Today, many people invest much of their time online whether it is to read the news, be on social media or check bank accounts, but little do they realize there is no control and no security online. On January 11, 2017, Thomas L. Friedman’s New York Times article, “Online and Scared”, argues how cyberspace lacks control and regulations and therefore it makes the internet a scary place for many people. Friedman starts by alarming his audience of a recent event, telling some personal opinions, and backing up his claims with many examples and reliable sources.
First, Friedman began his article by reminding the audience of winter 2016 about the technology meeting with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos. As these men are very powerful, they have a huge impact on technology and the world. Then, Friedman stresses how people,
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Friedman used many examples throughout the piece by quoting notorious person and scholarly source. He quoted Barack Obama who told ABC News that our societies are affected due to misinformation and hacking that is going on in this new information age. On top of that, he mentioned a study from the Stanford Graduate School of Education that showed today’s students being incapable to distinguish facts with fiction. Professor Sam Wineburg, from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, stated “many people assume that because young people are fluent in social media they are equally perceptive about what they find there. Our work shows the opposite to be true” (Friedman). Students are not taking things critically online. Instead, they are accepting anything from anywhere as a fact unless someone tells them otherwise. The internet has misinformed and misguided many students and people. What Friedman gives is informative and goes a great deal of persuading. Mentioning what a well-known person said, in addition to a study helped drive Friedman’s claim
The author is able to establish herself by citing authoritative sources in paragraph 9, where research is cited from MIT that shows retention rates dramatically increase through the use of technology. By citing such authoritative sources, as MIT is renowned and reputable for their actions, the author is able to establish her viewpoint as credible and right. The author’s quotation of respectable sources leaves the reader with no choice but to see the author’s viewpoint as valid. This furthers her line of argumentation that there are benefits to early exposure to technology.
These sources include Sherry Turkle, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and analyst Andrew Frank from Gartner Research (171,173). While both of these sources are from respectable technology backgrounds, Wortham does not disclose why their work is relevant to her essay. She gives no research results from studies that her sources have completed that supports the idea that Facebook corrupts the emotions of the public. The scarcity of support from her sources fails to reinforce her main points in her
...gle network (443.) Some schools use material from Myspace and Facebook in their judicial proceedings while others turn a blind eye to the site (442.) Through the ineffective use of rhetorical tools and the cognizant arrangement of this essay, Fleming fails to manage the distance between herself and the audience with the flow and fluency of the article. She also does not establish her credibility and portray her scholarly credit through her citations of literature and quotations from experts. Fleming also does not present the audience with two analogies enabling them to make logical conclusions.
Cass R. Sunstein talks about this in her article “How Facebook Makes Us Dumber.” She states that social media “intentionally spreads false information” (Sunstein). In her article she explains how Americans look for answers they want to hear even if the information is incorrect and how there is a rapid increase in not supporting true information, and this does not only happen on social media but in the real world too. Pariser talks in his article about how “it will be very hard for people to watch or consume something that has not in some sense been tailored for them” (Pariser). He talks in his speech about the filter bubbles social media put on for people. Sunstein also shows that people have a specific place in putting this false information and one is “within homogenous clusters”
Steven Pinker and Nicholas Carr share their opposing views on the effects that mass media can have on the brain. In Carr’s Atlantic Monthly article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” it explores his viewpoints on how increased computer use affects our thought process in a negative manner. Carr critically analyzes that having widespread access to the internet via the internet has done more harm by disabling our ability to think complexly like it is the researching in a library. On the other hand, Pinker expresses how the media improves our brain’s cognitive functions. Pinker expresses that we should embrace the new technological advances and all we need is willpower to not get carried away in the media. Although both authors bring very valid arguments
Sean Blanda’s, “The Other Side Is Not Dumb”, uses cultural examples concerning the younger American generation involving, the medias influence and peer pressure vs the actual facts and proof, involved while forming a personal opinion. The author emphasizes how the effects of pressure from our surroundings, such as: friends, media, and more, adjust our view of political and social subjects. He includes multiple cases of where your own ignorance can hinder your learning and interaction with others. If you continue to have a negative outlook on people who disagree with you, you’ll never be able to consider yourself a curious person and participate in social media. “We cannot consider ourselves “empathetic” only to turn around and belittle those that don’t agree with us.”- Mr. Blanda
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke said. When using the web, web users’ information tends to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that require companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advice on social media about how web users can be more cautious about what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining, and also by attacking this problem by offering classes for the youth on the internet. Weblining tracks a web user’s information when using the internet, the information that is taken is then used to try to sell items to the user. Carr informs readers on how weblining works: “Already, advertisers are able to infer extremely personal details about people by monitoring their web-browsing habits.
