Blog 6

In the article In Defence of Distraction by Sam Andreson, talks about the complications of technology on the generations around us. Andreson does a lot of complaining throughout the article saying that technology has decreased the productivity of people during their days. He does all this complaining but then continues to say that we can’t focus unless we have a distraction. Which, is very confusing itself, but I am taking it as, we really know how focused we are, until we get distracted with our phones or computers. He also talks about how doing work on the computer, isn’t good. In this article, he talks a lot about the technology and how it is ruining everyone and how it is such an incredible distraction and it shouldn’t be a thing, to talking about how society doesn’t really have a negative outlook on technology. On another note, “This doomsaying strikes me as silly for two reasons. First, conservative social critics have been blowing the apocalyptic bugle at every large-scale tech-driving social change since Socrates famous complaint about the memory-destroying properties of that newfangled technology called “writing””. Here he is talking about how distractions are actually good. Anderson is inferring that staying focused can put stress on you for a lot period of time, so its good to relax your brain and do something for the moment.  He is saying that technology is creating social change, going back to Anne Hallward, both working together saying that social cohesion needs to happen and needs to happen on a large scale, and technology will help that along. And then, later on, Anderson says that “if you overburden a channel, the brain becomes inefficient and mistake-prone. The classic examples is driving while talking on a cell phone, two tasks that conflict across a range of obvious channles: steering and dialing are both manual tasks, looking out the windshield and reading a phone screen are both visual, ect.” Here, he is talking about how technology is very bad. Texting and driving is a very hot topic among many, and it is one of the leading causes of car accidents. He goes back and forth quite a bit and almost settles in the middle at the end.