George Siemens writes “Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.” This quote brings up several concerns, but first let me talk about how I connect with the quote.
In my 26 years of life I have seen the rise of technology from Dial up to wifi; from AOL messenger to snapchat. This changes our thinking and our way we deal with the world around us. For example until I received my own smart phone, which was not until my freshman year of college. I would care less what was going on in the greater world around me, other than what I saw in the newspaper and the nightly news. Since having a smartphone I changed to have notifications, popups and internet searches about the most recent news. This hinders the notion and ability to purely live in the present. This like everything has positive and negative effects.
Some of the more negative aspects of this constant connection to the technology we use everyday is a disconnect with the present. we focus on not only the present, but of the future and we have become impatient.
I remember a time when it would take four hours to load a map to use for classwork. This was a nature thing and relatively short for how detailed the map was back in the early 2000’s. Now with the advancement of technology we become impatient at things not loading instantly or in a shorter amount of time.
However hope is not lost, we have some control on how our brains become wired with technology, we can re-set, and press restart on aspects of how our mental processes address technology. This is not easy as we have become addicted to our technology, but being able to unplug for a couple hours everyday, and be cognizant more of the actions and movements that are around us, we can address some of the effects that technology places us in.