Blog Posting due 3/10, Carr, pp. 1-57
Summary
Carr opens the book discussing
whether tools are inanimate objects that we control or whether they play a role
in shaping our literacies and our thoughts.
He seems to suggest that although some may think that we are in total
control of the technology we create; technology has a history of having
unintended consequences that go beyond its creator’s vision, and the technology
impacts us in ways that we never intended and seemingly could not control. Carr quotes Langdon Winner as saying, “it is
that technologies are not merely aids to human activity, but also powerful
forces acting to reshape that activity and its meaning” (2011, p. 47).
Carr makes a second point throughout
these chapters that while man tries to control the medium, the medium often,
unintentionally, takes hold of the man.
Part of this hold has to do with the chemistry of our brains. Carr explains that throughout history we have
though of the brain as a machine; however, our brains may not have the rigidity
of a machine, but the flexibility of plastic instead. However, Carr makes a point of highlighting
that although our brains seem to have a plastic makeup able to stretch to
accommodate learning, they are not elastic, meaning they do not go back to
their original form once they have made these accommodations.
Critique
Typically I am hesitant to belief
those who take a “gloom and doom” approach to technology, suggesting it will
run our lives and ruin our minds.
However, I like Carr because he seems to give an evenhanded evaluation
of how technology has impacted our lives and that technology will affect our
lives in ways that are unpredictable and uncontrollable. I thought his discussion of the brain
chemistry and its interaction with technology is interesting, but rather than
be discouraged by this, it seems to suggest that technology must be dealt with
because it affects us in ways that we may not even understand.
Connection
Last night I watched the Steve Jobs
biographical movie in which Ashton Kutcher plays Steve Jobs. This movie has interesting parallels to the
book. For instance, the movie begins
with Jobs dropping out of school and exploring new technologies with his
computer club friends. At first, there
is an innocence and fun in their drive to create new technologies. However, once Jobs has success with building one
of the first home computers, his invention not only progresses in a way that he
didn’t foresee and can’t control, as buyers demand items he didn’t create and
his future board members of Apple make decisions without his authority, the
technology also affects his physical, emotional, and intellectual
characteristics, seemingly in unforeseen ways.
For example, as Jobs success grows in the movie, he becomes more and
more dedicated to pursuing the ideal that the machine will eventually be an
extension of the person. However, he
becomes obsessed with the machine or product to the point of alienating himself
from all of his friends and family, and this quest for the technology changes
his personality, turning him from a fun, loving innovator, to a man
obsessed. Thus, I thought this movie
illustrated Carr’s point about control and technology. Does man control his invention, or do
inventions always surpass man’s intentions affecting him in unknown ways.
I am hesitant to label Carr's approach to Internet criticism as even-handed, especially since the title of his book is inherently ominous. From reading Carr thus far, I sense an impending doom caused by the Internet. Yes, he does note both the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet and approaches them scientifically, but I read them with the assumption that Carr fears for the future. I think Carr uses somewhat of a fear tactic in order for reader to be more conscientious of the critical impact that the Internet ultimately has on the user.
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