Prompt

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

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the
position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement
might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

Essay
In this day and age technology has become a necessity for people from all walks of life. People rely on various forms of
technology in their day to day lives for a better quality of life or an ease of living. The prompt says that increased reliance
on technology to solve problems reduces the ability of people to think for themselves. I mostly disagree with this
statement for two reasons. However, I do concede that over reliance on technologies to do the simplest of tasks or to
solve simple problems without basic knowledge of the task can lead to deteriorated thinking in humans.

First, reliance on technologies for everyday activities to improve people’s day to day lives might not cause any reduction
in thinking ability for the reason that these technologies provide physical support and not mental aide. For example,
new construction technologies such as prefabricated walls, doors, windows used in the construction of buildings reduce
physical effort for the construction workers, reduce time taken to construct the buildings and also ensure consistency of
material, quality etc. of the items while the design of the building is still decided by human engineers and architects
using their thinking ability. The engineers who design these buildings also rely on technology to aide in their designing
process. Such software technologies give the designers an opportunity to create designs which would not have been
possible using rudimentary techniques. Thus, reliance on technologies might not reduce thinking ability but enhance and
aide thinking abilities by providing more opportunities than without the use of such technologies.

Secondly, technologies are created by humans to solve their problems using their thinking abilities. Software
technologies are created by programmers and developers to solve various problems and to serve the needs of people
for various tasks. The people who create these software’s must use their thinking ability to create the solution. For
example, a software developer who is creating a calculator application uses his or her thinking ability and knowledge of
programming to create an application which can be used by people for mundane calculations. Other inventive
technologies like the light bulb or the telephone were invented using thinking ability and have become ingrained in the
society due to their positive value.

However, increased reliance on technology in some cases can surely lead to deteriorated thinking in humans. Children
under the age of 12 should reduce the use of technologies such as calculators as they can have a negative effect in their
learning and thinking ability during their development age. If kids become accustomed to using calculators for even basic
calculations, they will not understand math, which can lead to difficulties in the future while they take advanced courses
as they might lack the fundamental knowledge needed for the course of study.

Therefore the reliance of technologies to solve our problems is definitely a boon to humans when used properly. More
reliance on technologies will not lead to reduced thinking abilities except for example, when it is used by children in
their growing/developing years.