What Did I Do? My most recent blog post, The Best of Technology, is a condensed version of a synthesis paper I wrote for my Santa Clara University Critical Thinking and Writing course. My basic approach can be summarized by 4 challenges.

1) What Medium Are You Reading Through? This question I just posed was the first thought running through my head. I had to know which medium I was writing in to know which type of audience would be reading it.

It’s Challenging to Choose: Source

By asking what medium I was writing I was able to tweak my writing tone and gear it towards you: someone who would stubble across my blog. Blogs are looked at by one who has access to the internet. So then, my language had to change. Using formal words such as “critical” or “affirm” would make my blog sound boring or possibly lecture-like. I decided to use casual statements like “game-changing” to make my opinions relatable and easily readable.

In other words, I had to think of addressing a general audience as opposed to a university professor. I was not trying to obtain a grade and instead, I was shooting to get your attention.

2) Changing The Format Who reads a blog with paragraphs spanning pages, full of quotations and complex words, and contains no pictures?

When I examined blogs, I found the ones with large bodies of text less appealing. I did not even try to read them, I just turned them down. Now, take a look at the picture below:

I’d Pass on Reading This: Source

Here, I chose to use a Wikipedia article of World War II just to prove my point. I would not (and hopefully you too) want to read all this text about WWII despite my interest in the subject. So then, I took this idea and made sure my blog would not be seen, in regards to formatting, like Wikipedia. Not to throw shade at them, but this how I see the process of going on Wikipedia and even I have done this.

1. Most people search what they need
2. Read the first sentence
3. Copy the text
4. The End

In Wikipedia there are just too many unnecessary symbols and paragraphs to explain concepts, so people end up grazing the surface of the information and take the first few sentences. My own essay was much like Wikipedia. In order to not repeat my essay, I cut down on mass texts and incorporated smaller chunks of text. Each smaller chunk of text kept my article moving and hopefully did not appear to be as wordy as an eight page paper.

3) So What? While writing my blog, I found myself struggling to identify the “So What.” I tried different variations but a thought hit me: Why keep the audience confused? I then employed the one trick I knew would work for my audience which was to say directly what my “So What” is. I wish this worked for essays because now, my audience knows exactly what’s coming.

4) The Personal Challenge The most difficult challenge for my first blog post came while trying to condense 2902 words into a mere 800 words. I ramble, and the temptation was to go on and on typing away my thoughts. It was quite tough not to, but by focusing on the topic geared towards technology, I knew how to format my post.

And Now, The Challenge Begins: Source

Instead of writing long pages of text explaining how intellect and technology go hand-in-hand, I decided to focus primarily on the technology theme. I went further in-depth into answering this question broadly: Is technology good or bad?

Not having to focus as much on the intellect theme of my paper led me to research more, which helped me discover more additional points that were more effective for a blog post instead of an essay.

One example was when I used the photo by Eric Pickersgill, which effectively showed how technology was overused, even in places it should not belong. Plus, this was a picture, and most of us know the saying, “a picture speaks a thousand words,” right?

Surprise! Last Opinions In all, I have tried to ignore the letter grade in the end of this assignment. I never thought blogging, or the process of drafting, could be so entertaining. I get to express my thoughts, hope people will see them, and then know I have shared my opinion. While I guess part of me does this for the attention, some parts are just in for the fun.

 Words To Live By? Let me start by introducing an idea:

“All of the biggest technological inventions created by man – the airplane, the automobile, the computer – says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness.”

– Mark Kennedy (Author)

Do you agree with Kennedy?

For me, I actually disagree with Mark Kennedy. Mark Kennedy may doubt man’s ability to do work, but take a moment to think about how much effort, and hours of trial and error were taken to create the technological inventions today. Keep in mind inventions did not merely take hours to make.

So What? Before I dive further in, if you’ll just bear with me, I will explain exactly how our overuse of seemingly helpful technological advancements are hindering our well being.

To continue, inventions took work and a whole lot of self-drive to complete.

One perfect example of driven inventors are the Wright brothers.

First Fully Functional Airplane: Source

The Wright brothers invented the first airplane. It took four years just to gain first flight and throughout those years many trials were conducted.

Two other inventors, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were continuously working at the University of Pennsylvania to create ENIAC: the first computer. It took three years to fully develop!

First Fully Functional Computer: Source

Each of these new technological advancements are quite spectacular. Something more revolutionary opened up as technology was continuously improving: the ability to store information online. The ability to store information in a viral database was game-changing.

The Internet, a Viral Database, Stores Everything We Know: Source

With a growing database, our brains have another resource to obtain information from and this resource is seemingly infinite in what it can offer. I know my intellectual growth is dependent on technology as the internet is where I learn everything I know.

Problems? Dependency on the internet, however, brings forth a problem. While our dependency on it has grown immensely, due to the accessibility and efficiency of technology, some claim it is doing more harm than good. Basically what I am saying is, technology is turning us into mindless zombies. In some cases, we have become obsessed over the perks of technology.

Hopefully We Avoid This Alternative Zombie Apocalypse: Source

Sure, I believe that the technological advances I mentioned earlier (first airplane and first computer) are spectacular and have driven our society forward. But the problem with technology is we have become so accustomed to rely on it for basic needs such as acquiring information online, that we are fading away from basic human interactions.

Take a look at the image below:

The Wrong Kind of Family Bonding: Source

Here the creator, Eric Pickersgill, eliminated the phones and tablets to show just how our human nature has been altered by a screen. It astonishes me to see the family sitting together yet not socializing.

For me, I know I’ve been on my phone at the dinner table with family and I really shouldn’t be, but only until I saw this image did I fully register how different our society is from the past generations. Some say technology has advanced us in society, but one should also look into if technology is hindering our social relationships by preventing us from engaging in basic conversations.

I may start asking myself that question: Source

Is Technological Change Still Good? Change is not bad, and technological shifts are not entirely a bad thing. We don’t live off of technology, we live off of air, food, and water. I see humanity too often relying on technology as if our life depends on it. Technology is just a tool to enhance what we can do and how we do it.

“So let’s take the time to think through what we can do, because we can do a lot. But there’s a could-do, should-do, and must-do filter. There are a lot of things we could do, but should we?”

– Daniel Burrus (Technology Futurist)

We, as innovators, are just finding alternative ways to enhance our life. Therefore, we need to mention know how to properly use technology. Just as Burrus says, we need to take the time and filter how technology is utilized.

Burrus also says another quote which I personally like:

“Technology can give you cancer, and technology can cure your cancer.”

– Daniel Burrus (Technology Futurist)

I have discovered that my own intellect can be enhanced through technology. Yes, the dinner table may be an inappropriate place for using smartphones, and we may be subjected to being lazy just as Mark Kennedy mentions earlier. But we can overcome our laziness because we have the ability to diagnose and solve our problems with technology just as Burrus claims. We have the tool to fix our world.

In all, technology should always enhance life, not be detrimental to it.