Research Analysis

Research Analysis
April 27, 2009
English 102
Robyn Minarik

Technology is all around us, everywhere we go technology is used. The internet is one of those technologies that seems to follow us. I can’t remember the last time I went a day without using the internet. I use it to keep in touch with friends, directions, or to find out when the bus is going to be at my stop. If there isn’t a computer around, I just use my cell phone. My generation seems so dependent on the internet and in my essay I wanted to explore the affect of this reliance.
I developed my topic of laziness from previous discussions I've had with my mom. We've talked quite often about how technology is making students lazier and in a way less smart. My mom would always tell me about how they had to use typewriters and had to think way before they typed something because there was no backspace, no spell check. The texts we read helped me develop a better view on this topic so I can have more a background to begin with for my writing. I was influenced to look into the idea of technology and laziness after reading Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; for example, the invention of ice-nine. Vonnegut uses this disaster to show the side effects of science. After reading Cat’s Cradle, I then read Technology Matter’s by David E. Nye and I noticed similar ideas which further opened my eyes to the affects of technology. Nye rationalizes his feelings about technology by giving examples of disasters that’s happened because of these inventions. All giving examples of how technology can cause bigger problems.
I think the perspective I take on my topic is the college student who has had years of technology that has been making me lazier. I have a firsthand knowledge on this. Instead of looking up how to spell a word in the dictionary I can just left click the word and see how to spell it right. Since I’m a part of this generation that grew up with the internet, I find it particularly interesting and valuable to research how it has affected me. I also thought this topic would target my peers so they can also know the possible side effects. I wanted to achieve a better understanding of the internet in today’s culture so I broadened my research and examined other texts with similar thoughts and ideas. I wanted to examine if the internet and technology was making things for efficient or just hurting us in the long run.
The research part was a bit of a struggle for me because it was hard to find sources that were creditable. I also had a difficult time pulling all my research together in the end to make an interesting paper. It took me awhile to decide what I what angle I wanted to come from with my essay. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk more about my response to the authors or how the authors expressed their views. I debated for awhile the two ideas and decided that both ideas weren’t too far apart so I just settled on using both suggestions. I constructed my essay by sitting down and looking over my notes and quotes that I highlighted and thought were important. I took my previous essays and added more detail and quotes to expand on my thoughts and build a better understanding of my purpose.
I decided to use one some of my own examples of how technology has affected me personally; for example, spell check. I include my examples to personalize my example and make the essay more interesting for the reader. I wanted to include my ideas and not just have all scholars ideas as another stakeholder.

Blog #10

A choice I made when writing this essay was to include one of my own examples. I talked and explained about how spell check is making students lazier. I decided to take this approach so I could include more of my own ideas instead of taking scholars ideas. Another choice I made when revising was to take the advise of my peers and include 'the human factor'. I thought that was a great idea and found a way to incorporate it into my essay. I thought that the face to face revision really helped, I was really stuck when I first started writing my rough draft but my peers really opened my eyes to other things I could include to make my essay a lot better. I didn't really find much difference in face to face compared to blogging besides the fact that it was easier to ask my peers questions. If I wasn't sure about what a peer is saying on my blog I couldn't really ask to find an immediate response.

Assignment 8

Technology has been a part of the human life throughout history. Day after day new ideas are being shaped to invent the latest technologies to help enhance our lives. However, technology has brought about countless concerns in today’s society. Everyone has different standpoints regarding new technology. Nevertheless, all around the world, people are questioning where and how technology is influencing us in the present and how it will influence us in the future. My question is; are students becoming less intelligent because of technology? Are online resources, like Google, affecting students academically? Is technology initiating “the dumbest generation”? (Bauerlein)
In my opinion, I believe that today students have grown to be lazy because of technology. Students utilize technology to make more difficult things easier; for example, as an substitution of simply reading over an essay a student would merely press F7 causing the computer to proof-read an essay for them. The easiness of this makes students less probable to personally take a second look at their essays, therefore; the student wouldn’t come across something the computer could have failed to spot. The student would then turn in an essay that does not meet their own intelligence level, which would make them appear less intelligent than they are in reality. Spell check also is making students’ worst spellers. Since students know that they have spell check they don’t have to know how to spell words right. Like in Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates says, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.”(Carr 3) If you don’t have to know the correct spelling, the correct spelling will not stay in your memory.
The use of technology to make things easier also can be seen as a positive. Although technology compels slothfulness, it also makes things more efficient and time saving.
(Not Finished :(...I have a meeting with the writing center next monday)

