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) effect how the American adult reads. They go 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. An example of Mokhtari’s idea is shown even here; some people also cannot immediately restate what the might have just read, indicating our attention is elsewhere almost constantly. Another finding states that people who spend long amounts of time on the internet spend less time socializing with friends and family members. However there is a contradiction to this, studies have also found that people use the internet to finish tasks quickly and free up time to spend on other activities. This contradiction, or the “displacement hypothesis” may play a part in how the study of college students goes.
Very few studies have been done to address the issue of how media affects reading habits affects college aged students. However the few that have been done seem to contradict each other tremendously. Some studies proved that excessive television watching can lead to lower reading levels, while another study said television watching did not affect the way a person reads. This seems to say that either ther...
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... uses more time because of these distractions. Mokhtari also thinks students internet use abilities vary greatly. Some use the internet differently, and so many don’t seem to use the internet to its full potential. In the end, this could tie into how the internet affects how a college students reads or studies.
Works Cited Page
Mokhtari, Kouider, Carla A. Reichard, and Anne Gardner. "The Impact of Internet and
Television Use on the Reading Habits and Practices of College Students." Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy (2009): n. pag. Print.
Finding a definition of literacy is not as easy as it sounds. The Webster definition says that to be literate is to be” able to read and write.” But to some researchers, this definition is too simplistic, leading to multiple models of literacy. Most Americans adhere to the autonomous model, which falls closest to the standard, dictionary definition. Believers in this form say that literacy is a cognitive activity that students learn like any other basic skill. It has a set of proficiencies that one must master in order to be capable of decoding and encoding text (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). A competing theory is the ideological model, which claims literacy is intrinsically linked to culture, and therefore what constitutes a “literate” individual is ever-changing. Society is the largest influence on literacy, according to this thought, and it is affected by politics, religion, philosophy and more (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). These two are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, some studies recognize “literacy as competence,” which is a “measure of competence to do a given task or work in a given field,” (SIL International, 1999) such as being computer literate. Although more researchers are recognizing and exploring multiple literacies, the one that most influences American schools is the autonomous, cognitive model – the ability to read and write. For many, it seems a simple task, but millions of adolescents are struggling or reluctant readers, and there are many reasons why young readers have difficulty with reading. XXXXXX------NEED HELP WITH THESIS STATEMENT HERE PLEASE—(This paper will focus on the effects of low reading skills, some of the possible causes of reluctant and struggling readership...
In the article,“Multitasking is actually kind of a problem for kids and adults” by Hayley Tsukayama the author went into detail about how parents and their children view their personal media habits. One of the ways that the parents and children viewed their media habits as was feeling the need to respond to texts and notifications immediately. “More than 1,200 parents and teens surveyed, 48 percent of parents and 72 percent of teens said they felt the need to respond to texts and notifications immediately, almost guaranteeing distractions throughout the day” (Tsukayama). This article can be connected to “The Epidemic of Media Multitasking While Learning” both of the articles discussed the different factors of media multitasking among individuals. The article from The Washington Post website gave great insight on multitasking and rather it is bad for students when it comes to learning. I believe that the issue being discussed is very relevant because if students are easily distracted by technology while in their learning environment it results in them not learning
Reading is on the decline and our reading skills are declining right along with the amount of reading we do. This is happening right across the board through both genders, all age groups and education levels, people are busy and they just do not have time to read books that they are not required to read for school or work. There are serious consequences to this neglect of reading that will continue to worsen if ignored. We need to take notice of what is happening to our culture and stop this situation from continuing, we must act to correct these issues that we are faced with. These things are discussed in the essay “Staying Awake’’ by Ursula K. Le Guin who uses the NEA essays “To Read or Not to Read’’ and “Reading at Risk’’ to support her argument that there is a decline in the amount of time that we are spending on reading and our ability to understand what it is that we are reading.
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
Carr concedes, saying that his internet theory cannot be based on anecdotes alone, but he is convinced Karp is on to something. According to the study done by College London, people spend most of their time skimming internet articles. Participants hopped from one site to anoth...
According to www.telegraph.co.uk, “[y]oung people aged between 16 and 24 spend more than 27 hours a week on the internet.” Certainly this much internet usage would have an effect on someone. What exactly is the effect of using the internet too much? Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that we are too reliant on the internet and it is making the us dim-witted and shortens our attention span. While Clive Thompson’s article “Smarter than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better” states that technology is not only a collection of knowledge, it also a method of sharing and recording our own knowledge. I fall between both Carr and Thompson. I agree with car on his points of us being too reliant on the internet but disagree when he states that it is making us less intelligent. Meanwhile, I also support Thompson’s statement that the internet allows us to assimilate vast amounts of knowledge but disagree with his opinion on how we should be reliant on
Students may easily lose their attention and concentration with easy access to such incredibly rich store of information. With such new technologies as television, internet and social networks, people nowadays tend to multitask more often as they have easy access to a large amount of information. However, such easy access may sometimes be a distraction. Study “Your Brain on Computers” reports that heavy multitaskers perform up to 20% worse on most tests compared to performance of light multitaskers. Working efficiency of people, who multitask, is claimed to be significantly lower. The same is with concentration. (Crovitz 353) As a result, they are not engaged in working process. Students tend to be easily distr...
