SWA #2

“Technology is rewiring our brains.”  This is one of the many claims made in Matt Ritchel’s article ‘Hooked on Technology, and Paying a Price.’ In the context of the article, Ritchel means to

say that the way we think has been changing over the past 50 years, whether it’s for the better

or worse. Our brains have been ‘rewired’ to multitask constantly, adapting to each different

technology that comes on the scene as we ourselves have grown and changes.  He states that

instead of the maybe 5 hours a day the average person would spend in the ‘multimedia world’

in the 1960s, we spend about 12 hours a day consuming media: most of the time we are awake

and functioning during the day.  People have become adaptive experts at multitasking, without

even knowing it- and that’s what makes our generation so different from that in say, the 60’s. 

Ritchel mentions the Campbell family multiple times throughout the article, using them as the contention for his argument. The reason he does this is to lure the reader in using pathos to

establish a relationship between reader and family. We can all relate to this ‘takeover’ of

technology. I know my mom has a rule, at least, that we’re not supposed to text at the table

because it’s considered rude and intrusive on family time. Whether your parents have

established rules like these or others, almost any audience member can relate to the fact that

his or her family uses technology maybe more than they’d like to admit. The Campbells are no

exception. By telling the story of Mr. Campbell, his semi-neglective attitude, forgetfulness, and

general distraction from his family, Ritchel establishes a connection between what goes on in

the Campbell household, and what may be going on in households all over America. It may

shame the reader, but it gets a reaction, and more than that, it gets a response. If the reader knows that

this particular family is not necessarily benefiting from having so much technology in their home, he or

she may be more likely to recognize the same situation in his or her life and to take action against it.

‘The myth of multitasking’:  This is the argument that people who so-called ‘multitask’ are in fact better at multitasking than those who, persay, do not consider themselves multitaskers.  It is

proven, in at least this one experiment, that multitaskers were worse at juggling more than one

thing and changing jobs than non-multitaskers. This evidence had no effect on me as a self-

considered multitasker, because I know that I am able to handle more than one thing at a time,

and I do believe that technology has taught me that.  All the experiment proved was that non-

multitaskers could recognize new information quickly. While it may take multitaskers longer to

switch between activities, the jobs still get done with ease. Between Facebook, homework,

music, and texting, my brain has been able to adapt to thinking about more than one thing at a

time, solving problems simultaneously. While this makes me sound like superman, I’m far from

it. I simply agree that technology can provide advantages to certain people and disadvantages to

others.