An individual’s first thought when needing information has turned to “Let’s Google that!” Carr’s utilization of Bruce Friedman’s article where he states, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print”, adds credibility to Carr’s claims. Here, he once again, shows how he relates to his audience through his statement, “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do”. He shows through his statement that he relates to Freidman, with similar values and traits, linking the two ideas
In the articles, “How Facts Backfire” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Keohane and Carr explain the cognitive blocks we are faced with in society. Keohane explains how we can be misinformed because of our beliefs. These beliefs can cloud our judgement of what is true and what isn’t true. Carr focuses on how the internet has changed the way we think. Carr includes how the internet can distract us, making tasks harder to complete. Both Keohane and Carr show us the negatives side effects of cognition.
The internet is ever changing, and so our minds, but can the internet mold our minds? Nicholas Carr and Michael Rosenwald support the idea that the reading we do online is making it harder to be able to sit down with a good book. In their papers they discuss the downfalls of using the web. While on the other hand author Clay Shirky challenges that thought in his piece. Shirky directly battles the idea that the internet is damaging our brains by suggesting that internet use can be insightful. In this essay I will evaluate all three articles and expose their strengths and weaknesses then add my own take on the situation.
Rhetorical Analysis: “Is Google Making Us Stupid” In composing “Is Google Making Us More Stupid” Nicholas Carr wants his audience to be feared by the internet while at the same time he wants his work to seem more credible. Nicholas Carr uses many different types of evidence to show us that we should be scared and feared, as well as his credibility. Carr’s audience is people who think like him, who find themselves getting lost on the internet while reading something, someone who is educated and uses the internet to look up the answers to questions or to read an article or book. From the beginning of Carr’s article, he explains that the internet itself is making “us” more stupid. Carr talks about how his mind has changed over the years because of reading and looking things up on the internet.
In Is Google Making Us Stupid, Nicholas Carr disputes that due to new digital tools, peoples’ ability to retain and acquire information has been negatively altered. Even though, we have information at our fingertips, we often don’t take the time to soak in all the information. Carr mentions Bruce Friedman, a blogger, who finds it extremely difficult to read a “longish article on the web” and to try to focus on the importance of the text holistically (Carr 316). This is an issue that many can relate even Carr knows that, “ the deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle (Carr 314). Additionally, media theorist Mcluhan describes the net as “chipping away [mental] capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr 315). In essences, Carr states that we are having less of an attention span and consequently, less patience for longer articles (Carr 314). Therefore, this affects media outlets such as magazines, newspapers, and other articles, because they must conform and shorten their texts to fit the status quo that people safely enjoy (Carr 321). In addition, the net forces people to be efficient, and so, causes people to “weaken [their] capacity for deep reading” (Carr 317). People are becoming more driven on how quick he or she has to do something rather than think why this text is important. As a consequence, Carr believes that we are starting to lose our ability to be critical readers and
Part of the allure of the Internet has always been the anonymity it offers its users. As the Internet has grown however, causing capitalists and governments to enter the picture, the old rules are changing fast. E-commerce firms employ the latest technologies to track minute details on customer behavior. The FBI's Carnivore email-tracking system is being increasingly used to infringe on the privacy of netizens. Corporations now monitor their employees' web and email usage. In addition to these privacy infringements, Internet users are also having their use censored, as governments, corporations, and other institutions block access to certain sites. However, as technology can be used to wage war on personal freedoms, it can also be employed in the fight against censorship and invasion of privacy.
Truitt Marc talks about the air is full of people that’s saying everyone use some kind of device it doesn’t matter where there are going they are using something a cell phone a tablet a computer or something in saying no one is alone anymore the world is with us it does not matter where we go. Bryan Alexander disagrees to a certain instinct he feel that the internet has made him a little more intelligence and trying to prove his point looking how different people view on the research for their self and just don’t run with everything they here without investigating it find out if it is true before believing what people say. Ryan Watkins feels that the internet and Google are making us dumber, therefore not smarter because students do not go that extra mile to improve their work or paper, but rather quick to run to the internet to find what they need instead of going to the library and getting what they need and not using their brain for deep thinking anymore but trying to find all of the short cuts to benefit them and how they are quickly to skim through the internet instead of using the knowledge they have and putting it to good
Students begin to rely more on information easily accessible on social networking sites and websites. This reduces the ability of learning and research.