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Jude Raj Professor Malcolm Campbell English 1103 4 February 2013 Topic Proposal: Technology and Laziness Introduction/Overview The primary purpose of technology has always been to make life a little bit easier. The personal computer was created for general uses such as word processing and e-mail clients. Also, the Internet was developed to provide a vast amount of information and resources. As time progressed, technology advanced and tasks that would normally take hours are finished with minutes. While technology saved people time, it also introduced a new, unhealthy habitlaziness. According to an article in TMS, one of the reasons technology induces laziness is because of the large amount of entertainment that it offers. IN the past, people had to walk to the nearest Blockbusters to rent a movie, but now, we have Netflix and other media-streaming websites. Not to mention that music is purchased more through itunes today than through albums and CDs. Minor activities like these might not seem like laziness, but it adds up very quickly. Before you know it, you will find yourself on the couch for hours without noticing a single minute go by. While some claim that technology is a major factor of laziness, other claim that technology has motivated people to actually start working. An article from Columbia University describes how technology motivates people to learn. The recent releases of androids and iphones encourage people to try and learn something new. The article explains how people adapt quickly

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and learn as much as they can about their new device. In this case, technology can be used as a motivator instead of an inhibitor as seen in the previous case.

Initial Inquiry Question(s) I will be examining the effects of technology on an individuals ability to work. My inquiry question is: does the use of technology induce lethargic habits? I want to find out if using too much technology actually affects our motivation to do work. I will go from this inquiry question to my next question: Does technology slow us down and prevent us from reaching over goals? I plan to use these two questions as my foundation for this research paper

My Interest in this Topic Im interested in this topic because I have many personal experiences where I have chosen to be lazy when I could have been out doing something better. I am curious to find out if technology actually induced this. The more and more I thought about it, I realized that I was sitting on the couch watching soccer instead of going out and actually playing the sport. I already know that technology can be highly useful, but can it really hinder and make us lazy? I hope to learn if technology induces laziness. I also want to learn about the counter-argument about thiscan we be motivated by technology? I hope to learn more about these two aspects on this topic. Next Steps I will be visiting a series of websites where I will be researching both the effects of technology as an inhibitor and motivator. I plan to use a subject librarian that can help me find out more about this topic by using the databases and searching for more articles. I feel like the articles give me the best results because I can study the statistics. I hope to find an experiment that someone has done on the question on whether technology induces laziness. If I do find such

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an experiment, I plan to study and use the results and effects as evidence in my research paper. On top of all this, I want to use some books that talk about the rapid rise of technology and I hope to do this through the librarians as well.