Blankness

As I grow up from age of not so high to super high technology, I have questioned myself many times. Is this okay? Am I safe here? Today, you can call something free on your phone; you can skype with anyone you want who is thousands miles away; you can hold meetings with your partners who works in different countries in different language, and you can “travel” our last frontier, the universe simply by looking at some sorts of websites. At first, it took hundreds of years to invent a giant computer, which barely does things expects for recording words. In tens of years, engineers developed computer in much smaller and lighter size, and it became the tool of searching information in short time. In a short few years, computer becomes a tool that connects people around the world. Literally, people do everything and anything on computer, which is not only a form of giant desktop, but also a form of laptop, tablet, and phone. Countless thoughts and ideas are in people’s hands. High technology truly has been a huge useful tool that everyone can use in daily life, and most people appreciate this phenomenon. However, really? We have to rethink about this.

Chris hedges scornfully questions this phenomenon, furthermore, criticizes the majority of the society lives in a “non-reality-based belief system,” by which means people decides their choice based on simple information such as images and symbols, not based on intellectual, well-educated, word-based, trustworthy information. In his world, we do not know what we know; we are gradually becoming illiterate. It is a shocking fact that many recent debates of presidents are sixth- or seventh-grade level, which tells this high technology society does not really help people be “literate.” Literacy does not mean if one can read abcs, but if one can understand the meaning of words that others speak; if people can’t really constantly in a long period of time and just try to understand by feelings, then there will be a world with only pictures and symbols in near future.

Nicholas Carr answers his question “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by talking about blind spots that the high technology brings to us. He claims that he and many friends of him have a hard time to read deeply in a long period of time, and easily get distracted by looking for something else to do. I believe this isn’t only his problem. We all always try to do multiple things at the same time, particularly while we are online. We seek convenience, and skim through hundreds of words in a second. We work like a machine. I liked Carr’s use of word “staccato” quality because it perfectly describes our life system. All we do is segmented: read a paragraph of a long article, read only headlines of daily news, chat with friends for a few minutes, etc. I think if we continuously live in this way, then we will be worse than Internet because Internet at least has all these “knowledge” within it but humans don’t. The golden age of intellectual discovery would be only for Internet itself.

The messages from these two authors are clear. Internet (searching machine) is truly helpful but if people only follow that paths, than they will be not only illiterate, but also blank and ignorant.