In Clive Thompson’s article, “Smarter Than You Think,” and Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” both writers heavily focus on the effects of modern technologies, though they have opposing perspectives towards the matter. Thompson praises the use of technology whereas Carr claims how the internet is, in a way, reprogramming our memory.
I agree with Thompson’s optimistic perspective towards technology and the impact it has on our society. Some positive effects that technology has is that people are able: to embrace diversity and ultimately lead to career opportunities, strengthen communication, and allows us to further our education.
Diversity within the workplace has been a controversial issue for many years. Having diversity in the workplace is important because having diversity is key to having a range of perspectives and personalities. This fact alone is important for companies who strive to be productive and potentially increase development. What people may not know is that technology encourages diversity.
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Software makes employee engagement easier and more consistent with open lines for regular feedback and communication. Additionally, supervisors can use internal data and surveys to learn more about their employees. Even if information is anonymized, you can still collect data to identify wins and weaknesses in the workplace.
By having a collection of genders, races, ethnicities and other demographics, the likelihood of creating a team that comes from different backgrounds and life experiences increases. These contrasting viewpoints can lead to better ideas and solutions. Not only can technology increase diversity but it opens to the door to many employment opportunities. First of all, online recruitment tools help with hiring diverse people due to robotic assistance and algorithms.
On page 443 of his article, Thompson stated that, “[Computers] analyze their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as their moods,” when referring to robots against humans in the game of chess. In a similar notion, these employment machines are capable of matching potential candidates to employers based off the experience and job descriptions. This automatically removes the racial element at the beginning of the process. Moreover, those who are looking for potential jobs are able to find reviews on the job.
Today, a large number of people turn to employer reviews when considering a new job. In fact, due to websites like Glassdoor.com, many people, especially millennials, have declined job offers due to poor reviews. This online research allows job seekers to feel empowered in salary negotiations and prepare them for job specific interviews.
Technology is also vital to our everyday existence because it allows us to strengthen communication amongst each other. It helps connect a greater number of ideas and creates possibilities for collaboration that were previously unavailable. Working together and delivering presentations globally are easily accessible with the help of video calls and screen sharing. Sharing files and accessing documents from external locations has become much easier within top managed IT services suites. Through the advancement of technology, people are not able to spread awareness to a larger audience.
Social media platforms allow businesses to reach a mass number of people which benefits with marketing their products. Another benefit from technology is that people are able to interact at a faster speed. In fact, after sending the message, the other person is able to receive it within milliseconds. Wireless signals, satellites and other advanced technology helps to ensure instant delivery of messages to any location on the planet.
Improving education has always been an issue. Test scores, our perceived performance and other factors have pushed education to the forefront of national politics. Technology can be used to advance and improve our learning capabilities. Technology can be used as support for teachers. Instead of the professor being the only source of help in a classroom, students can access websites and online tutorials to assist them.
Softwares such as Khan Academy let students work at their own pace and lets talented people move forward. This helps teachers identify specific students who are in need of a little more attention and assistance. Students can also get help and tutoring at any time, whether from the professor via email, online collaboration with classmates or from a help website.
Technology is an evolving concept. In modern times, it would be extremely difficult to live without it. However, technology does more good to our society than bad. History proves that technology has been continuously expanding, which is highly beneficial for increasing diversity and job opportunity, bettering communication and furthering education. For these reasons, I agree with Thompson’s argument of digital usefulness.
