Does Modern Technology Come Too Far?

With the nature of today’s technological world constantly changing, evolving, and progressing, debate has sparked on whether the modern marvels of technology have come too far. Technology scholars argue that new technology is constantly changing ourselves and society, but not necessarily in a negative manner. As humans have evolved technology has evolved with us, and is continually changing our everyday life, behavior, and future. Many claim that evolution has shown that a myriad variety of different technologies has been changing humankind’s behavior and brain function since the time of neanderthals until present day. Humankind’s first use of handheld tools accompanied the growth of the prefrontal cortex, which helped to enhance grammatical language and create more interconnected social network (Gladstone 334). Ancient Greek scholars such as Socrates distrusted the development of the written word and feared people would rely on it instead of carrying the knowledge inside of their minds, making them forgetful without their memory. With the newfound invention of Johannes Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press in the fifteenth …show more content…
He cites a phrase coined by intellectual Harold Innis, called the central bias of a new tool, meaning that new technologies affect us by using us towards new forms of behavior. Thompson uses this term to assess the central biases of modern digital tools, and finds three major ones that have a huge impact on our daily brain function. First, new technology allows for a greater external memory stored in smart phones, hard drives, and cameras so now we are recording almost everything we’re doing; second, the technology forms connections between ideas, pictures, and people that used to be invisible are now easier to find; third, the new tools encourage the explosive field of communication and publishing (Thompson