Lesson 22
Does technology help us understand ourselves better, or does it hinder
our self-awareness?
☆Let’s
Think
1.
What does “to understand
ourselves” mean?
Note: To understand ourselves may mean to understand what is a human
as well as what kind of person you are. It could also mean where we come from,
where we are, and what is important in life.
2.
How do we understand ourselves?
Does technology help us do it?
Note: To understand ourselves, we need to be objective, compare
ourselves with others, and have plenty of information.
☆Hints for
Points
Technology helps us
understand ourselves better:
1.
Information about us is
collected by technology. Thanks to the advancement of technology, we now have
very accurate information about the history of the earth and life. Studies of
humanities are also helped by technology like DNA analysis.
2.
Watching the world and people
leads to understanding of ourselves. The media, especially social media,
provide us with abundant information about the world and people. You can also
have insights about humans. For example, videos show us we humans can be both
brave and cowardly, angelic and evil.
3.
Interaction with other people
helps us understand ourselves, and technology increases the opportunity to
interact with others. For example, by communicating with others through social
media, you can learn what kind of person you are.
4.
Technology helps find
individual properties. For example, DNA analysis shows you what kind of people
you are related to, what kind of property your body has, and whether the risk
of your having a particular disease is high or not.
Technology hinders our
self-awareness:
1.
Technology deals with matter,
the physical side of the world, so it can tell us only about our physical
aspect.
2.
The smartphone does not tell
you what kind of person you really are. Apps can tell you what type of
personality you have, but this categorization does not lead to real
understanding of yourself..
3.
Information gained through
technology might be distracting us from self-reflection. We think we have
understood ourselves by watching news and Twitter feeds and do not explore
ourselves more deeply. For example, technology told us that we had conquered
nature, when we were actually disrupting nature by technology and we are now
getting backlash from nature.
4.
Social media can distort our
image of ourselves. It is easy to wear a persona online and we can believe it
our real character. Also, when we should be satisfied with life just by being
alive, many of us suffer from the gap between what we think we should be and what
we actually are by comparing ourselves with others, even though those others
might be making themselves look better than they really are.
☆Sample Answer
for Ideas and Expressions
【Thesis】I think that technology helps us understand ourselves with a reservation,
sine it prevents us from delving into our own being in the real world.
【Supporting Details】Technological development has helped us collect information to
understand humans such as where in the universe we are and what we are made of
and how our body works. Now we know that we live on a planet that is circling
around the sun in our solar system which is a tiny part of the galaxy, which is
a tiny part of an ever-expanding space. It has shown that the first human was
in Africa and that all humans are brothers and sisters. It has also been
finding out what is in our cells and atoms, and we all know that we are made up
of the same elements as we find in the outer space.
【Reservation】However, technology can only investigate the materialistic side of
humans or quantify the working of our mind and society. It cannot help us
organically learn about people and society. To learn ourselves, we need to actually
live in this world and interact with other humans and nature, but we are
increasingly living individually in the virtual world and are getting out of
touch. Our memory and wisdom as human race passed down among us are now being
lost as we lose face-to-face communication and read books less often, absorbed
in information coming from online platforms, which can be useless, meaningless,
or deceptive.
【Conclusion】Since what makes up humans is our mind rather than our body and our
mind is degenerating due to technology, we might be losing insight into
ourselves now. (268 words)
DRAFT
