Kyle McLaughlin- Both Restack and Samuel introduce the division of our attention and technology as topics that are perceived as harmful, but argues that in this modern age, can be embraced to lead productive and fulfilling lives. Restack argues, “…to be successful in today’s workplace you have to incorporate some elements of ADD/ADHD. You must learn to rapidly process information, function amidst surroundings your parents would have described as “chaotic”, always remain prepared to rapidly shift from one activity to another, and redirect your attention among competing tasks without becoming bogged down or losing time.” (Restak 378) Restak essays that people with ADHD can rapidly process informations and work well during chaotic situations. There are many careers that require us to “be ADHD sometimes”. For instance, teachers must be able to keep track of the twenty or so students that they are responsible daily during class. They must be able to make shifts in attention from one students needs to the next students at a minutes notice. People may consider ADHD as a negative disorder but its symptoms, in this case the ability to rapidly shift from one task to the other, leads to increased productivity. I agree with Restacks idea,because in my life I find myself jumping from task to task quickly while completing school work, however when I work on multiple tasks at once, the quality of my work suffers. While Restack discusses how the qualities associated with ADHD can be beneficial, Samuel describes how we can approach distractions by technology in a positive way. Samuel suggests that technology is beneficial and can be done in a distraction free way, advising, “Commit to a single task on your computer or mobile device, the same way you might commit to an important face-to-face conversation. You can find freedom from distraction on screen as well as off.” (Samuel paragraph 5) As long as we close out all opf our other tabs and applications on the screen we are working on, including message notifications, we can use technology in a productive, distraction free way. I agree with this because as long as I close out everything else on my laptop, forcing me to work on a single project, I am able to focus. There is nothing else to do besides the one task in front of me.

• Kyle McLaughlin -In Reporting Live from Tomorrow, Daniel Gilbert introduces the idea that every human can draw from a wide range of experiences from the rest of humanity. Everyone has lived through their own set of experiences and are more than willing to share those experiences with those that contemplate having those particular experiences at some point in their futures. The example Gilbert used mentioned how there are so many people that have gone through certain situations such as “marrying a lawyer” that we, ourselves do not have to live through those experiences to know what it is life. He also presents the idea that we continue to make poor decisions even with this fast amount of information at our fingertips. He says that this occurs because we “take a lot of bad advice that we foolishly accept” (Gilbert 180). I have had thoughts about this topic before, but Gilbert opened my eyes further to the fact that any information learned by a single member of the human race can be shared with the rest of us in a matter of minutes. I agree with the ideas presented because in my own life, when I go through an experience that I deem to be significant I often share it with my closest friends’ minutes to hours after experiencing it. After I experience the event and share it with my friends, they will know what that particular experience is like, and after they learn about it, they will share it with their friends, creating a vast network of knowledge of a very specific situation.
• Kyle McLaughlin- In “The Moral Bucket List”, David Brooks unifies the stories of people who “radiate an inner light” with the overarching theme and advice of working to identify your flaws and rectifying those flaws to move towards self-improvement. Brooks contradicts the idea that life is a journey best completed individually through providing examples of how the influence of friends or other relationships led to great success in some of America’s most well-known leaders. Brooks’ ideas referring to “the stumbler who doesn’t build her life by being better than other but by being better than she used to be” resonated with me because as a person I feel as if I spend a lot of time thinking about how to better myself academically if I fall short of the goals that I set for myself such as changing my studying habits or with running to adjust training schedules or techniques. Academics and running are two big parts of my life that I strive to improve in on a daily basis. Gilbert contradicts the idea of how no successful person became great without help from others through emphasizing the importance of the individual. In “Reporting Live from Tomorrow” Gilbert mentions “Economies thrive when individuals thrive, but because individuals will only strive for their own happiness” (Gilbert 184) Brooks suggests that there are individuals who are completely selfless and dedicate their talents to the needs of the world. There are people who are so inspired by others that they will give all of themselves to the universal needs of society.
• Kyle McLaughlin-An idea that I would support from Matt Richtel’s Growing Up Digital Wired for Distraction would be the concept used to explain why people use technology in the excessive amount that they do. Richtel says, “It’s the absence of doing something, but you feel gratified anyway.” (Richtel) I agree with this because people are constantly searching for a way to be stimulated, and if the stimulation is right in your pocket, there should be no reason to get up and find something to do. There is no reason to go find an interesting game to play outside when you could find a friend to text very quickly on your phone, play candy crush or browse through Instagram. You could fulfill your desire for gratification without moving at all or working with anything tangible. For instance, if I was bored as a kid before I got my phone, I would get out of bed to shoot on my basketball hoop in my driveway. Now, if I’m in bed and I am bored, I simply have to take my phone out and browse Instagram to achieve gratification, as well as stimulation.

  Kyle McLaughlin-In Kwame Anthony Appiah’s “Making Conversation”, he describes the term cosmopolitanism as the regard of “all the peoples of the earth as so many branches of a single family, and the universe as a state, of which they with innumerable other rational beings, are citizens, promoting together under the general laws of nature the perfection of the whole…” (Appiah 46) This statement suggests that people should join together to achieve the goal of promoting a positive environment for the common good by thinking of everyone on earth as a member of this larger family. It suggests that people should work together to perfect the world as a whole for the good of everybody. In “The Dell Theory of Conflict prevention” the author describes a world held together by the economic ties of global supply chains. Developed countries decide not to engage in warfare because it is likely to destroy their own economy. The ideas brought up in this text focus more on the good of the individual’s economic security keeping the world at peace as opposed to the universal desire that everyone should have to make the world a better place which was brought up in Appiahs definition of Cosmopolitanism.

  Kyle McLaughlin-While discussing how supply chains prevent global conflict in “The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention”, Friedman mentions, “Countries whose workers and industries are woven into a major global supply chain know that they cannot take an hour, a week, or a month off for war without disrupting industries and economies around the world and thereby risking the loss of their place in that supply chain for a long time, which could be extremely costly.” (Friedman 129) I thought this idea was interesting because it sums up the main idea of Friedmans chapter on Conflict prevention very well. It is the idea that supply chains prevent conflict because if one country decides to wage war on another, it disrupts the supply chain. The global economy is so dependent on these supply chains that even a moments disruption in them can be disastrous for the country involved. No country wants to risk their economic success, which is the basis for the quality of life in any well developed country, from first, to third world, so they decide not to enter conflict with one another. This further explains why the world has not entered into another global conflict, especially in the precarious position that it is currently in. Pakistan and India have been at eachothers throats for as long as I have been alive, Taiwan and China have always been in conflict. The Korean peninsula possess the same nuclear issues. It seems as if the economic incentive of protecting the integrity of global supply chains far outweighs the political incentive of conquering territory through means of violence. It is worrying that the only incentive to humanity for the prevention of violence is economic security as opposed to the true and genuine concern for other people but it is beneficial to us that conflict is prevented, nonetheless.