Advances in technology cause great controversy. These controversies are centered around the influences technology has on the people who engage in different types of technology. In the article titled “Out Semi-Literate Youth? Not So Fast” by Andrea Lunsford, she explains the importance of technology and how, in most cases, technology is able to help develop students. In another article titled “Hal and Me” by Nicholas Carr, he stresses the point that technology is pushing the good life’ to the wayside.
Although both authors have different opinions when it comes to technology, they both agree that changes are occurring due to technological influences on peoples’ brains. Technology plays an extremely large role in the lives of the people in this world, it is important that everyone understands that changes that come with the advances of technology. Most people think that comparing students from past generations to students in the present isn’t fair. In Lunsford’s article “Out Semi-Literate Youth? Not So Fast,”
Lunsford uses her scientific experiment to support her opinions on the impact of technology on youth. Lunsford is able to prove that as technology has advanced, so has students writing skills when she says “First, the length of student writing has increased nearly three-fold in the 25 years, corroborating the fast that students today are writing more than ever before”(573). This quote from Lunsford’s article shows that she understands that there are advances being made in writing, along with the technological advancements.
In comparison to Lunsford, Nicholas Carr argues that technology causes negative effects on the population. In Carr’s article “Hal and Me” he never directly says that there are negative effects associated with technology. Carr uses words to imply his feelings when it comes to his views on technology. This is seen when Carr says “Calm, focused, undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts- the faster the better”(568).
This section from the second article helps the reader understand what Nicholas Carr thinks of the way that technology is impacting our society. Words like ‘disjointed’ and ‘overlapping bursts’ have negative connotations associated with them. It is easy to see that Carr prefers sitting down and spending hours reading a good book, instead of sitting for hours on the internet surfing aimlessly. The change that technology has undergone in the last 25 years is undeniable. One of the main causes of the dramatic change in the world is technology that is carrying ociety to new levels of accomplishment every day.
Both authors express that they are able to see the difference technology has made on the average person’s mind. In Carr’s article “Hal and Me” he says “Over the last few years IVe had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going- so far as I can tell- but it is changing”(564). Here Carr explains the change that he personally has experience in the recent past due to technology advancing.
Lunsford also recognizes Not So Fast” Lunsford says, “But rather than leading to a new illiteracy, these activities seemed to help them develop a range or repertoire of writing styles, tones, and formats along with a range of abilities”(571 ,572). Lunsford introduces her opinions on exactly what technology has changed. Even though opinions may not line up between the two authors, they both agree that changes have occurred. Although everyone has their own opinion on the impact technology has had on society, the one thing that is certain is that it has caused change.
Andrea Lunsford explains the amount of positive influence technology has offered to students in her article “Our Semi-Literate Youth? Not So Fast. ” In another article titled “Hal and Me” by Nicholas Carr, technology is explained to have negative impacts on the people in society. Lastly, both authors offered their opinions on technologies impact on the human brain. One thing that can be concluded from the information in these two articles is that technology has good and bad influences on modern-day society.
