SYNTHESIS ESSAY
Have you ever tried searching on an engine and getting absolutely no result? The Internet is a very powerful and complex tool that has gained popularity over the last few decades. It is a technology that has played an important role in the education of our youths; it has become the first and almost only source of external information for students. However, it has grown so rapidly that it has affected all of our community. The over reliance on technology has shaped our minds and made us creatures that depend on easy ways to find solutions. It has faded our train thought and decrease the ability to concentrate on single task. The Internet has softened human’s brains, demanding less processing form the brain affecting the way
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While reading a text he should isolate himself and keep away from distractions in order to keep track and not miss the train of thoughts. But, this has become an unreachable dream, because whenever a reader has started reading, he would be forced to pause, because the digital world interests him more. The distraction can only occur by seeing the screen of your smartphone turning on at his peripheral view. In other words, difficult texts need single tasking with uninterrupted focus so that the reader can comprehend what the author means and to find the purpose of the author. The web has made communication so rapid that no one would think about his or her respond before typing it. They respond to the question proposed by just a superficial thought. This kind of a habit also reflects on the way a person would read an important article as well. This disables students to provide a valid and modest critique of an article in college, when they are asked to critically analyze the view of the author. All these issues can easily be addressed at the school by introducing complex texts and researches that have to be conducted without the use of
The internet is our conduit for accessing a wide variety of information. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr discusses how the use of the internet affects our thought process in being unable to focus on books or longer pieces of writing. The author feels that “someone, or something, has been tinkering with [his] brain” over the past few years (Carr 731). While he was easily able to delve into books and longer articles, Carr noticed a change in his research techniques after starting to use the internet. He found that his “concentration often [started] to drift after two or three pages” and it was a struggle to go back to the text (Carr 732). His assertion is that the neural circuits in his brain have changed as a result of surfing endlessly on the internet doing research. He supports this statement by explaining how his fellow writers have had similar experiences in being unable to maintain their concentrations. In analyzing Carr’s argument, I disagree that the internet is slowly degrading our capacity for deep reading and thinking, thereby making us dumber. The Web and Google, indeed, are making us smarter by allowing us access to information through a rapid exchange of ideas and promoting the creativity and individualization of learning.
Advancements in technology have strived to make life easier for so many people. In most cases, the advancements have achieved its goal, but in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr questions if the improvements in society have unintentionally hindered our thought process overall. Carr begins the article by providing personal instances when his concentration seemed to diminish due to the internet. He explains how he now loses interest when reading lengthy portions, his mind just can’t seem to remain connected to his readings. He then proceeds to talk about how today’s life is surrounded by the internet, and explains the pros and cons of it. The negative side of it is that his mind now wonders off when seeking information from
It is a well-known fact that the Internet has become a central part of society, and it has completely changed every aspect of life for the human race, whether it is for better or worse. Nicholas Carr explains his thoughts on how the Internet has changed how people think in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He believes that the human race is losing its ability to think deeply and is creating a distraction culture, and that companies like Google are working to increase this way of thinking. However, the issue of how the human brain is changing with the Internet is very complex, and the answer to this question goes beyond a simple yes or no.
Carr’s article introduced author and developmental psychologist, Maryanne Wolf’s idea that “we are how we read” and how she worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net (a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else) may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when earlier technology (the printing press) made long and complex works of prose commonplace. Carr feels that humans are losing their ability to read and think like they used to before the internet was so popular.
First, he provides an overview of the history and development of the book as well as the development of reading. Carr analyzes and explains the effects of these developments on the individuals. Furthermore, he notes that the Internet recreates and alters a medium’s content by the use of hyperlinks, which ultimately distracts readers, and by separating the content into organized chunks. These characteristics make the content “searchable” which stimulates skimming behavior or superficial reading. As a result, readers retain less information due to the lack of deep, analytical reading. In addition, online texts often incorporate opinions, beliefs, or skewed viewpoints of certain topics, which can have negative effects on readers. Carr also addresses that some opponents believe that hardcopy reading was a result of “impoverished access” (111) and that the desire to use the fast paced web is a result of a quickening pace of life and work over the past few
The overwhelming convenience of digital platforms encourages the passive consumption of articles and many different kinds of information. Encouraging readers to keep reading despite never truly grasping what they are reading, showing many articles and texts in short bite-sized portions to push as much consumption as possible. The internet's strategies to engage readers undermine Bunn's encouragement for critical reading and active engagement. Moreover, the quick speed of digital reading impairs a reader's ability to have a true understanding of texts, preventing deep comprehension and reflection. To mitigate these challenges, readers must maintain their cognitive abilities through continuous pushback against today's new quick reads.
