Running head: DREAM OR NIGHTMARE: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF TECHNOLOGY 1

Dream or Nightmare: A Literature Review of Technology

Blake Schow

NUAMES
DREAM OR NIGHTMARE:A LITERATURE REVIEW OF TECHNOLOGY 2

Dream or Nightmare: A Literature Review of Technology

Introduction

In the Disney Pixar film Wall-E, the residents of Earth left behind a world overrun with

garbage and entered into what seemed like a technological paradise while they waited for the

Earth to recover. But as five years turned into 700, this seemingly technological paradise turned

into a technological nightmare. What used to be a society of active, social, and intelligent people

turned into a seemingly mindless society that sat alone with their technology at all times.

Throughout the film, we can see people become more active, social, and happy as Wall-E is able

to disconnect them from the technology that they have always known and reconnect them with

real life. This theme of people needing to disconnect with technology and reconnect with the

people and world around them is a recurring theme seen throughout the film as Wall-E and Eve

work to get the society of people on the Axiom back to Earth.

This example given to us by Wall-E makes us ask ourselves an essential question: are we

entering into a technological paradise or nightmare. As we continue to progress in our world

today, we are able to see that technology is becoming more and more incorporated into our

everyday life. Just 20 years ago, something like a computer was only owned by about 50% of

households in America, but now seemingly every kid and adult in America owns a smartphone

and uses it regularly throughout their lives. This is just one example of technology that is

becoming more advanced and incorporated into our lives at an exponential rate. With technology

becoming an unavoidable part of our lives, we need to take a step back and determine what effect

it is having on our society.

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In order to determine what effect technology is having on our society, we have to ask

three questions:

1. How is technology affecting our intelligence?

2. How is technology affecting our mental and emotional health?

3. How is technology affecting our interpersonal relationships?

Throughout this essay, we will bring in different scholars and their opinions and ideas in

order to try and answer these questions.

How Is Technology Affecting Our Intelligence?

Nicholas Carr (2008), an American writer, in his article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid,"

argues that despite the wonderful things about the internet, there are lots of negative impacts that

the internet brings into our lives. He begins by stating that this is because the internet is

"chipping away" people's capacity for "concentration and contemplation." He first defends this

claim by talking about how the internet has impacted his mind and his life. Carr does this by

explaining to us that before the widespread use of the internet, he used to enjoy reading books,

but now he claims that he finds it hard to do this as he loses focus and interest while trying to

read even a large article.

To further his point, Carr recalls the troubles of two of his colleagues: Scott Karp, a lit

major who writes a blog, and Bruce Friedman wrote, a pathologist at the University of Michigan

Medical School. These two colleges of Carrs talked about how they used to enjoy reading, but

now no longer even read books or large articles without skimming them over as they lose interest

and focus while reading them. Carr also brings in a study done by the University College

London, in which they were able to conclude that people no longer read in the "traditional"
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sense, but instead skim articles and hop from one article to another when visiting research sites.

Carr begins to explain why the way we read and think has changed by talking about how our

brains are "malleable." Through this, he discusses how, based on our technology and lifestyle in

our lives, our brains will start to think and process in new and different ways to adjust to our

environment and circumstances. To sum up, Carr likens information to a sea of words and

discusses how he used to be a "scuba diver" in this sea, but now he is just a guy on a "jet ski" that

zips along the surface.

Challenging Nicholas Carr's ideas, Brooke Gladstone, author of The Influencing

Machine, argues that we should not fear the internet as it is not making us dumber, but might

actually be making us smarter. To do this, she first brings up the opposing side, such as Nicholas

Carr, whose research has shown that people nowadays have a strong tendency to engage in

shallow and skimming behaviors in digital libraries. They use this research to try to say the

internet is "dumbing down" people. Gladstone refutes this by bringing up educator Kate Hayles

who suggests that we are not dumbing down, but instead, we are shifting our cognitive styles

from deep attention to hyper attention. Gladstone furthers this idea by discussing how this is a

natural adaptation that has occurred in all generations throughout time as our brains adapt to new

technology as it comes out. Citing Gary Small, Gladstone tells us about a study in which they

found far greater brain activity in computer-literate adults than inexperienced computer users

when they were both asked to do the same simple task. She uses this study to show us that

technology is not making us dumber, but instead is just making our brains adapt to the new

technology, which may be making us smarter.

