Journal #18 – 450 words

The brain is a machine. A strong yet infinitely malleable machine. But has technology taken malleability to another level? Nicholas Carr argues in his writing, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” “People used to think that our mental meshwork, the dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls, was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case…even the adult mind is very plastic. Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones…[The brain] has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions”(Carr 4). In other words, there is a multitude of information we have yet to understand or to even discover about the human brain. It has the capability to process and store vast amounts of information. As a teenager who has only lived in the world of screens, the amount of information thrown at us daily is incomprehensible, unnecessary, and can detrimentally impact mental health and brain function. I wonder how my mind will have room for studying when it’s just consumed hours of scrolling. We as humans are blinded by technologies alluring features that we don’t see the real impacts it has on our brain chemistry. Studies have shown that young adults are very susceptible to these changes. Sherry Turkle states in her memoir just that, “It is a struggle to get children to talk to each other in class, to directly address each other. It is a struggle to get them to meet with faculty…These students seem to understand each other less”(Turkle 344). These struggles are directly related to the overuse of screens. It’s impacting children’s mental health in schools just as much as it does to adults in a work setting. The brain’s malleable features have been obviously taken advantage of by technology, creating unempathetic children and socially impaired adults. Turkle and Carr both analyze these effects in their writing, and it speaks to one another clearly in a way that says technology is inherently bad for our brain chemistry. 

However, while technology has undeniably manipulated our brains, it has also provided cognitive benefits that cannot be overlooked. Tools that can only be found digitally have the ability to enhance our problem solving skills and foster creativity with new areas of expression. These online resources allow students to access endless amounts of education content, while bringing social media platforms to light with an opportunity for connection. The potential for technology to have positive effects is clear. Unfortunately, the negative effects still remain. The possibility of becoming reliant on technology is extremely easy. We sacrifice depth in our thinking and conversations with one another.

Journal #19 – 817 words

In a world where modern technology surrounds us from every direction, it’s easy to believe that it will solve our biggest challenges, creating a reliance on that technology we never knew was possible. As we rush to expand our minds with the power of tools like AI, we risk overlooking something far more essential, the irreplaceable need for human empathy. The truth about modern technology and their real impact is effectively illustrated by The Empathy Diaries, written by Sherry Turkle, a clinical psychologist and professor at MIT. She is known for her research on modern technology and the internet’s effects on human behavior and potential, especially in youth. In her memoir, she reflects on the impact screens have on humans and their ability to empathize and engage with others. Similarly, Is Google Making Us Stupid? Writing by Nicholas Carr delves into how our dependence on digital tools may be reshaping our cognitive abilities, leading us to question whether technology is enhancing or diminishing our capacity for deep thought and connection. While some advocate for advancing technology and using it to enhance human cognition, a more comprehensive approach emphasizes the urgent need for empathetic minds to balance innovation with emotional intelligence.

The brain is a machine. A strong yet infinitely malleable machine. But has technology taken malleability to another level? Nicholas Carr argues in his writing, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” “People used to think that our mental meshwork, the dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls, was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case…even the adult mind is very plastic. Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones…[The brain] has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions”(Carr 4). In other words, there is a multitude of information we have yet to understand or to even discover about the human brain. It has the capability to process and store vast amounts of information. As a teenager who has only lived in the world of screens, the amount of information thrown at us daily is incomprehensible, unnecessary, and can detrimentally impact mental health and brain function. I wonder how my mind will have room for studying when it’s just consumed hours of scrolling. We as humans are blinded by technologies alluring features that we don’t see the real impacts it has on our brain chemistry. Studies have shown that young adults are very susceptible to these changes. Sherry Turkle states in her memoir just that, “It is a struggle to get children to talk to each other in class, to directly address each other. It is a struggle to get them to meet with faculty…These students seem to understand each other less”(Turkle 344). These struggles are directly related to the overuse of screens. It’s impacting children’s mental health in schools just as much as it does to adults in a work setting. The brain’s malleable features have been obviously taken advantage of by technology, creating unempathetic children and socially impaired adults. Turkle and Carr both analyze these effects in their writing, and it speaks to one another clearly in a way that says technology is inherently bad for our brain chemistry.

