feb 13, 2018 - Joined Time Graphics

Description:

“[Technology] is so much our servant that it would seem churlish to notice that it is also our master” (4)

This quote Carr included from A Space Odyssey (2001) implies heavy influence of technology on our brains. Throughout his text "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains" Carr discusses this high-profile paranoia that infects the reader as they comb through his words. In attempting to get his message across, Carr even turns to YouTube to project his book into the internet...the very thing he fights against.

The timeline illustrated here gives one a clear design of how technology has specifically impacted my life. I've included significant dates such as when I began/graduated high school, as well as college. I've included my relationships as well because of how strong of an influence technology became. In these last eight years of my life specifically, I've watched myself become sucked into the vortex known as the Internet. It's been a beautiful and horrible journey, as I discovered what each site was and even getting involved in some dangerous ones. I've had my credit card number stolen, I've been cyber-bullied, cyber-stalked, and more.

Carr also goes on to state that in his own life he notices that he wants to be connected, and not plugged into reality (16), he wanted to be clicking through the Internet and plugged into Google, not doing whatever else he felt he should have been doing. I don't believe that this is an indication that technology is bad. Just like anything else a human experiences, technology needs to be something that is used in moderation. Too much can increase problems such as eye strain and problems focusing, as found through a documentary PBS filmed while focusing on a school in Brooklyn.

I've noticed the negative impacts of technology on my life, and specifically during the relationship I had before I began dating my current boyfriend. With my ex, everything was online. Text messages, phone calls, FaceTimes, Facebook messages, Read receipts (and him getting angry when mine weren't on). Technology and social media became a way of keeping track of one another. He used this against me in many ways, for example when I posted a love message on his Facebook wall he got angry and demanded I take it down. I became obsessive in this time, combing social media for traces of him and his messages so I could keep contact with him. In this phase of my life, I do believe I was addicted. I couldn't go a minute without my phone and if I had to I was irate and angry with anyone asking for my attention.

ASAM.ORG defines addiction to be "characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response." I was addicted. I was technology and technology was me. It wasn't just because of the other relationship. I was learning new things about social media and about the things I had access to through it, and that festered along with the negativity fed by the relationship, and created a constant need for approval that I satisfied with social media.

Once I entered college, I experienced a release of that negativity. The timeline illustrated here shows a static line filled with dynamic changes in my life that have been influenced by and surrounded by technology. In high school, there was no differentiation between me and technology. Hayles discusses post-humanism to be something where technology and humankind collaborates and works cohesively, and yet in my timeline there isn't much evidence for that. Though it is difficult to see the collaboration without the story, I know that looking back through my years that my tech-human experience has not been one that was productive.

Hayles discusses how humans can consist in harmony with intelligent machines or be displaced by them (284), and in my timeline I do see a minute in which I was displaced by the online version of myself. My consciousness lies mostly with realizing that through the life events listed, my tech events have existed. My consciousness exists mostly in the years following 2014, where I see my timeline take a productive turn toward sites that would develop my brand as a photographer. Following the years after 2014, my reality and cyberspace meshed cohesively and I now work in conjunction with my online world. My online self reflects myself in reality, as I consciously work to reflect the truth of what is happening in my life as well as my business.

Hayles also discusses on page 285 about how humans are always learning to open up the question of what it means to be a human, and I concur with his idea that technology only enhances these experiences and ideas. Though it is evident through different studies involving students that technology can hinder development in education systems. In the PBS documentary the narrator follows around several students from the Brooklyn intermediate school and a school in Asia, comparing the different developments and retention abilities of the students. Too much technology has been correlated to a cluster of medical issues that spring up in children--such as eye strain and hearing difficulties.

Many people are concerned with the idea of technology replacing our brains. Carr speaks heavily on this issue and expresses a lot of concern that technology will rewire our brains and inhibit our natural human tendencies. However, when used in such a way that allows for development, human brains experience a rise in activity as seen in the documentary. My timeline illustrates how my memory and technology have worked together to express my presence in the internet, and it doesn't at all retract from my material world. I believe that my material and my internet world are one in the same.

As this generation is exposed more to technology, we learn to adapt and overcome different challenges that might inhibit our health or habits. Humans are built with the will to survive, and to allow an inferior machine to take our place would be to defy the theory of natural selection and the idea of the survival of the fittest. We have created these machines and we are the masters of them. As all good things can be, these machines easily become our masters as well, but I don't believe that means they have replaced our mindsets and abilities to function as humans, but rather they have become a reflection of our material worlds. If one is in order, so will the other be.

The documentary and Hayles both go on to say that when using technology in the right way it can seriously enhance the experiences of the users. PBS says students that were taught to use technology in a healthy way regarding their education experienced a rise in daily attendance, a fall in violence in the halls, and an increase in the outcome of test scores. When I used technology in a way that benefitted my life and my job/school, my attention span increased and so did my productivity. I found myself more motivated to pursue things that would aid me in my pursuit of a long-term position following graduation, and it pushed me to develop a portfolio that has already nailed me a job. I believe that with the proper integration and exposure, we can let the theory of evolution and adaptation truly work, and we'll experience ourselves becoming more efficient.

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