Niall Cummins

English 1010
Briggs
Due 11/24

How is Technology Affecting our Minds?

My parents and grandparents often say to me, Niall, get your head out of your
phone before it rots your brain. Im sure that many other people of my generation have
heard the same thing from their parents and grandparents. We all know that the people
of the world today are obsessed with technology, but do we know the effects of this
addiction? Is my brain really losing its potential as I swipe my thumb up across the
screen reading the days headlines? Or are our brains benefiting from the use of
technology? We all spend a fair amount of time using our phones, laptops, or
televisions, so this is a question everyone should be concerned about. I would like to
think that the technology we have today is helping to make the human race smarter, and
more aware, but this may not be the case. Im investigating to find out.
The International Times featured an article written by Charles Poladian titled
Are Smartphones Making Us Dumber? New Study Says They Are Making Us Lazy, But
Other Experts Say Maybe Not. In the article, Poladian brushes up on a study done by
The University of Waterloo which found that analytical thinkers with stronger cognitive
skills used search engines less than their counterparts (par. 2). In layman's terms it
basically states that people who think more dont use their phones as often to shortcut
for an answer. They did find support for an association between smartphone usage and

lower intelligence. But are the smartphones making us dumb, or do dumb people just
use smartphones more?
Dr. Johnathan Wai, from Duke University, believes that there are a great number
of advantages to smartphone usage. Dr. Wai states, New technology has the most
power to amplify the intelligence we already have, It can also broaden our skill sets and
our ability to deal with the ever increasing complexity of our lives (par. 4). He then
continues to say, Many of the technologies we are using today have already changed
us, for better or worse, but we cant be sure about the aggregate long-term effects (par.
7).
The insights I found in Poladians article showed me that we really do not know
how our current technology is going to affect us in the long term, and we definitely dont
know what the technology of tomorrow will change, either. I also learned that people
who search for answers on smartphones have lower intelligence, but we dont know if
the phone is the cause for the low intelligence, or if the low intelligence is the cause for
excessive Googling. I believe it is most likely the latter.
Evgeny Morozov interviewed the CFO of Google in his article, Is Smart Making
us Dumb? Googles CFO, Patrick Pichette, says that Google, Is really just an
engineering company, with all these computer scientists that see the world as a
completely broken place (par. 8). Google thinks that all of the worlds problems, from
traffic jams, to energy conservation can all be solved using technology. Jane McGonigal,
a professional TED speaker, has a talk where she says, Our reality is broken, but can
be fixed by making the real world more like a video game, with points for doing good

(par. 8). Morozovs personal opinion is that there are good technologies that help the
human race, and bad technologies that deduct from our sense of self-autonomy.
Are there really two distinctly different types of technology, or are there two
distinctly different ways of using technology, one being helpful, and the other being
hurtful? Maybe there are two different types of smartphone users. There could be one
type of user who uses their phone to find useful, meaningful content online, and another
use who spends hours mindlessly scrolls through Facebook or another social media
platform (we all know at least one of these). Poladians article leads me to believe this
as well.
In Clive Thompsons Smarter Than You Think, he talks about all forms of
informational technology, starting from the very beginning. Socrates feared that writing
would have a negative impact on mans ability to think, but Thompson says, Paper and
reliable pens made it possible to externalize our thoughts quickly (347). Clearly
Socratess philosophical reasoning was not always correct. Before we started writing, all
of our thoughts were in our heads, and nowhere else. Look at the world today. We are
surrounded by pictures, videos, status updates, and tweets. We keep a record of every
memorable moment in our entire lives without even thinking about it. Although
technology has done so much for us, multi-tasking has also made it very hard for us to
focus on something for an extended period of time. It requires a high level of
mindfulness, or as Thompson puts it, Paying attention to your own attention (355) for a
millennial to sit down and read an entire book.
Technology definitely has shaped the way our world works. Nearly every
accomplishment weve achieved as a species is a result of the technology of the time.

Weve evolved with it, as it has evolved with us. Over time, it has given us a much
broader and deeper understanding of the Universe and the world we live in. It seems
that the fear that technology is making us dumber is not a new fear. If Socrates was
wrong about writing having a negative impact on our minds, then maybe our generation
is also wrong in thinking that the technology of today may make us unintelligent. On the
other hand, maybe it has the power to make us more intelligent while also having the
power to turn us into cyber zombies.
Darlin Damonsons Technology Doesnt Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds
rests the case. He says that for many of us, phones take up a lot of our time. They have
maps, internet access, and can even play games. However, lots of other technologies
save us a lot of time, such as tax software, and calculators. These inventions
tremendously cut down on the amount of time it takes to do tedious mathematical tasks.
Some people are time-wasters because of technology, and others are time-savers. How
technology affects your brain depends on how you use it.
Technology definitely has its ups and downs when it comes to the effect it has on
the human brain. Most of it comes down to how you use the technology. If you spend
most of your phone time scrolling through articles, reading up on events, reading books
and learning, it is definitely going to help make you smarter. After all, reading is one of
the best ways to learn, technology just makes it more convenient for us. On the
opposing side, if you are a person who uses technology not to learn, but as a means of
convenient entertainment, i.e. you use it to play videogames and watch tv, it may not be
helping you whatsoever. Our technology has definitely helped the human race evolve
into what it is today, but that may only because of the people who used technology to

find knowledge. Those who dont search for such knowledge, are not reaping the
benefits. There is evidence to show that technology lowers attention spans, and helps
people learn. My conclusion is thus: Technology CAN make you smarter. It all depends
on how you use it.

Works Cited
Darlin, Damon. "Technology Doesn't Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds." New
York Times 21 Sept. 2008. Print.
Morozov, Evgeny. "Is Smart Making Us Dumb?" Wall Street Journal 23 Feb. 2013.
Print.
Poladian, Charles. "Are Smartphones Making Us Dumber? New Study Says They
Are Making Us Lazy, But Other Experts Say Maybe Not." International
Business Times. IBT, 9 Mar. 2015. Web. 7 Nov. 2015.
Thompson, Clive. "Smarter Than You Think." They Say I Say: With Readings. 3E
ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015. 340-360. Print.