Thursday, October 25, 2012

                    Free-Write Response
 

My Research question: Does technology make people dumber?

Answering this question today I would say, no, technology does not make us dumber. As we continually evolve and improve technology, I believe we gain a better understanding of ourselves. Learning can now become catered to specific children by means of programs like, leapfrog and Rosetta Stone. These applications have helped open a new way of learning to our generation. Some people may argue that technology has made things too easy for our society. I would agree that technology has streamlined a majority of information to make them more convenient for us to use. But I would argue that by making information easier to access, we are no able to find limitless sources of knowledge. The development of technology also helps to people attain goals that might otherwise not be possible. For example our online classes, most of my classmates work full-time or have families, some juggle both. For my own experience I work from 8:30am to 7:15pm 6 days a week. Unfortunately that does not leave much time for me to actually be in a classroom. Without online classes I would not have the opportunity to get my college degree.

Someone with an opposing view might say that technology has had a very negative impact on our culture. They could bring up the fact that children no longer hang-out with friends but instead have thousands of virtual friends on Xbox live. Also they could say that hurts us monetarily, every year a new television comes out or a new car. Each year brings new feature or function that we must have. Cell phones are a perfect example of our “latest and greatest” society. People are paying hundreds of dollars every year to upgrade their phones to the newest handset.

I would like to gain more credible information about my topic from multiple views. I think that by gaining a better understanding of different views, I will be able to represent my own belief. I would also like to gain some credible sources that share my same values. At first glance it seems as though there is a lot of information available on multiple sides of the topic. So I think it will be very interesting to learn what other people think about it.

2 comments:

  1. Hello Richard. What an interesting topic to write about. Yet, it has so much to do with our society as of today. I'm sure you will gain a lot of insight on this, being that technology today does rule our lives. I mean, right now we are taking college online! That would have been unheard of not too long ago! At any rate, I think technology doesn't make us dumber, but we take it for granted. What I mean is, technology is to help us grow and learn and adapt to our ever changing society. We take advantage of it when we spent countless hours facebooking or playing mindless apps on our cell phones. That's just my view!

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  2. Hi Richard. I think you're definitely on to something here. We have become so used to the ease and convenience of electronics for everything that we're forgetting how to live without it! I think electronics make us smarter, sometimes, but at what cost? What do we have to sacrifice to take the quick easy route?

    I guess my problem with excessive electronics use is where it involves kids. So much calculating is done with electronics in their schools now that they don't know how to work a problem on paper. Probably my biggest peeve with the heavy infiltration of electronics in kids is that they are typing everything. I mean, everything. They don't even teach penmanship in school anymore. I have one son whose handwriting is so bad HE can't even read it sometimes. His teachers prefer for him to type out all of his assignments so they can be easily read. REALLY? THAT'S the solution they came up with? Ugh. We're currently undergoing a little war over that genius solution.

    I think it will be interesting to see what your sources tell you.
    Personally I think that most people would just curl up in the fetal position and bawl if they lost their tech toys. Good Luck!

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