him.
In “The Rise of the Centaurs”, Thompson explores the differences between the human brain and technology. He refers to the impressive chess skills of IBM’s Deep Blue computer. The computer was able to beat Garry Kasparov, a world renowned chess player. Kasparov then went on to see how beneficial human and computer collaboration in a chess game would be. He found that when you combine the chess player’s skills and thought process with the computer, they are essentially unstoppable. “Human strategic guidance combined with tactical acuity of a computer was overwhelming” (Thompson 5). Thompson also explores the positive effects of technology. In his opinion, if humans can work together with technology while not completely relying on it, it can render a positive effect. Towards the end of the text he touches upon his belief that humans are turning into “centaurs” because we are now able to use both our knowledge and technology together to help us become more intellectual.