Blog #8

I developed my topic of laziness from previous discussions I've had with my mom. We've talked quite often about how technology is making students more lazy and in a way less smart. My mom would always tell me about how they had to use typewriters and had to think way before they typed something because there was no backspace, no spell check. The texts we read helped me develop a better view on this topic so I can have more a background to begin with for my writing. I think the perspective I take on my topic is the college student who has had years of technology that has been making me lazier. I have a first hand knowledge on this. Instead of looking up how to spell a word in the dictionary I can just left click the word and see how to spell it right.

Blog Assignment #6

One source I pulled from “Technology Matters” by Nye is “How Computers Change the Way We Think” by Sherry Turkle. The title of this text basically explains its purpose in itself. Turkle has six different areas where she feels computers are changing the way we think. One is privacy; she talks about how college students are habituated to a world online, like blogging and instant messaging. This is particular interesting because I am a college student and I am using online blogging right now. Turkle feels like people don’t realize that posting things on the internet has no safe-guards and that “privacy is a right, not merely a privilege.” Nye uses this point in chapter 10 in his book. It is a good source to include in the argument that he was presenting and I think he explained it in context very well. Another area Turkle feels how computers are changing us is chat rooms. She feels that people present there selves differently online and makes it harder for people to “develop authentic selves”. Nye also uses this point in chapter 10 to show another side of view on chat rooms. One thing that I thought David E. Nye’s could have included from Turkle’s text is her view on word processing vs. thinking. I thought her view on this topic was very interesting and could enhance his argument of encapsulation.
Another text I got from the library was “The Hard Drive and Human Behavior” by John C. Dvorak. This text actually wasn’t found in David E. Nye’s book but I thought it was a good text to use for my research paper. Dvorak explains “the new philosophy of laziness” which is something I wanted my paper to really focus on. This text concentrates on how he believe that technology is forcing laziness and universal futility. Dvorak feels like these developments won’t be stopped until everything falls apart, or the end of the world.

Comparing Concepts

While reading “Technology Matters: Questions to Live With” by David E. Nye, I noticed similarities between this text, “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Human Factor” by Kim Vicente. All three have concepts including technology. In “Technology Matters”, Nye’s rationalizes his feelings about technology by giving examples of disasters that’s happened because of these inventions. Such as, Westinghouse manufactured a system for nuclear reactors intended to shut them down if an emergency occurred. “However, the backup systems used electrical signals that resembled those used in normal operation. At times, the two signals interacted, which simultaneously disabled both systems.” (164) This relates to “The Human Factor” when Vicente discusses the Chernobyl incident. Leonid Toptunov, a graveyard shift worker in the control room of the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin nuclear power station, was working on an experimental test with the primary safety system turned off. This caused violent explosions ripping the reactor apart. According to the text, “Toptunov had been told that technical experts had estimated the likelihood of a severe accident to be one in ten million”. (10) Both accidents were because of critical miscalculations or errors in technology.
“The Human Factor” and “Technology Matters”, have another concept in common. Both Vicente and Nye discuss and analysis how technology can increase risks. Nye quotes “If people have used technologies to increase their safety, they simultaneously risk unforeseeable accidents and even disasters that arise from the interplay of changing technical systems and new circumstances.”(167) Basically saying how he feels the more powerful the technology is, the more catastrophic the accident is. Vicente helps expand on Nye’s idea with ‘the human factor’. Since the technology is more complex and powerful, “we see technology that’s beyond our human capacity to control.”(27) So maybe the reason when technology gets more powerful, ‘the human factor’ is the reason why cataclysmic accidents transpire.
“Technology Matters” relates to “Cat’s Cradle” because they both have the concept of inventions in technology to prevent natural problems. Nye’s gives different examples of some natural problems like when he explains how genetic engineers failed to “foresee that a plant they had designed to ward off insects might also release poison that kills valuable microorganisms in the earth, a poison that might even leech into the water supply”(165) This is like ‘ice-nine’ in “Cat’s Cradle”, ‘ice-nine’ is a invention made to help soldiers move faster through the mud, it freezes the mud but it has the potential to freeze all water it comes into contact with. Both giving examples of how technology can cause bigger problems.