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
In elementary and middle school we did all of our work on printed articles or books, but now in high school and college everything is online. I feel that I was a stronger reader and had better study habits when I read print and now that we read online it has affected me negatively. Although reading online or finding information online may be easier, I feel as if it has made me lazy and has shortened my attention span.
In “The Closing of the American Book,” published in the New York Times Magazine, Andrew Solomon argues about how the decline of literary reading is a crisis in national health, politics, and education. Solomon relates the decline of reading with the rise of electronic media. He believes that watching television and sitting in front of a computer or a video screen instead of reading can cause the human brain to turn off, and lead to loneliness and depression. He also argues that with the decrease of reading rates, there will no longer be weapons against “absolutism” and “terrorism,” leading to the United States political failure in these battles. The last point Solomon makes is that there is no purpose behind America being one of the most literate societies in history if people eradicate this literacy, and so he encourages everyone to help the society by increasing reading rates and making it a “mainstay of community.” Solomon tries to show the importance of reading in brain development and he encourages people to read more by emphasizing the crisis and dangers behind the declination of reading.
Carr explains how the internet can distract us making it harder to focus on tasks. He explains how processing information has become harder. Notifications, ads, popups can make it difficult if you are trying to read an article or book (Carr 57). The internet has become the center of our attention (Carr 57). Carr is explaining how this is the reason why we are struggling to comprehend a certain piece of information. He adds in his article that scientists, researchers and educators have also noticed the difference in concentration. And in further detail, he explains that we fail to see the important information, thus affecting cognition. He says that the information we gather is not valuable unless we know the meaning behind it. Carr concludes with explaining that the more the internet evolves the less valuable information is to
The one of the most shocking discovery was made by this table was the difference of internet usage between college degree and non-college degree people. People who has college degree has 5 times more internet usage than the people with non- college degree. Based on that article the college degree student has 7 times more like hood of enjoying the internet than the one with high school degree. We find that likelihood of person having internet at home fall down 5 percent each year increase in his or her age. In 2002-2008 period men has 30 percent les likelihood than woman having internet access at home.
Social network sites is often an easy distraction tool disturbing you when you are supposed to be doing your homework or studies. Many students believe they are capable of multitasking and finishing their work with cohesive and logical connections. Netherlands psychologist Paul A. Kirschnera of the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies at the Open University of the Netherlands and Aryn C. Karpinskib of Ohio State University conducted a study examining 219 U.S. university students. Kirschnera found that Facebook users typically had a grade point average of 3.06 while non-users had a grade point average of 3.82. Kirschnera states that he isn’t trying to demonize Facebook, but demonstrate the distracting nature of social network sites (Daily Mail). Students fail to complete their studies and/or homework with cohesive thought because some students give themselves a limit in completing work instead of completing the work as a whole. In the Frontline documentary film Digital Nation, Rachel Dretzin says the following in front of a small group of s...
Childhood overexposure to television can cause a detrimental effect on reading skills and behavior. Bar-on (2000) states, “The exposure of American children and adolescents to television continues to exceed the time they spend in the classroom: 15,000 hours versus 12,000 hours by the time they graduate.” (p. 289) Children are more vulnerable than adults, to the influences of the behaviors that they view. The pediatrics association estimates that for every hour a child under two spends in front of a screen, he or she spends about fifty minutes less interacting with a parent, and about ten percent less time in creative play. (Carey, 2011, p. 2) Although there have been some studies that found some prosocial and educational benefits, significant research has shown there are a lot more negative effects. (Bar-on, 2000, p. 289) This paper will describe in detail the effects that can be caused from too much television.
It is clear that students in high school and college have different reading habits. Their surrounding mainly influences this nature, which then affects their attitudes, and reading culture. Reading has also been evolving from books to e-books and audio that people are embracing and trying to keep the reading culture alive. College life may present several challenges to keep the habit alive, but it is all about time management and finding time to grow that sphere of one’s life. High school students on the other hand, have the time plus a lot of pressure that is not only from teachers, but also emotional based on the adolescence during those years. Both students in college and in high school need to know the importance of developing a reading culture and try to maintain one.