GRE: Issue Essay (attempt 1)

[kimjam]

 

This is my first attempt on the issue essay. My particular concerns are whether my logic and examples are logical, well-developed, and persuasive enough. Any other critiques will be much appreciate though. Thanks in advance and I'll be happy to return the favour! 

Issue Prompt: “As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.”

In order to make the author’s claim, we also need to explore how we use technology to solve problems in the first place. The direct relationship between overreliance on technology and people’s ability to think for themselves that the author draws undermines how we use the technology.

Considering the perspective that the efficiency of technologies will increase our use and reliance ironically ignores its benefits. The use of technology to solve problems is not only helpful for simple problems but argueably, enhances our ability to solve more complex problems. For example, the use of calculators are discouraged in elementary schools but often encouraged for university students. Why might that be the case? While both are developing, students attempting to solve problems in their level of education, the complexity of problems in post-secondary curriculum is obvious. The use of calculators in university tests eliminates simple calculations in order to tackle more complex problems. In line with this reasoning, then, reliance on technology increases our mental capacity to think about more complex problems.

We can also combine and manipulate technology in order to approach and solve problems. If we consider technology as one of our many tools, rather than an ‘one-fits-all’ solution, than our ability to think will not deteriorate. For instance, medical diagnoses are deducted using different instruments to analyze different areas of our body. In addition, the combined use of technology can help us consolidate our previous findings. For example, microbiological testing for an infectious disease uses multiple skilled technology and diagnostic strategies to come to a sound analysis. In this way, scientists could come to an accurate and precise answer that would eliminate false positives or false negatives.

Shifting to a more pragmatic perspective, we need to explore our relationship with technology itself. The author neglects the product-consumer relationship that increases the number and diversity of technologies that we use. The use of technology is not simply a linear process. Rather, information about how consumers use their technology will inform product engineers and developers to adapt to our increasing needs. As a result, engineers will continue to develop new ways of using our technology as we currently use them. Due to this cyclical relationship, our use of technology will continue to evolve along with us. Our relationship with technology is not a simple, linear process.  

Humans’ ability to think for themselves will not simply deteriorate with the use of technology due to the nature of our use.  Our use and reliance on technology will inform engineers to develop innovative products to adapt to our problems.

Edited September 21, 2017 by kimjam