How is technology affecting our mental and emotional health?

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Jean Twenge (2017), an American psychologist, in her article, "Have Smartphones

Destroyed a Generation," argues that smartphones have put the newest generation, iGen, "on the

brink of a mental-health crisis." She first supports this by bringing up generational research and

personal accounts that she has been told that show that people in this newest generation are

growing up feeling more lonely and left out than previous generations, which can hurt their

mental health. Twenge argues that this is because smartphones, more specifically social media,

has made it so people can see what they are getting left out of as they can see what their friends

and others are doing without them. Twenge then discusses that since the release of smartphones,

there has been an increase in the rate of depression, anxiety, and suicides. She ties this

information in with other research that has shown that increased screen time leads to less sleep

and a more common feeling of unhappiness. She uses these two things to show that smartphones

are a significant factor in why things like depression, anxiety, and suicide are on the rise. To

conclude, Twenge argues that if we want to avoid this mental health crisis, we are going to have

to learn to use smartphones in moderation.

Refuting Jean Twenge, Tracy Dennis-Tiwary (2018), a professor of psychology, argues

that teenagers are having an increase of anxiety and depression not because of smartphones, but

instead because of these three reasons: uncertain economic lives, uncertain truths, and uncertain

independence. Dennis-Tiwary begins by talking about how teenagers are going into a worse

economic future than their parents had, which causes them to live in uncertain economic lives

and makes them more anxious and less ready for their future. She then talks about how teenagers

have grown up in an age of uncertain truths; Dennis-Tiwary says they have grown up with

unreliable news sources and that they can't easily escape the digital ecosystem that is to blame.
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Finally, Dennis-Tiwary brings up how teenagers today have grown up with uncertain

independence due to helicopter parents. Arguing her point, she explains that due to helicopter

parents constantly trying to control and fix every mistake of their child, they are limiting the

development of self-reliance and are causing teenagers to have more anxiety and depression. In

conclusion, Dennis-Tiwary argues that, though smartphones may share partial blame for the

increase in anxiety and depression, an increase in smartphone use can be seen more as a

symptom of anxiety and depression brought upon by the uncertain economic lives, uncertain

truths, and uncertain independence in our world today.

Adding another view on the matter, Sigal Samuel, an American writer, in her article,

"These apps make a game out of relieving anxiety. They may be onto something," discusses the

many new apps, and technology in general, that is being created to improve mental health. She

begins by bringing up Jane McGonigal, a game developer that had suffered from severe anxiety

and depression for years. Jane McGonigal was able to develop an app called SuperBetter, that

was able to help those with anxiety and depression, while still having the feeling of playing a

regular game. Samuel uses this app and the hundreds of other apps out on the internet to show

that anxiety consumerism is becoming a big market. Market researchers are even predicting that

more and more people will increasingly turn to apps to alleviate their mental health problems.

Samuel then brings up research that proves that these apps do alleviate mental health problems,

but there is some debate about how it does this. This is because people debate whether these apps

work the way they were designed to or if it is just a placebo effect caused by people thinking

they should get better. Either way, Samuel concludes, these apps and technology are leading to
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improved mental health resources, which is becoming increasingly more important in our world

today.

How Is Technology Affecting Our Interpersonal Relationships?

Sherry Turkle (2017), Professor of the social studies of science and technology, in her

TED talk, Connected, But Alone, argues that, although she is still excited by technology, she

believes that we are letting technology take us to places we do not want to go to. Arguing this

belief of hers, she begins by bringing up the decrease in face to face interactions that technology

has caused. To prove this point, Turkle shares her own experiences in life that have shown to her

that that technology is decreasing face to face interactions. These interactions that she brings up

include: friends texting instead of talking to each other, colleagues emailing people instead of

communicating with other colleagues at work, and people getting on their phones instead of

listening and talking to people during classes, meetings, or whatever it may be. She uses these

interactions to show us that we are "hiding" (4:58) from people and face to face interactions by

relying on and going onto our technology.

