Exemplary Essay on Technology vs. Garden by Audrey Ishiyama

What are you reading this article on? A device, obviously. Our world today revolves around ever-evolving technology, and we always try to keep up with these rapid changes. Many technologies have benefited humans by interconnecting the world, making life easier, and/or granting humans more time. For example, medical technology has greatly extended human life expectancy. And obviously, some technology harms us as well. Phones have made many adolescent humans and quite a bit of adult humans drown in an endless loop of checking for text messages and "doom scrolling." It's as if a puppeteer has trapped us in this never-ending cycle that only causes stress and wastes our precious time. However, Audrey's essay below argues that it is not too late to achieve a balance between "garden" and "machinery." Read on to find out more!

Essay on Technology vs. Garden in AP English Literature & Composition

By Audrey Ishiyama

     Technology is an enormous part of almost everyone's lives in our modern society. Screen time dominates our work time and free time. While this significant use of technology comes with benefits like quick access to knowledge and easy communication and connections with anyone anywhere, “the garden,” the space where humans find comfort and rest, is extremely important to maintain. Overall, the current average amount of technology used by people in society is overpowering and threatening to destroy “the garden,” so it is important to decrease this to strengthen the prevalence of “the garden” in everyone’s lives. With regulations set in place by individuals themselves to reduce their time immersed in the rapid and stress-inducing world of technology, it would be possible to achieve a harmonious balance between the ideals represented by the machine and the garden.

     Some would argue that the machine and its ideals have completely destroyed the garden. Studies show that even when humans are not around their devices, they can “feel” or “hear” the sound of a phone buzzing. This proves how prevalent machines are in human lives and how much they have infiltrated everything we do. In school and in the workplace, where computers, devices, and machinery are frequently used to achieve tasks, people have learned to rely on these machines and do not know how to function without them. Of course, they have their benefits in providing quick access to information, easy communication, and easy accessibility, but they have infiltrated our lives. Even in people’s free time, they spend it scrolling and watching short videos that destroy attention spans and rarely engage the watcher’s mind. For these reasons of reliance on technology and machinery, some people would argue that it is impossible at this point to turn around society and achieve a balance between the ideals of the machine and the garden.

     However, if setting regulations on deciding what to do with free time were to be a widely promoted topic and experiencing “the garden” was encouraged, it is still possible to strike a balance between these two vastly different worlds. In the workplace, the use of machinery can be more easily justified than in spare time. To efficiently get work done and develop new ideas and even new technology, machinery use is required. It’s what helped society shift from the primary sectors of economics to the tertiary service-based economy. Therefore, the use of technology in the workplace should not necessarily be discouraged. However, something that could be encouraged is taking technology- or machinery-free breaks, giving time to relax in comfort without the constant notifications and updates that come with technology. However, this solace would not be possible if people were still addicted to their phones. This leads to the need to tackle the issue from a personal free-time perspective. As the studies explained earlier about still hearing or feeling notifications even if they do not exist, people would still be experiencing these symptoms if they were highly addicted to device use in their free time. This can be solved through the promotion of regulating one’s own phone use for their own benefit and educating people about the negative effects of device use, as well as informing them of the benefits that come with finding true relaxation, rest, and comfort without the stress that comes from the use of technology. Especially since people’s technology use in their free time is mainly from “doom scrolling” on short video platforms, which teach nothing, or watching TV, which only provides an elementary level of communication, it would highly benefit everyone to want to and strive to limit this use. And it is not impossible. The issue can be tackled from the inside out, providing users of technology with “wake-up calls” to understand their addiction and realize the benefits that would occur if changes to their behavior were made. Some people would struggle more than others to make these drastic changes, so the rest of society or institutions could create methods of supporting these changes in people’s lives. Those who show positive growth will understand the benefits of life on the other side and encourage others.

    Overall, though some may argue that society is long gone and people cannot recover from the reliance on technology to achieve a harmonious balance between the ideas represented by the machine and the garden, it is still possible to fix the issue by tackling it from the inside out and creating systems to support people. While technology is important to maintain in order to develop society as a whole, it should not take over our whole lives. If people were to successfully achieve this balance between machinery and the garden in their lives, they would appreciate the earth more and feel less stressed, which can ultimately reflect back on technology and help developers of technology’s minds be more clear, and perhaps even develop technology that promotes the importance of the balance between machinery and the garden.

As Audrey explained, by establishing personal boundaries and promoting technology-free time, we can rediscover the peace and relaxation provided by nature, especially in a world where our lives revolve around technology. Many students today spend as much, if not more, time on devices as they do interacting with others. Finding a balance between technology and nature can lead to a more grateful and less stressed society, benefiting both individuals and the advancement of future technologies. As our world moves towards a more technology-centered lifestyle, how will we adapt to these changes? How can we keep pace? How will our young generation grow up in this environment?