Writing My Essay

It took me awhile to decide what I what angle I wanted to come from with this essay. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk more about my response to the authors or how both authors expressed their views. I debated for awhile the two ideas and decided that both ideas weren’t too far apart so I just settled on using both suggestions.
I choose to concentrate on these two topics because I could explain them without difficulty and they were broad topics that I could write a lot about. Also, on my first assignment I wrote about these topics so I thought it would be easy to expand on them. My notes on Vincente’s text helped me a lot to expand on these thoughts. I constructed my essay by sitting down and looking over my notes and quotes that I highlighted and thought were important. I took my first essay and added more detail and quotes to expand on my thoughts and build a better understanding of the book. I added parts from the second half of the reading and talked about the conclusion. I wish I would have taken notes on “Cat’s Cradle” while I was reading it. It would have helped a lot so I didn’t have to reread chapters. It took a lot more time for me to write this paper because it would take me awhile to find passages that I wanted to include to improve my essay.
Overall, I think my essay turned out pretty decent. I’m sure many things could be made better, but in the end I put a lot of work into the paper and I’m proud of my achievements.

Technologic View's Through Writing

Different authors use different methods to show their views towards areas of their concerns. Technology in today’s culture is one of those concerns that are being addressed. It surrounds us every day and is getting more confusing and frustrating. Kim Vicente talks about his feelings towards technology in his book “The Human Factor”. His idea of, “the human factor”, is basically how technology is being made more and more difficult and how is “actually unusable by most human beings.” (17) Vicente expresses his thoughts by using disasters caused by scientist lack of calculating this “human factor”; for example, he talks about the Chernobyl reactor and how Leonid Toptunov wasn’t fully trained to understand the reactors behavior. Toptunov’s naiveté’s caused a terrible explosion causing many deaths including his own at the young age of 26. Vicente uses negative correlations to technology in his words, like calling cell phones, “electronic leashes” (13)

Another technique used to show author’s concerns towards technology is Kurt Vonnegut’s use of irony with the novel “Cat’s Cradle”. Vonnegut writing grabs your attention and I found it very entertaining and at times funny. He mocks the use of science by using a character as a scientist, Felix Hoenikker, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. Felix also invents a solution called “ice-nine”, a formula that could end the world by freezing all water. Felix makes this to solve the problem of mud that soldier were tired of going through. There is irony in this because when Felix starts to make something that is meant to help, it actually is a solution to end the world.

Today everyone has grown to be so lazy because of technology. For example, we are getting worse at spelling because of spell check (what I am actually using right now). We use technology to find ways out of doing things the hard way. Just like in “Cat’s Cradle”, the soldiers were too lazy to march through the mud that they invented something so dangerous that would end the world in the wrong hands. There is nothing in today’s science that could end the world that I know of but I know that technology can increase disasters and deaths. Both books use disaster’s to show the side effects of science, Chernobyl’s explosion and the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Both books examine “the human factor” in technology but by using different techniques of writing to express their worries towards our generation.