This is my first time post a thread in essayforum.com :). There's a month for the test so I need your advice very badly~~
The follows are the Issue and My Essay:
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As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.
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In my opinion, the word "surely" is somehow too assertive. My view is that the prosperity of technology do have some negative impact on one's ability of thinking; while for those who are working on developing more technological devices, their capacity to solve more complicated problems is definitely strengthened.
Raise an example of calculator's use: In most part of China, almost every primary students or middle school students are required not to use calculator in school. Instead, they have to calculate on paper in traditional or "old-fashioned" ways, which for those students in calculator-proved countries, might seem to be dull and slow. But the reality turns out to be that, their performances on math exams are no doubt the best in the world (see how many of the IMO winners are Chinese and how difficult their math exercises are!). This is because, when people are forced to think with their "mind" instead of thinking with calculators or computers, the brain may grow to be stronger to fit the situation. On the contrary, if one always rely on devices, he can be lazy to think mathematically and thus diminish the ability to think on his own. Before college, I was hardly allowed to use calculator in any subjects by school but I felt I was pretty good at them and the thinking was fast and sharp. When I stepped in college, when calculators and computers are allowed, I found myself became unable to calculator some simplest multiples without them!
Besides, excessive information on the Internet can always sidetrack peoples' view toward something. Weibo, a Chinese Twitter, is probably the hottest and newest type of media in China recently: Tens of thousands of "Big V"s (those who have millions of followers or more) post their source of information (whether real or fabricated) and views every several hours and common people retweet them with just craziness. But do these point of views really the disinterested truth? Big Vs deliver their perspectives for various reasons (to be famous, to be heard, etc.) while most of the time the public are blind and conforming with others. In this case, the independent thinking is largely deteriorated because humans are surrounded by all sorts of opinions facilitated by technology. People lost their ability to think for themselves because thanks to technology, there're big figures to think for them.
Still, technology is not all bad things for thinking ability. People who know how to utilize it wisely can save their time and energy to focus on bigger issues. With the availability of airplanes, travel was shortened and millions of hours were saved; more time means more possibility to think for things that need to be solved and handled. Machinery helps to relieve human working and people can escape from doing repeating and redundant work to do things that machines fail to do, such as create a unique idea or do some innovative thinking. Thus, the ability of independent thinking of humans is not diminished but rather enhanced.
Moreover, think about who invented the great quantities of magical technological devices? The engineers and scientists have long been dealing with ever complicated problems to update their products every several months. In this sense, these people's ability to think are improved instead of deteriorated. It's becoming more and more difficult to deal with a more advanced technological problem than last time. If it weren't those developers' thinking ability that have improved then the frequent updates of all kinds of softwares, electrical devices wouldn't even be possible.
In a word, as long as people learn to use technology in ways that facilitate their work and life without over dependent on it, then their ability to think for themselves will not be deteriorated at all. However, since people judicious as such are quite a few and most people are affected by technology in a rather negative way, it's no surprise that we always put our attention on the abominable side of technology, which is deficient.
The follows are the Issue and My Essay:
----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.
----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
In my opinion, the word "surely" is somehow too assertive. My view is that the prosperity of technology do have some negative impact on one's ability of thinking; while for those who are working on developing more technological devices, their capacity to solve more complicated problems is definitely strengthened.
Raise an example of calculator's use: In most part of China, almost every primary students or middle school students are required not to use calculator in school. Instead, they have to calculate on paper in traditional or "old-fashioned" ways, which for those students in calculator-proved countries, might seem to be dull and slow. But the reality turns out to be that, their performances on math exams are no doubt the best in the world (see how many of the IMO winners are Chinese and how difficult their math exercises are!). This is because, when people are forced to think with their "mind" instead of thinking with calculators or computers, the brain may grow to be stronger to fit the situation. On the contrary, if one always rely on devices, he can be lazy to think mathematically and thus diminish the ability to think on his own. Before college, I was hardly allowed to use calculator in any subjects by school but I felt I was pretty good at them and the thinking was fast and sharp. When I stepped in college, when calculators and computers are allowed, I found myself became unable to calculator some simplest multiples without them!
Besides, excessive information on the Internet can always sidetrack peoples' view toward something. Weibo, a Chinese Twitter, is probably the hottest and newest type of media in China recently: Tens of thousands of "Big V"s (those who have millions of followers or more) post their source of information (whether real or fabricated) and views every several hours and common people retweet them with just craziness. But do these point of views really the disinterested truth? Big Vs deliver their perspectives for various reasons (to be famous, to be heard, etc.) while most of the time the public are blind and conforming with others. In this case, the independent thinking is largely deteriorated because humans are surrounded by all sorts of opinions facilitated by technology. People lost their ability to think for themselves because thanks to technology, there're big figures to think for them.
Still, technology is not all bad things for thinking ability. People who know how to utilize it wisely can save their time and energy to focus on bigger issues. With the availability of airplanes, travel was shortened and millions of hours were saved; more time means more possibility to think for things that need to be solved and handled. Machinery helps to relieve human working and people can escape from doing repeating and redundant work to do things that machines fail to do, such as create a unique idea or do some innovative thinking. Thus, the ability of independent thinking of humans is not diminished but rather enhanced.
Moreover, think about who invented the great quantities of magical technological devices? The engineers and scientists have long been dealing with ever complicated problems to update their products every several months. In this sense, these people's ability to think are improved instead of deteriorated. It's becoming more and more difficult to deal with a more advanced technological problem than last time. If it weren't those developers' thinking ability that have improved then the frequent updates of all kinds of softwares, electrical devices wouldn't even be possible.
In a word, as long as people learn to use technology in ways that facilitate their work and life without over dependent on it, then their ability to think for themselves will not be deteriorated at all. However, since people judicious as such are quite a few and most people are affected by technology in a rather negative way, it's no surprise that we always put our attention on the abominable side of technology, which is deficient.