Humans are living in the digital decade, generating the variety of media technologies to provide human the convenient information access. Nicolas Carr, an author of many books concerning technology and culture, expressed his skepticism about how the Internet impacts to human beings in the article: “Is Google making us stupid?”. Carr claims that the Internet has been changing the way human beings process information lowering the capacity for concentration and contemplation (Carr). Contrary to Carr’s argument, I have the positive perspective that the internet helps us smarter and people should concern about how they use the Internet instead of blaming this versatile tool
The Internet gives us a seemingly endless supply of resources; we can search for information, communicate with others, or use it for our own personal work or pleasure. The Internet connects us to the rest of the evolving world, in all different countries around the world. With the ability to seek information on the Internet, we can gain knowledge about an endless supply of topics. For example, if someone wanted to learn how to plant a tree they can simply navigate to Google and type in “how to plant a tree.” Furthermore, thousands of pages will appear with step by step instructions demonstrating the process of planting a tree. This knowledge has made our society smarter because we can figure things out on our own, but at the same time save money; we do not have to pay someone else to tell us how to plant a tree. It can really benefit students in school because it allows u...
more we run to search engines for answers the less we shall learn . Technology has taken the place of many students’ brains which causes them to think they are dumb. This leads to the need of searching for answers online at all
Dutchman, considered to be Amiri Baraka's best play, by which he won the Village Voice's Obie Award for the best American play of the 1963-1964 season, and later being developed to a film (Peterson 21). Moreover, it was Jerry Watt who seems to praise Amiri Baraka's Dutchman as his best known single work (67), Watt also makes use of Harold Clurman, a theatre critic, who reviewed Dutchman in The Nation magazine in 1964; Clurman called LeRoi Jones as an outstanding dramatist.
The Internet has created a generation of the most efficient multi-taskers ever born. Many people will have at least four tabs open as a time (Google, Facebook, Youtube, Pandora, Wikipedia, Gmail, etc.). People are constantly jumping from one web page to the next, clicking on links and opening new tabs and browsers. The method through which knowledge is gained has transitioned from deep reading to fast skimming. Every time a web page is opened the viewer is bombarded with information, almost every page has advertisements or links to additional information lining its sides. The Internet has made mountains of information available to almost anyone. It is fast and easy to find information and facts. Essentially the Internet has become the fast food of knowledge. It is convenient but it skips the element of effort.
The use of the Internet has exploded in the past few decades, and the age of the user is swiftly declining as well (Greenfield, Patricia, and Zheng Yan). “The spread of Internet access has been described as nine times faster than that of radio, four times faster than the personal computer, and three times faster than television” (Shields, Margie, and Behrman 5). The Internet has woven itself into people’s daily lives and has really changed culture in numerous ways. It has helped make education more accessible, especially to those in developing countries. Specifically, it has brought life saving health practices and information to those who otherwise would have gone without it. Also, children who need extra help learning, like kids with special
One of the most widely used technologies is the Internet, or also known as the World Wide Web. “In August 1981 about 200 computers hosted Web servers. By July 1998 there were over 36 million Web servers, that are hosts to approximately 150 million people” (Strauss). The Internet proves to be very beneficial to education, since students have unlimited access to millions of websites with tons of information. There are only so many newspapers, journals and magazines that you can find in libraries or subscribe to. Therefore, the Internet offers an unlimited pile of information that students can always have. Moreover, students are enriched with the most current information in any subject, along with regular updates. Students are able to use the Internet anytime of day, as long as they have a computer at hand. The research process will not have to end when the school day is over (Wissick, 82).
Most of the time the Internet makes learning fun, unlike the plain fashion of the "almighty" textbook. Computers and other technology can also heighten the learning process by actively engaging students in the task of exploring data. Some students may be tempted to simply download information from the Internet that does not have anything to do with a particular subject that they were asked to research. This shows that the Internet may have a greater impact to education than to learn that information from a typical textbook. Since computers and the Internet have expanded the way with which
Technology is making our life easier than before, but are we getting too much dependent on it? Technology is getting improved by past decades. It has become a part and parcel in everyday life. Without it, people would have a lot of trouble to keep pace with the whole world. At the same time, todays new generations incredibly dependent on it. They do not want to use their brain as there are lots of search engines they can easily access and can find out what they want. Technology creates problems about pollution and global warming and at the same time people are using technology to reduce these problems. Overdependence on technology is harmful for humans’ existence because it creates addiction that makes people inactive, decrease job opportunities and causes physical or mental disorders that is a great threat for mans’ life.