The Pros And Cons Of Internet Reading

1074 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Education and digital divide

"The enemy of books" is what many parents and teachers perceive the internet to be and also believe that it is more of a con than a pro. They also believe that it is more of a distraction than a helpful tool when it comes to researching important information. In the article "Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" author Motoko Rich writes strong evidence as to why online reading is not considered reading, how there are many pros compared to cons, if adults should interfere with students and the internet.
The article states that there are people who believe that people who read online will one day be able to exceed beyond those who only read books. One reason behind this thinking is that instead of reading a very long book that could …show more content…

One specific test, called iSkills, make it necessary for students in college who have taken the test to use the internet to comb through answers to solve problems that they are given. "Of more than twenty thousand students who have taken the iSkills test since 2006, only thirty-nine percent of four year college freshman achieved a score that represented 'core functional levels ' in Internet literacy." expressed Stephan Denis, a product manager at the Educational Testing Service. This information proves that when using the internet to look up information, students not only might not know how to limit the information that they are given, they don’t know how to check if it can be credible. Although some adults, like Carol Jugo of the National Council of Teachers of English and a member of the testing guidelines committee, believe that students will learn on their own and that there is no justification that adults need to teach teenagers how to use the internet. By using these two individuals that are apart of the research, the author establishes credibility within his article.
All in all, there are many pros and cons about reading on the internet, along with if students should be taught how to use the internet. It is a debate with many influential points that could one day alter the way students and young adolescents discover the

Show More
Related

  • Response To Mitoko Rich Literacy Debate – Online, R U Really Reading?

    1297 Words  | 3 Pages

    In response to Mitoko Rich, “Literacy Debate – Online, R U Really Reading?” in the 21st century, children are learning via different sources, whether through textbooks, internet, blogs, etc. Therefore, it was not surprising to read what is mentioned in this article. Reading in the digital age is causing a debate, especially in regards to students. After reading the article, questions came to mind such as; is it possible that digital text can cause more harm than

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Dwight Macdonald's Reading And Thought

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, textbooks are heavy to carry around and it takes longer to find a page. Likewise with digital textbooks they are compatible with tablets, smartphones, and laptops; it’s much easier to carry around and affordable price. However, some people may argue that digital textbooks can be a distraction for people because they would not bother read anymore. The author and poet Dana Gioia argues that electronics alternatives may be a bad influence that will lead society to not read anymore. Gioia complicates matters further when she writes, “While no single activity is responsible for the decline in reading, the cumulative presence and availability of electronic alternatives increasingly have drawn Americans away from reading” (161). I think Gioia is mistaken because she overlooks on electronics being a bad influence; but doesn’t see the benefits of electronics. To demonstrate, most of my textbooks are digital, which I can easily carry my tablet around where ever I go. Also, I save more money on digital textbooks and are simple to annotated the text. Journalist Ellen Lee interview a student from Liberty University, and he states that he prefers digital textbooks because he can tap his iPad, opens the digital copy and quickly open the page. Nevertheless, he also like digital textbooks because it has a feature that allows to highlight and mark the

    Read More

  • Malcolm Gladwell's Small Change: People Are Uncomfortable With Internet Technology

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    Like Gladwell, Nicholas Carr believes the internet has negative effects. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Carr attempts to show as the internet becomes our primary source of information, it diminishes the ability to read books and extensive research. Carr goes on to give a very well researched account of how text on the internet is designed make browsing fast and profitable. He describes how the design for skimming affects our thinking skills and attention spans. He wraps up his argument by describing what we are losing in the shift toward using the internet as our main information source. Carr suggests the learning process that occurs in extensive research and through reading is lost. While the learning process can be beneficial to scholars and intellectuals, not everyone has the capability to follow through with it. The internet offers an education that anyone can have access to and understand. Also if Carr believes the learning process is better, this option is always available for people who want to learn according to this scholarly principal. However, for the rest of the population the quick and easy access has allowed the average population to become more educated, and to expose themselves to aspects of academia that previously is reserved for

    Read More

  • Is Google Making Us Stupid?, by Nicholas Carr

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the rise of technology and the staggering availability of information, the digital age has come about in full force, and will only grow from here. Any individual with an internet connection has a vast amount of knowledge at his fingertips. As long as one is online, he is mere clicks away from Wikipedia or Google, which allows him to find what he needs to know. Despite this, Nicholas Carr questions whether Google has a positive impact on the way people take in information. In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr explores the internet’s impact on the way people read. He argues that the availability of so much information has diminished the ability to concentrate on reading, referencing stories of literary types who no longer have the capacity to sit down and read a book, as well as his own personal experiences with this issue. The internet presents tons of data at once, and it is Carr’s assumption that our brains will slowly become wired to better receive this information.

    Read More

  • Is Google Making USupid, By Steven Pinker And Nicholas Teenager

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    He claimed that before internet journals were so widespread that he immerse himself lengthy articles and book with no issues of his attention span shortening and drifting away. “My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and i’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose.” It is a little daring to say that the internet is essentially rewiring the human brain cognitive function. It’s fair to say that it is prohibiting the mind to think as complexly as it needs to because the information is so readily available now, but attaining information is not as lengthy as it used to be like having to go to the library for

    Read More

  • Overview: Kouider Mohktari’s The Impact of Internet and Television Use on the Reading Habits and Practices of College Students

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Kouider Mohktari’s “The Impact of Internet and Television Use on the Reading Habits and Practices of College Students”, he and two other authors (Carla A. Reichard and Anne Gardner) briefly argue and discuss how technology (like television and the internet) affects how the American adult reads. They went further into the subject and decided to study the reading habits of college students in the education system of today. There haven’t been many studies on the habits of college students, which is one reason why Mokhtari decided to study it. The reading skills of Americans are decreasing as each year passes. While I am a very avid user of the internet, and I do watch quite a bit of television, I also spend a fair amount of time reading.

