Pressures and Affordances

Question: Consider how the pressures and affordances of modern life are reshaping our habits of mind. How are technology and the media changing how we think, process information, and respond to the world around us? Are our brains being rewired for the better, or are we losing key ways of thinking and being in the world? Answer: The essay is based on the consideration of how pressures as well as affordances of the present modern life are actually reshaping habits of mind of individuals. It provides information about the ways technology has been impacting upon our thought process and that the way we respond towards the global surroundings. The essay analyses several key facts to answer whether technology is meant to rewire us for betterment or that we are losing the essential thought process. Finally, the essay answers if technology advancing faster that what individuals can manage and what are the potential advantages can our brain adapt for us in the future. Irrespective of the fact that internet has made a big difference in the ways how we use our brains, it is certain that it has made a difference as to how we think regarding our brains. The rapid development of the huge information-processing system acts as a key stimulating factor for scientists for taking a fresh observation of the organization of brain. It has turned out that internet as well as human brain has lot of common attributes (Maratsos). These are both highly random networks with dense clustering of links amidst adjacent nodes as well as long-range short cuts for facilitating effective communication amidst distant nodes. The internet or technology has been a whole range of attributes which may change the brain by means of altering the learning speed. It is argued that all that information reaching to the brain from the internet is improper information. It has no depth and so results in qualitative loss. Hence, the only thing that can be said is that people are prone to mi suse internet. As per some, internet is an effective tool and that it needs to be used properly by human beings (McNae and Lefante). It may be seen that some emerging technologies may be used in combination, thereby reinforcing mutually as well as driving potentially greater impacts. For instance, combined future generation genomics along with advancement in nanotechnology imposes potentiality to introduce new sort of targeted cancer drugs. Another instance is that of symbiotic development existing amidst advances within energy storage as well as renewable sources of energy; the capability of storing electricity as developed by solar or wind enables integrating renewable into power grid. In the similar manner, the mobile Internet may never live up to the greater potential in the absence of significant advances within cloud computing towards enabling of applications involving tools to automate knowledge work upon mobile services (Norris Martin). Considering the disruptive capabilities of such technologies, it may be observed that each may drive profound shifts across several dimensions, such as lives of people, bus iness and also global economy. In fact, the future seems quite bright for innovators as well as entrepreneurs. The concepts of mobile internet, cloud technology, 3D printing or even genomics may provide key opportunities as well as tools for allowing organizations for competing upon meaningful scale as well as advancing into innovative markets quickly (Perbal). In a way it may be interpreted that technology has successfully surpassed human beings in a way that these technologies possess real potential for driving tangible enhancements within quality of lives, environment and health. For instance, advanced system of surgery as well as prosthetics can improve as well as extend several lives, whereas renewable energy sources For example, advanced robotic surgical systems and prosthetics could improve and extend many lives, while renewable energy sources could help clean up the environment and lessen the deleterious health effects of air pollution, a major and growing issue, particularly in developing economies. Many of these technologies could change how and what consumers buy, or alter overall consumption of certain resources such as energy and materials. Others could fundamentally change the nature of work for many employees around the world, both in manufacturing and knowledge work ('Together, We Are Advancing Technology'). Almost every technology on our list could change the game for businesses, creating entirely new products and services, as well as shifting pools of value between producers or from producers to consumers. Some, like automation of knowledge work and the mobile Internet, could also change how companies and other organizations structure themselves, bringing new meaning to the anytime/ anywhere work style. With automation of knowledge work tasks, organizations that can augment the powers of skilled workers stand to do well. Various theoretical structures are said to conceptualize learning within different means along with the important changes in context to the roles as assigned to the teacher as well as learner, the relevance characterized to the context, and that of description of the learning outcomes as well as processes. In the same way various differences exist in the assumptions of how technology is said to shape human action as well as cognition (Ullman). The psychology of traditional cognitive is said to restrict the vast study of human thoughts of mental processes occurring in individuals. The approach is suitably encapsulated by the perspective of information processing, whereby the mind is easily encapsulated as a device of information processing with symbol systems as well as mental structures which change as well as transform due to perception, interpretation and incorporation of new information. During the recent times another perspective of study has been developed and this had been gain ing increasing importance and named as situativity perspective. Here, the main emphasis is upon the interactive systems of activity where an individual is only a part (Wilson). As per a recent article, Nicholas Carr has emphasized about the technological rewiring or neural circuitry of constant internet users. He had reflected upon his personal experiences as well. An important effect of innovative technology that is intensified by the amalgamation of the internet as well as digital media is that about textual representation that is said to have lost its dominance. Likely, some complexity puts innovative cognitive demands upon individuals, needing easy switches amidst information segments as presented within varied modalities. Also, as per the Centre for Information Behavior and that Evaluation of Research team, innovative technology can improve the parallel processing skills of users (Wu and Schulz). On the other side, human minds may be habituated to easy and smooth processing of multimodal representation that can find it quite tough to re-accommodate towards the traditional full-text depending on the representation. Thus in away it may be confirmed that technology has been on the advancement faster than that may be efficiently managed by human beings. References Maratsos, Michael. 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