It’s known that in the last decade schools of all levels have been severely impacted by phones and social media. From being a distraction in class to an easy and faceless bullying platform, phone usage has negatively impacted the quality of human interaction, leading us to a point of no return where the effects may be irreversible. — insert turkle that students don’t ask for help etc — . Since almost all information can be found online, why even ask for help? If AI can explain math well enough, why go to office hours? We are constantly missing out on opportunities to create relationships with others based on needing help.  — Insert carr information commodity — These two ideas speak to each other in an interesting way. Carr’s statements that information is too accessible now is a direct correlation to Turkle’s concern for students and their lack of communication to teachers. More students work independently because of online access. This results in a barrier. 

-> (This should be used later for “others perspectives”) -> However, while technology has undeniably manipulated our brains, it has also provided cognitive benefits that cannot be overlooked. Tools that can only be found digitally have the ability to enhance our problem solving skills and foster creativity with new areas of expression. These online resources allow students to access endless amounts of education content, while bringing social media platforms to light with an opportunity for connection. The potential for technology to have positive effects is clear. Unfortunately, the negative effects still remain. The possibility of becoming reliant on technology is extremely easy. We sacrifice depth in our thinking and conversations with one another.

Final draft! – 1418 words

Myli Petrocci

Professor Jesse Miller

English 110

01 April 2025

Ctrl+Alt+Del-ing Empathy: Is Technology Reprogramming Our Humanity?

Surrounded by modern technology at every turn, we often don’t realize how effortlessly we become dependent on it, much like a drug with its addictive pull. As we rush to expand our minds with the power of tools like AI, we risk overlooking something far more essential, the need for human empathy. The truth about modern technology and its real impact is effectively illustrated by The Empathy Diaries, published in 2021 by Sherry Turkle, a clinical psychologist and professor at MIT. She is known for her research on modern technology and the internet’s effects on human behavior and potential, especially in youth. In her memoir, she reflects on the impact screens have on humans and their ability to empathize and engage with others. Similarly, Nicholas Carr, known for his work on culture, technology, and economics, is best known for his 2008 article Is Google Making Us Stupid? In the article he argued that the internet and digital technologies have reshaped the way people think, making them more distracted and less capable of deep reading and critical thinking. I believe both Carr and Turkle are correct in their theory, which ultimately leads us to question technology deeply. We must decide whether technology is enhancing our minds, or destroying our capacity for deep thought and connection. While some advocate for the former, a more comprehensive approach remembers the urgent need for empathetic minds to balance innovation with emotional intelligence, which both Turkle and Carr highlight in their writing. 

The brain is a strong and infinitely malleable machine. With technology integrated into our daily lives, has its malleability reached new extremes? Nicholas Carr argues, “People used to think that our mental meshwork…was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case…even the adult mind is very plastic…[The brain] has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions” (Carr 4). Including this example from Carr helps readers remind themselves that there are many functions we haven’t yet discovered, or just discovered within the decade, about the human brain. He emphasizes its adaptability, shaped by habits and lifestyle. The growing usage of screens is by far the most profound lifestyle change. I find myself outsourcing my memory to my device, which makes me more reliant on it, rather than engaging with my cognitive processes. These habits can detrimentally impact mental health and brain function. Those impacts are alarming to most, yet we are blinded by technology’s alluring features, making us indifferent to its long-term effects on our empathic abilities. Sherry Turkle states in her memoir just that, “Conversations require time and space, and we say we’re too busy. Distracted at our dinner tables and living rooms, at our business meetings, and on our streets…with technological change has come an assault on our environment…technology is implicated in an assault on empathy” (Turkle 344). Distraction is easy when it’s all around you as Turkle describes. These struggles are directly related to the overuse of screens. It’s impacting adults in a work setting just as much as it does children’s mental health in schools. At my college, where community and empathy are vital, screen-absorbed individuals create a noticeably negative environment. The brain’s malleable features have been taken advantage of by technology, creating unempathetic children and socially impaired adults. Turkle and Carr both analyze these effects in their writing, and they speak to one another clearly in a way that suggests technology is inherently bad for our brain chemistry and creates unhealthy habits that only drive us further from our naturally empathetic selves.