Furthering her point, Turkle argues that we are designing and wanting to develop

technology that will give us the "illusion of companionship" (12:29) without the "demands of

friendship" (12:31). She provides examples of this by telling us about a common desire for an

advanced version of Siri and a shared desire for sociable robots. Sherry then continues her

argument by discussing that by trying to be more and more connected, we are setting ourselves

up to be isolated. She argues this point by explaining that in our current day, people try to turn to

technology and the internet whenever we feel bored and lonely, but by doing this, we are never

letting ourselves separate from technology and enter our own solitude. Although solitude is
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sometimes seen as a bad thing, it is a place where you can find yourself and then reach out to

other real people, instead of just our technology. To close, Sherry invites us, to not fear and turn

away from technology, but instead reflect on how technology is affecting our lives and reflect on

what role we want it to play in our lives.

Similarly, Twenge argues that smartphones are causing teens to become less

social. She first supports this claim by bringing up research that shows that after the release of

the iPhone, there has been a steady decline in this generation of people hanging out with friends

and a steady decline in people that are driving. She uses this evidence to show that this release of

smartphones has led to people sitting on their phones at home, instead of going out by

themselves and with friends. She then goes on to use research that shows a similar decline in this

generation of people that are dating and having sex in high school. She uses this information to

show us that people in this generation are not going out to date and meet new people; they are

instead at home trying to connect to people through their phones. Twenge concludes by arguing

that an increase in the use of smartphones leads to people becoming less social, which leads to

them meeting, dating, and hanging with people less.

Challenging the ideas of Twenge and Turkle, Jenna Wortham (2014), in her

article, "I Had a Nice Time With You Tonight. On the app," argues that technology is benefiting

our interpersonal relationships. She first supports this claim by bringing up her own experiences.

She explains that through technology, she was able to communicate with her boyfriend at times

and places where it would otherwise be impossible to communicate with him, which led to them

feeling closer and more connected. She furthers this idea by arguing that technology lets us be in

constant communication with friends, family, coworkers, etc.which can help us feel physically
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close to one another despite being far away. She then brings in the new influx of dating apps that

are aimed towards not just setting up dates, but also to keep people connected in their

relationships. She uses this to show that technology isn't just helping us connect with our friends

and family, but is also helping us both meet and stay with our partner.

Wortham then brings in this contradicting idea by Turkle: when we start to rely on

technology as a way to communicate, we start to lose the ability and want to communicate with

people offline. Wortham refutes this idea by stating that she finds the opposite to be true: the

more we interact with people through technology, the more of a desire we have to have face to

face meetings. Wortham concludes by stating that, although technology can't really ever replace

the feelings of face to face interactions, they can still be an excellent option to connect and spend

time with others.

Conclusions

Addressing all of these questions, Brooke Gladstone best expresses the outlook we

should have of technology of our world today. Throughout Gladstone's essay, she brings in

research on both spectrums of each question brought up to answer the question: how is

technology affecting our society. After bringing in all these contradicting stances on how

technology is affecting us, she explains that throughout history, people have always feared new

technology. Whether it be the invention of paper or the invention of the TV, people have always

worried what consequences these new inventions would bring, and throughout history, these

fears, at least, for the most part, did not come to happen. Instead, these inventions led to people

thinking and doing things differently, and have been used to benefit our society in each instance.

As we look back on the example of Wall-E, we can see that this film's theme was based around
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the fear of technology, but if we follow Gladstone's advice of "Don't Panic" and stop fearing

technology, we will find that everything will work out just fine.
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References

Carr, N. (2018, June 13). Is Google Making Us Stupid? Retrieved from

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/3068

68/​.

Dennis-Tiwary, T. (2018). Taking Away the Phones Won’t Solve Our Teenagers’ Problems.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/opinion/sunday/smartphone-addiction-teenagers-st

ress.html

Gladstone, B. (2011). ​The influencing machine: Brooke Gladstone on the media.​ WW Norton &

Company.

Kelly, K. (2012, December 24). Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take

Our Jobs. Retrieved from ​https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-robots-will-take-our-jobs/​.

Samuel, S. (2019, September 25). These apps make a game out of relieving anxiety. They may

be onto something. Retrieved from

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/9/17/20863016/anxiety-app-phone-gamification

Turkle, S. (2012). ​Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?​. TED.

Twenge, J. M. (2017). Have smartphones destroyed a generation. ​The Atlantic​, ​3​. Retrieved from

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-

generation/534198/

Wortham, J. (2014, April 5). I Had a Nice Time With You Tonight. On the App. Retrieved from

https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/i-had-a-nice-time-with-you-tonight-on-the-app

/​.