Rapid Advancement of Technology
The more advanced technology becomes, the more it seems to have control over our lives. According to Lee Siegel, "we shop, work, play, love, search for information, seek to communicate with each other and sometimes with the world online. We spend more time online than ever before. Yet people are not arguing about this startling new condition." I believe that people have too readily embraced technology, seeking only the benefits, and ignoring the many downfalls.
"It does not matter if your home is a noisy urban walk-up or a quaint cottage on a secluded bluff. If you have a screen and can pick up a signal, your mind is still in the same placeless place"(Siegel, 64). This "placeless place" that Siegel talks about is the zone that your mind enters when you stare at a screen too long, and it feels like your mind stops “Thinking.”
Recent developments in technology such as the internet also led to a decline in “normal” social behaviors. “The old-fashioned café provided a way to both share and abandon solitude, but sitting in your screen world is a whole other story. You are socially and psychologically cut off from your fellow caffeine addicts” (Siegel, 16, 17). In ages past, you could walk around town for a whole day without seeing all the people you know. Now, everyone you know is within arm’s reach, taking that certain psychological feeling out of seeing people. You see them every second of every day, and hear nearly every single thought of theirs as soon as they think them.
Years ago, it was predicted by many that the future would be an amazing and surreal place, yet, no one really seems very shocked about the advances. You can see evidence everywhere. The news is a great example- you see or read an interesting story, think about it for a second, and then you brush it over your shoulder, without any critical thinking, or wondering how it will affect your life.
“The Internet has radically changed nearly every level of human experience in an incredibly
"It does not matter if your home is a noisy urban walk-up or a quaint cottage on a secluded bluff. If you have a screen and can pick up a signal, your mind is still in the same placeless place"(Siegel, 64). This "placeless place" that Siegel talks about is the zone that your mind enters when you stare at a screen too long, and it feels like your mind stops “Thinking.”
Recent developments in technology such as the internet also led to a decline in “normal” social behaviors. “The old-fashioned café provided a way to both share and abandon solitude, but sitting in your screen world is a whole other story. You are socially and psychologically cut off from your fellow caffeine addicts” (Siegel, 16, 17). In ages past, you could walk around town for a whole day without seeing all the people you know. Now, everyone you know is within arm’s reach, taking that certain psychological feeling out of seeing people. You see them every second of every day, and hear nearly every single thought of theirs as soon as they think them.
Years ago, it was predicted by many that the future would be an amazing and surreal place, yet, no one really seems very shocked about the advances. You can see evidence everywhere. The news is a great example- you see or read an interesting story, think about it for a second, and then you brush it over your shoulder, without any critical thinking, or wondering how it will affect your life.
“The Internet has radically changed nearly every level of human experience in an incredibly