Writing for Academic Discussion Does technology help us understand ourselves better? - revised -

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)

                                                              

 

 

Write your response in 10 minutes. Show each other your responses. Write down questions or suggestions to each other’s response.

 

 

                                                   DRAFT