Life without the Internet and Technology.
Introduction
Technology and the internet is arguably one of the greatest inventions of man since time immemorial. Modern technology has become a part and parcel of man’s everyday life and its impacts are immensely felt. Drastic changes in how people approach life have also been brought about by the prevalence of technology in today’s life. Modern technology has enabled people to freely and autonomously construct their lives through the different fields and structures that technology and the internet touches on. In the modern day life, it is quite difficult to separate man from technology because the society has become co-dependent on technology. Almost every aspect of life is codependent on the internet today. In the event of the internet and technology being wiped away, life would be very different. This is because the internet has become the medium through which information is received, perceived and distributed according to (Carr 89-94). While the internet is applauded for having enabled a quick and easy access to information that would otherwise take days and even weeks to find, it is also believed to have come with several negative influences on life. Carr argues that the internet and technology has greatly reduced people’ interest in reading and the capacity to think and perceive things in the sense that the internet shapes people’s thinking and ideas of the information they receive.
Costs/Benefits of Life without the Internet and Technology
Eradication of the internet would bring about a rich culture of reading among researchers, students and workers. This is because a person would be required to read deep through an entire book/article to gain the information needed as opposed to the current culture of surfing through short articles and stories from different websites to gather information from the internet. This would also affect the perception and understanding of readers in the sense that deep reading allows for a deep concentration and connection level to the material being read therefore bringing about a positive level of understanding. Another benefit that would be accrued in the absence of the internet and technology is that people would become authentic. According to Carr, people have become robots in that even our minds tend to be controlled by the internet and technology. In his view, people are no longer thinking independently but rather follow what the internet and technology deem normal.
A life without the internet would boost people’s level of intelligence and ability to grasp the knowledge gathered from reading. This would be made possible by the fact that the brain would be able to adopt to the fact that there would be no sites for the easy and fast access of the information and this would in turn allow people to exercise their memory and portray real wisdom rather than the quick knowledge obtained from surfing the internet. Intellectual laziness which has been brought about by the fact that information can be easily accessed by a mere click of a button would be replaced by a culture of studious people with a passion for deep reading and deep thinking which would in turn produce a society of people with intellectual and wisdom.
A life without the internet and technology would make it easy to adopt/shape the human brain into translating information and knowledge we gather from deep reading into intellectual knowledge and wisdom according to Mary Anne wolf. This would allow for free thinking as opposed to the internet and technology era in which the internet basically has all the influence in the forming of our thoughts. According to Gladwell, the internet is not as effective in bringing people together as it is believed to. Gladwell asserts that real changes especially historic meaningful changes took place at a time when the internet had not dominated the thinking of man or his actions. According to Gladwell, a life without the internet and technology would allow for strong meaningful ties amongst people. He explains this in the sense that these ties are more likely to be strong in that they are formed amongst people who are closely affiliated as opposed to the weak ties social media forms amongst strangers. The absence of the internet will allow people to come together and actually physically and mentally participate in matters affecting their society as opposed to the social media system of showing you participate in an issue by a mere click to like or comment on an issue behind a phone or a computer. The face to face meeting amongst people is more likely to bring about changes to the society and this can only be made possible in the absence of the social media. The absence of social will be beneficial in the sense that it would allow for the traditional form of activism in instances where there is need for change in the society in that people would be able to come together and fully participate in such activism. (Gladwell)
In conclusion, Carr Nicholas and Malcolm Gladwell both agree that while the internet and technology are important sources of information in today’s society, they should however be tools that enhance/ allow for the traditional culture of deep reading/studying, deep thinking and authenticity in people, they should encourage the strong ties that are formed away from social media that allow for activism that brings about change in society and should not be viewed as substitutes for such face to face meetings. .
Works Cited
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 107.2 (2008): 89-94. Web
Gladwell, Malcolm. “Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”. New York times (2010): n. pag. Print.