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Ashanti Huye
23 October 2018
5th period
MA #2 Synthesis

Title of Your Report

The year is 2053 and technology has completely taken over the world. The majority of

millennials and generation z appreciate the ability of easy access to information of all sorts, but

there are also those who are in the older portion of the generation who hate how far the world has

strayed from face to face communications due to technologies. This is the reality I believe people

all over the world are soon to face. Even now in 2018, the debate if technology is negatively or

positively affecting society is a huge, ongoing discussion. I like to think the effect technology

has had on society and the overall evolution of human interactions is unobjectionable, neither

completely positive nor negative, but instead has aspects that can fall on either side of the

spectrum.

Technology is such an ify subject. It has many upsides including, access to information

and the media much quicker than the pace it could be accessed through books and newspapers,

and it is also much more efficient for communicating with friends and family who you don’t

have the ability to be with or see everyday. In a St. Louis Post Dispatch article, author Arthur H.

Rotstein discusses how an Arizona high school has completely ruled out the idea of using

textbooks. Instead students were given iBooks, laptop computers by Apple, to use in their

classes. When interviewing Calvin Baker, superintendent of the Vail Unified School District, the

analogy between computer usage and normal lesson plans is compared to icing on a cake, the

cake being the lesson plan and the icing being the internet. Baker says “the real opportunity was

to make the laptops the key ingredients of the cake … to truly change the way schools operated.”
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The claim that the internet and computers make information more accessible to not only

students, but individuals all over the world can be supported by these statements. Empire High

School, the Arizona High School mentioned above, is proof of how far technology has come.

The fact that an entire school was designed for the sole purpose of being a textbook-free

environment demonstrates that a shift has taken place and certain circumstances are being

handled differently, especially when it comes to the usage of technology in the learning

environment.

Other supports of the claim comes from Wall Street Journal. Article “Teaching Tools” by

author Kevin J. Delaney discusses the shift education facilities must make in order to keep up

with the modern, tech driven, learning styles of the children in today’s society. The question that

all institutions should be asking themselves, according to Tim Wilson, a technology-integration

specialist at Hopkins High School, is “how do we communicate with students today who have

grown up with technology from the beginning.” For many, there is a simple solution, make, if

not all, most classes, computer and internet based, but for others, the solution isn’t as easy.

Although classes which are more undemanding due to the ease at which internet usage comes for

newer generations would be a upgrade for the students, the teachers would struggle a lot more.

Teachers are the roots of every classroom, and if the roots are damaged, there is no stable

foundation for the branches to try and grow from. So if the teachers are continuously lost and

thrown off because of the new ways technology is being used, it could make computer based

classes be considered pointless. But what some people fail to realize, the classroom is not

designed for the teachers. Classrooms are for the students to be provided with suitable

conditions, where they are able to learn in the most comfortable and efficient way. If online

assignments are the easiest way for students to learn, then teachers, especially the older ones,
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should be required to take courses that teach them the basics of the internet. Technology and

adolescent minds are evolving, they think differently that the way someone from the baby

boomer generation would’ve thought. So if things are continuously evolving, why should

learning and the way subjects are taught stay the same? The answer to Mr. Wilson’s question is

indeed a very simple one, to communicate with students who have developed alongside

technology, those who have not grown with it must adapt, learn, and work with students to make

their life easier.

The development of the internet and technology in general is known to have a huge

positive impact on the way things are now handled in everyday life. Whether is be how a house

is designed or how groceries are picked out, nine times out of ten, some form of technology is

involved. While some love the change technology is bringing about, some fear the widespread

use of informative technologies forces society to encounter items from the internet faster than we

can humanly process it. Evidence to prove the theory that the internet is stopping and slowing

down the thinking process can be found in Steven Johnson’s Interface Culture: How New

Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. In a short, two paragraph

excerpt, Johnson reflects on his earlier experiences in life before the computer, and after. He

highlights the fact that now, he can’t imagine writing without a computer. He brings up the

foreign feeling he gets when he holds pen to paper and that he can’t fathom the idea of

completing a novel completely by hand. The Author also takes the time to dwell in his past

before he became tech savvy. He gives a short narrative on how he used to write short stories

completely by hand and practice to perfect his penmanship. Johnson proves that people are

lacking in originality when he brings up the fact that he has lost his old self, it’s not hard to

assume that many others feel the exact same way.

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How a person can lose himself and their ability to process information due to the fast

pace, widespread information within the internet is easily shown through many sources, but the

reason why is a more difficult, burdensome question. According to Esther Dyson, in her excerpt

from What We Believe But We Cannot Prove: Today’s Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age

of Certainty, it’s a social problem, but also a mental one. She accentuates the fact that today’s

children are growing up in front of tablets and television shows that don’t allow them to think.

Younger generation had toys that they had to create stories and dialogue for, toys that allowed

their imaginations to run wild. Today’s kids don’t have that luxury. They are given talking toys

that have audio recordings, games that have story built into it already, and exposure to images

without having the time to process what they are seeing. Think about it, today kids can get

confused on a simple math problem, and instead of allowing themselves to think, they simply

grab a calculator and have it do all the thinking for them. Technology has given children leeway

to not think and this could cause lots of long term problems.

I believe technology is a great invention and is just what the world needed. But I also

believe that the world has become too dependent on technologies and the internet. Although

there are many positive outcomes which include easy access to information and an almost

effortless way of communication, technology comes with a lot of negatives. It takes away the

ability to think for oneself, and it also forces lives to move too quickly due to the fact that we

come in contact with images and information at a quicker pace than we can process. Technology

has always been around to advance the modern world during those certain decades. Whether it be

the creation of glass to all the new apple products, they are all created to make life a little easier,

I see no problem with wanted to advance the human race. The problem comes in when the world

depends on technology and the internet to the point where they can’t think for themselves or
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even complete simple tasks. When technology becomes a distraction rather than an extension to

our learning and wellbeing is when critics should become concerned. As of now with the

ongoing debate if technology has positively or negatively affected society and human

interactions, it’s hard for me to choose a side because there are so many good points on both

sides of the spectrum.

Works Cited
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Delaney, Kevin J. “Teaching Tools.”, Wall Street Journal, 17 Jan. 2005: R4. Print

Dyson, Esther. Untitled essay, What We Believe But We Cannot Prove: Today’s Leading
Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty. Ed. John Brockman, New York: Harper,
2006 192-194 Print.

Johnson, Steven. Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and
Communicate. New York: Basic, 1999, Print.

Rotstein, Arthur H. “Books Are Out, iBooks Are In for Students at Arizona High School.” St.
Louis Post-Dispatch 19 Aug. 2005, C2, Print