    Read More

  • Essay One

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    Outside of using the Internet to “enhance” our mind, Carr has also made the point that it is a daily involvement. We incorporate it in our everyday lives, because it is a source of entertainment or serves as some type of convenience for us. Carr supports his claims by including personal experiences with the Internet of others. Scott Karp who was literature major in college, admitted to Carr that he has stopped reading books altogether (732). Karp now prefers to read everything online.

    Read More

  • The Internet: Is it Helping or Hurting Us

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...he Internet has altered the way we see text and how we read it. The computer or smartphone provides us with so many distractions and alternatives. When we get caught up in hyperlinks and our minds become hungry to find out new information. Before we know it we could spend hours and hours on YouTube looking up funny videos and get none of our homework done. If we isolate ourselves in a room with just a book or a newspaper we are likely to just focus on the book and comprehend a lot more because that is all we can do. We are just too lazy to read a whole book when we can just find out about it on the Internet. The Internet allows us to have fast access to simplified information. Instead of pushing ourselves to read the whole book we go for the easy way out, like Nicholas Carr said. I have experienced this first hand and that is why I agree so strongly with him.

    Read More

  • Mind Over Mass Social Media, By Steven Pinker

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Steven Pinker states that “search engines lower our intelligence, encouraging us to skim on the surface of knowledge …” (1). Many students are not reading their assigned books anymore. Sparknotes and other web sites such as Shmoop have provided students with resources which are not useful. Students’ skim through these sites to read books. Most of the websites gives students’ plot summaries which are from another person’s take on that book .This damages the student 's’ chances of actually reading and understanding a book and having their own opinion .The 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

    Read More

  • Is Google Making Us Stupid?

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    In an era where all of the world’s information is readily available at our fingertips, it is difficult to imagine what life was like before the Internet. Today. people get anxiety attacks at the thought of a slow wireless connection. God forbid a webpage takes five minutes to load; we are left with rage and disappointment. Is the Internet making people stupid? Despite the fact that research on the detrimental effects of the Internet is still young, there is no doubt that the Internet is changing the way one thinks, but it is not necessarily making one “dumber.” What it is doing, however, is bringing to light some bad habits that are affecting the way we process information. The Internet is making us lazy and unable to memorize information.

    Read More

  • Technology Is Changing Education

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Impact of the Internet on Schools

    752 Words  | 2 Pages

    New books and research studies are posted on the Internet daily for the world to read. In the past, if you were from a poor school or a sheltered community that banded books from school libraries, you may not be able to read some important information. Making the student that had the opportunity to read and learn this new information better educated than a person who did not have the same books on their school library shelves. The author of the article The internet as a classroom explains this fact when she says, "We have arrived at a new moment in history: a moment in which such terms as class, race, gender, sexuality, nationality and ideology are no longer useful" (Hendricks). This statement applies to education because information can be found on any subject on the web.

    Read More

  • The Future of Reading

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...wan believes, one of the best things about our digital lives is the ease with which we can share ideas with others. It is now possible for readers to connect with each other worldwide, as well as recommend and share their opinions about a particular piece of literature. Our need to engage in “deep reading” will not go away, as Rosen believes. The act of how we read may evolve as it has been evolving since beginning of mankind. How we read and write has evolved from cave walls to stone tablets to paper to keyboards. The digital world will not change what we read, but how we read. Because the experience of reading, the love of narrative, and cravings for story-telling is instilled into our DNA. Reading is a basic human need, it is evolutionary. Even though our means of attaining information or story telling may change, the act of reading is literally forever-lasting.

    Read More

  • Internet in Schools

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    Internet needs to be in the classrooms of schools in the new millennium. If you can’t get on and surf the internet by yourself then you are looked down upon. The internet is the new big thing, it’s technology at it’s best. That’s why we must keep our students in schools educated and updated with it, the internet has endless possibilities. Students would never run out of information for their reports in school, they can either go to the library and look for the information they need and hope that the book they need is not checked out, which could take up to a couple of hours. While on the internet you can find the information in the matter of minutes. Many books are outdated and you would be lucky to check one out if everybody in the class is doing the same report! The internet keeps up with current information coming in every day of the week. I don’t think students abusing their time on the internet is a problem, I think we need teachers or someone to monitor where they are going on the internet. There are programs advisors can download that can block out any material not suitable for students at schools.

    Read More

  • The Internet In Classrooms

    1925 Words  | 4 Pages

    their dorm room or apartment is sit down at their computer and go online. They proceed to either, read their e-mail, check their online courses for new assignments, or go on one of the many communication websites or programs that are available currently to this generation. None of this would be possible without the readily available Internet access that we often take for granted. The Internet has proven not only useful for entertainment purposes, but has also dramatically changed the educational approach, for both students and educators, and the way knowledge is being obtained.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Internet Reading

Open Document