Digital Technology

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Recommended: Impacts of technology on education

, I read a column that I found to be most delusional. It was an article about the dumbing down of America due to our love of technology. It talked about how the decline of printed media as a result of digital media is eroding our nation’s intellectual levels in all age groups. Our attention span as a whole has been drastically shortened due to our thirst for a quick fix of information. It then goes on to have the audacity to say that because of our overuse of digital media, we just don’t care about our understanding of what is around us anymore. I personally disagree. Digital technology has allowed us to drastically increase not only our levels of learning, but also our communication between one another. The internet, smart devices, digital media (such as music or movies), and social media have all helped further our society into the twenty first century.
The internet has significantly changed the way we learn, and live our lives over the last two decades. When I was a teenager, we had to do research on microfiche at the library. It is an old, outdated technology where newspapers were printed onto large spools of film and were projected onto a screen. It was bulky, consumed too much space, and entirely inefficient for what it was used for. Kids at this time just need to do a quick google search of any online newspaper archive and they get a treasure trove of information in seconds. My Grandparents lived in Guam until I was fifteen years old. I always had to send them handwritten letters. Very rarely I was able to speak with them over the phone due to the high cost of long distance. Now I can send them an email or text message them a picture instantaneously. The internet has made it so much easier to live that we can now focus ou...

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...al version. Embrace the technology! We are better off today than we were twenty years ago. Every year our social network shrinks and we get closer together. My iPad has access to more art-house films than my local theater has had in the last ten years. We now have so much different culture available to us that we are slowly bettering ourselves. Who knows what the next new tech advancement will bring for us? I for one can’t wait for it.

Works Cited
Bernstein, Elizabeth. "Why We are So Rude Online." Wall Street Journal Online. The Wall Street Journal, 1 October 2012. Web. 29 April 2013.

Jacoby, Susan. “The Dumbing of America.” Viewpoints. Ed. W. Royce Adams. 8th Ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2013. 364-367. Print.

Sullivan, Andrew. “Society is Dead: We have Retreated into the iWorld.” Viewpoints. Ed. W. Royce Adams. 8th Ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2013. 370-373. Print.

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