Our reliance on self-sufficiency, fueled by our devices, causes us to miss valuable opportunities to build relationships by seeking help from others. In the last decade, schools at all levels have been severely impacted by innovations in social media and AI. From distracting students in class to becoming faceless platforms for bullying, personal device usage has negatively affected the quality of human interaction, particularly in schools. In Turkle’s writing she includes a distraught teacher who describes the new school setting, “It is a struggle to get children to talk to each other in class, to directly address each other. It is a struggle to get them to meet with faculty…These students seem to understand each other less” (Turkle 344). In other words, students clearly struggle to engage with each other and faculty due to their attachment with devices, which leads to a growing sense of misunderstanding among them. I understand the students perspective, as most information is readily available online, making the need to ask for help seem unnecessary. If AI can explain science well enough, why go to office hours? This can be easily tied to the infinite access to information predicament that Carr describes in his article. Carr writes, 

The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of

information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded. ‘The

perfect recall of silicon memory,’ Wired’s Clive Thompson has written, ‘can be an

enormous boon to thinking.’ But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist

Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of

information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.

And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and

contemplation (Carr 2). 

This passage highlights both the benefits and drawbacks of having immediate access to the internet. Carr argues that the internet doesn’t just deliver information, it actively shapes how we think. I find that it can diminish my ability to focus and deeply reflect, thus affecting my capacity for concentration, but also compassion. These examples from Turkle and Carr speak to each other in an interesting way. Carr’s statements that information is too accessible now is a direct correlation to Turkle’s concern for students and their lack of communication. More students work independently because of online access, which in turn puts them in far less situations to understand one another. Growing and learning, which has the opportunity to be balanced with innovation, is a key process in schools that many students are now missing. 

Becoming reliant on technology is extremely easy, and we sacrifice depth in our thinking and conversations with one another. Although our personal devices have positive attributes, unfortunately, the negative effects remain. Accepting that as a society will only bring us closer to decreasing these negative effects. To understand the full picture, it’s crucial to analyze how different people have communicated their feelings toward technology. Turkle effectively illustrates to her readers how the overuse of personal devices has contributed to a decline in empathy among young adults. She critically shares this crisis with emotion and impactful experiences she has had to create a sense of urgency. I agree with her about the pressing need to educate others. In turn, Carr offers a unique take on how personal devices have impacted us. He concentrates on the cognitive functions of the brain, in contrast to Turkle’s focus on emotional and social aspects. He argues that the widespread use of search engines like Google alters how we think, read, and process information. While I agree with that argument, I have a complicated perspective on it due to the current time I live in. Being a college student in 2025, I can bring insight into what I believe is impacting us the most. Based on my experiences with growing up only around personal devices, I can conclude that social media has the largest effect on both mental health and cognitive function, not “the Net”(Carr 2). I encourage readers who want to reconnect with themselves and their reading abilities, as Carr emphasizes as a crucial skill, to take a small step toward reclaiming. Reflect on a specific app that impacts your mental health, and try to minimize usage. Nonetheless, our human potential to be social and cognisant creatures has been stripped from us, but I truly hope that future generations will reclaim this potential, for all of our sake. While there is a potential for balance between technology and emotional intelligence, we must never allow technology to replace the depth and empathy that define our humanity.

Works Cited

Turkle, Sherry. The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir. New York, Penguin Press, 2021. 

Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic, 2008.