Our Last Hope

We all know that today’s society utilizes technology in their everyday life to enhance their productivity of their task. Or so they thought. Nicholas Carr proves his thoughts of how the media’s influence in today’s world is shifting due to the advancements created daily in his novel titled The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains. He explains on a more technical term of how our brain is slowly being modified to change the neural signals in which it uses daily. Although Carr expresses his struggles of having to turn away from technology, he has further provided several experiments in which the technology has the power to alter a person’s brain signals just by the usage of a single technology “session”. Furthermore, as a new reader of this type of subject, I was interested to learn about the old ways in which past societies have used electronics and technology to further enhance their way of living. At this point in time, I believe the increase in technological gadgets are not improving our society’s way of life but thus altering it for the worse. This is especially prevalent in our opportunities for occupations. For instance, there is a new push for certain jobs to be controlled by technology and more specifically robots. Jobs like a restaurant host, manufacturing jobs, and furthermore cashiers are now replacing humans. Although it would benefit the company by ultimately costing less money, the impact on society and the job market will be devastating.This was evident especially during the 2008 Recession in the U.S. The lack of jobs was proven to be beneficial to companies; yet, the decrease in production of revenue within society decreased. Today, the U.S. is still recovering  and yet there has been an increase in the amount of small businesses. But, we can’t fail to think that the more and more technology advances, the less companies who do not utilize this updated technology will be able to compete with them. We’ve already lost so much in the service and personal professions. This upcoming generation can barely release their eyes from their devices. What will be the last straw for people to think that the media impact has had enough persuasion? Will there ever be an enough?

-Veronika Ferrell