Analysis Of Sven Birkets's The Owl Has Flown

There is no denying the incredible library of knowledge the internet has made readily available for all to use. Having such a resource is transforming modern society in many ways, as it brings insight and news across the world at a moment’s notice, all the while enhancing educational and technological advancements. However, according to Sven Birkets, an American essayist and literacy critic, in his essay “The Owl Has Flown” observations are to be made on how this new resources has transformed people’s intelligence and wisdom. The author theorizes that the large, almost unlimited, library that is now being offered, by services such as the internet, reshapes the public’s knowledge. It is transforming to be horizontal or substantial compared to

Sven Birkets gave this overall way of thinking in his work by writing that “In our culture, […] there is a gradual displacement of the vertical by the horizontal-the sacrifice of depth to lateral range, or, in Darnton’s terms a shift from intensive to extensive reading. Access is not a problem, but proliferation is., the reader tends to move across the surface to skimming, hastening from one site to the next without allowing the words to resonate inwardly” (Birkets 72). Birkets suggest by this that people simply do not take the time to dwell and reflect on what they read, or have an “intense way of reading”, has they would rather read more in an “extensive” manner. This is due to the fact that these sources are more readily available to us, unlike prior generations, and this looms high and large on our availability to concentrate and take time on one specific subject. Moreover, on this thought Carr gives a personal example due to self-reflection in his article. The author reiterates by writing that “The Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Carr). The metaphor

A more scientific aspect on why our brain is affected by the large sea of information that is available to us is touched upon by Eric Jaffe. The writer explains that “the barrage of new media distractions is placing new demands on cognitive processing, and especially on attention allocation […] While cause-and-effect is difficult to parse here, in some sense it doesn’t matter. If all this digital media is causing people to multi-task more frequently, then their learning ability will suffer” (Jaffe). New media and information makes it that distractions are much more numerous according to Jaffe. Consequently, the ability to learn is negatively impacted because less concentration means less time for information to actually be processed and stored into minds. Furthermore, this idea is proven by Reynol Junco and Shelia R. Cotton, two members of the department of Sociology at the University of Alabama, through a scientific study in their article entitled “No A 4 U: The relationship between multitasking and academic performance”. In this article the authors conducted sociology experiments that lead them to the conclusion that:

Engaging in Facebook use or texting while trying to complete schoolwork taxes the student's limited capacity for cognitive processing and precludes deeper