In reading Nick Carr’s essay “Is Google Making us Stupid?” I was opened up to a whole new perspective on the effects that technology has on not only myself, but the human race as a whole. As I was introduced to the “cathedral like” people we once were, and the “pancake people we’re becoming, I found that I understand and relate to what Carr was illustrating. He brought forth an idea that we are becoming flat and robotic as people, letting technology do the work for us, and sitting back as it takes over virtually every aspect of our lives. While reading the responses that my classmates had to Carr’s essay, I found that both Jacob Osmer and Mia Lucci had both similar thoughts and feelings towards technology as Carr has. However, both writers offer a unique perspective and their own unique experiences that isn’t touched on in Carr’s essay.

              With our advancements in technology, “skimming” has become a lot more prevalent in our society, rather than the deep reading and intense thinking that we used to put into our reading. Carr illustrates this idea in his essay (quote). Osmer also reports feeling the same effect on his reading ability as Carr has, which is extremely interesting to me. Osmer and Carr are writers from very different generations, different backgrounds, and different experiences growing in the age of technology. However, they both report feeling the same effects of technology. I think this really shows an important idea that technology has an impact on the lives of everyone, not just young people who may have had more experience with it. However, not everyone has the same experience with technology. Lucci explains that while she may experience a difference in her writing, nothing has changed with her reading ability, which touches on another point that I believe is important to bring up; everyone’s experiences with technology are vastly different. While it does transcend time and generations, that does not mean that everyone is going to feel like a “pancake” with their reading. Osmer and Carr had similar experiences, but that does not mean that people like Lucci have to feel the exact same thing.

              In terms of writing, Carr and Lucci bring up an interesting view on how technology has shaped their writing. Both writers use Friedrich Nietzsche as an example for how technology influences writing. In Nietzsche’s case, he used to write by hand, but lost his ability to see right around when the typewriter came out, which gave him another chance at being able to write. However, Carr claims that “His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic…” meaning that  Lucci also uses this example in her writing by using it as a springboard into her own experiences. Lucci explains her experience with writing, claiming that it makes her wiring reporter like, almost like a robot, and exactly what happened to Nietzsche. Osmer also uses Nietzsche as an example in his writing to springboard into his own experiences, but he has a much different opinion. Osmer describes his writing style, explaining how he is “jumping around from paragraph to paragraph, copy/pasting whole sections around the paper, and throwing out as many ideas as possible” which is much easier for him to do through a computer. Osmer has also viewed a change in his writing when using a computer, but it was a positive change. Osmer claims that the way he writes through his computer allows him to be much more thorough and authentic with his writing. Both Lucci and Osmer have very different views, but they both explore the importance of the effects that technology has on our writing. Whether that effect is positive or negative, it is still present in our everyday lives.