Long Tran

Blog Post #7
I personally enjoyed reading this article by Carr. Carr first starts his conclusion by reciting a
work by Robert Frost that he keeps going back to. He talks about Frost being so lost in his own
labor that he forgets about how horrible his life is. His mind is just focused on the task at hand.
Carr believes that Frost was trying to show that doing physical labor can help a person get close
to the environment and nature. Carr starts to talk about technology and how it can make such
work easier. When Carr says There s a callousness to grandiose futurism, I think he means that
technology is beneficial to humans, but there is a point in the future where we can be so addicted
to technology, we become slaves to our own devices. Carr talks about technology such as
computers; they make work easier and much simpler, but dull the rest of our senses. On a
computer, he says that it can be uninviting and we cannot explore the world around us the way
we are supposed to. He noted a study about mice not knowing where they were when they were
walked through a virtual maze compared to physical one in which they are able to use their
senses of touch, hearing, and smell along with sight. The study with the mice that were in a
physical maze shows that they were better oriented with their environment than the study with
technology involved. Carr uses Robert Frost in his argument to show that simplicity can be more
beneficial than constantly using technology to make everything easier. Robert Frost can use his
words in such a way to persuade readers to use technology with caution. Frost Found himself
closer to nature and found inspiration for his works through physical labor. I believe that Carr
wants us to take away from his piece that technology, is beneficial to humans. We just cannot
afford to be sucked into technology and become addicted. I personally feel better going for a
walk outside and disconnecting from technology rather than sit inside and just do nothing on the
computer.