As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate (cg).

Personally, I think this argument partially holds true because internet tend to create a homogeneous environment. However, I also disagree with this statement because technology, if used right, makes new contents more accessible and sparks inspirations.

I will start by examine why I think this is true. When we search on internet, we selectively read the information that we personally interested in. Therefore, we have already filtered the information that we are not interested. As we are browsing the webpages and social media platforms, cookies and tech companies are constantly analyzing and collecting our data. They will decide for us the kind of content that we are more likely to be interested in. As the time progresses, we will be surrounded by the same information that we started with. We would keep on finding affirmations to prove that our point is right and argue with those who are different from us are wrong. This mindset is very dangerous because it will diminish our ability to think critically and prevent us from seeing the complexity of an issue.

In addition, the technology companies also selectively show the more profitable information to create turmoil and arguments on the social media platform. A while ago, a whistleblower in Facebook indict company for intentionally selecting contentious content on a users’ page to increase company’s profit by grabbing people’s attention. Although this practice is hardly illegal, it is incontrovertibly immoral. Not only it exploits people’s precious time and attention to learn and grow themselves, but it also drags people into meaningless arguments that only burdens their mental health.

However, I could hardly say that technology will inevitably deteriorates people’s ability to think. Reflecting on the experience on using internet, nobody could deny the convenience that technology has brought to us when searching for new information. Most of the libraries are now powered by an online system that allows people to search for books while recommending other books that readers might be interested in. Streaming sites such as Netflix allows four people to watch countless films for $13.99 a month compares to the expensive cost and time for physically going to a theatre. Inspirations comes from the accumulation of knowledge, and technology allows us to do that with higher accessibilities and a cheaper price.

However, one may still argue that exploring in the same field would not spark creativities. Let us examine our reading habits before technologies: do we really explored all kinds of books before the appearance of technology, or do we only read those that we’re interested in? Is technology really the problem here if we simply follow our heart and refuse to make a change? One approach to deal with the problem that technology enlarges is to actively change our topics and explore new fields of interest. Only then can we not be passively following the direction that technology points to and losing our ability to think for ourselves.