This article is suitable for O Level and A Level learners.
A great article, albeit dated (It was released in 2004). I've highlighted the learning points and key phrases that are easier to understand and suitable for use in your essays. It will be great to use for questions based on Technology and Modern Life. Some examples are:
1. Is technology a boon or a bane for mankind?
2. 'The mobile phone is more a menace than an asset to society.' What are your views?
3. World progress has brought about an increase in the quality of life. Do you agree?
4. People are increasingly self-centered in modern society. Do you agree?
5. In your opinion, what is the most important invention that has changed your life?
6. Technology divides, rather than unite. To what extent do you agree?
Feel free to contribute any similar questions to the list.
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Life Interrupted by Richard Seven, The Seattle Times
Plugged into it all, we're stressed to distraction
DAVID LEVY, A PROFESSOR in the University of Washington's School of Information, believes he may have witnessed the first-ever interruption-by-e-mail. It happened back in the '70s, when he worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, a think tank at the forefront of today's computing world.
He and about 25 other technologists were watching a visiting scientist demonstrate how to make use of multiple parts of the computer screen. The visitor was typing and talking when a text popped up on one side of the screen. "Oh look," he said, "I've received a message!" He typed a response, sent it into cyberspace and went back to his presentation. But not everyone was impressed — or even pleased. "I remember a visiting senior computer scientist from another country got very angry about it," says Levy. "He said programming requires focus and shouldn't be interrupted. He basically said, 'You call this the future!' "
The future? Well, yes and no. E-mail, as it turns out, was just one drop in a dam-breaking flood of technology that has inundated our lives. Today, the constant pinging of your e-mail can be like
the drip-drip-drip of water torture. We're swimming in doodads and options — text messaging and search engines, Blackberries and blogs, Wi-fi, cell phones that try to do all of the above, and the promise that we haven't seen anything yet.
We're shooting through technological rapids that have opened doors and changed the dynamic of work, how we communicate and live, and sometimes even think. All these tools have made our lives easier in many ways. But they're also stirring deep unease. Some are concerned that the need for speed is shrinking our attention spans, prompting our search for answers to take the mile-wide-but-inch-deep route and settling us into a rhythm of constant interruption in which deadlines are relentless and tasks are never quite finished. Scientists call this phenomenon "cognitive overload," and say it encompasses the modern-day angst of stress, multitasking, distraction
and data flurries.
In fact, multitasking — a computing term that involves doing, or trying to do, more than one thing at once — has cemented itself into our daily lives and is intensely studied. Research has shown it to be consistently counterproductive, often foolish, unhealthy in the long run, and in the case of gabbing on the cell phone while driving, relatively dangerous. Yet it is also expected, encouraged and basically essential. Do you have never-ending deadlines? Job uncertainty? A dual-income
family life with kids? A do-more-with-less workplace? Then you multitask.
Today, we can do more. And do more, faster. And do more, faster, from anywhere, all the time. You can work at home or the coffee shop or even the beach. Is this a good thing? How do we navigate these rapids without eventually drowning? Are we allowing life to be the sum of tasks,
the short term always the priority? Are we so connected that we're actually disconnected? And has anyone had enough time to focus long enough to mull a question that requires a long, complicated answer — if there is one?
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