Irma Villarreal
Professor Werry
RWS 100
11/17/15
What Should We Think?
Society’s opinion about what are the side effects that the Internet may have in our brains is concerning plenty of people. Many individuals believe that it is becoming a matter in question in our daily life because it consumes our time while others argue that it helps us to open our thoughts and develop new ideas. In the articles “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, “Its Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens” by Danah Boyd and “Public Thinking” by Clive Thompson, both authors Thompson and Boyd are in the same position about how technology have helped us to improve. On the contrary, Nicholas Carr states that the Internet does not help us at all; his reason to believe this idea is that we do not concentrate on one thing at a time, because we think that we can accomplish and learn many things without focusing just in one. Carr argues that while being around cellphones and different types of mobile technologies connected to the Internet, people abilities to concentrate and contemplate are chipping away. Carr completely disagrees with both of these authors, and argues that the Internet is ruining our brains. In this paper I will challenge Nicholas Carr argument to demonstrate how the Internet is actually doing positive things in our lives; I also will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these three articles.
The Internet encourages public thinking and resolves multiple tasks in a shorter amount of time. Nicholas Carr statement is that “The more we use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.”(2) If people cannot focus on what they are reading because of their cellphones or other type of technologies around them, they cannot simply blame the Internet about it. If they really need to get focused they should just shut down that distraction so they can fully understand their reading. Thompson states, “People who are talking and writing and working on the same thing often find one another, trade ideas and collaborate.”(61) He states as an example of his argument that on the seventeenth century scientists intuited the power of resolving multiples and they began publishing journals and setting standards for citing the similar work for other scientists. In my opinion this example shows how instead of making us unable to focus on more than one thing while connected to the Internet; it really helps us to improve and develop new ideas. My position is that the Internet and social media are generally improving the way people read, write also the way they think. Like Thompson, I believe that the Internet is providing us with new opportunities; also I do not think all the writing we do is poor. In the article “Mind Over Mass Media” by Steven Pinker the author stated “These days scientists are never far from their e-mail, rarely touch paper and cannot lecture without PowerPoint.”(1) This statement agrees with Clive Thompson’s argument while saying that instead of making us struggle the Internet is actually getting out the best of us.
Social media is making our lives easier and it is not necessary to learn technical skills that the early Internet adoption requires. Carr on the other hand argues, “It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense…it almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.”(2) I think that people can read fast with the purpose of finishing an assignment, but this is not just a matter for reading online, this issue continues when reading a book or a long article posted on the Internet. In the article “Talking With Your Fingers” posted by John Mcwhorter, the author asserts, “Just as humans can function in multiple languages, they can also function in multiple kinds of language.”(15) Mcwhorter agrees with Danah Boyd argument while stating that when someone texts or reads in a different form of writing, does not mean they are unable to use the formal writing. I agree with Boyd when she argues that we need to give young people instruction in how to use technology so they can fully understand it and not just pretend. Now it is normal for us to have two kinds of writing, the formal context which is the one we have learned at school, and the informal context which is, after all the most used. Boyd argues, “Teens acquire many technological skills through extensive experimentation with social media and curiosity-driven exploration. Because teens turn to these services to socialize with peers, they often gain the skills that are part of informal social learning” (197) This is an example of how people can be formal and informal at the same time, writing with grammatical errors does not mean that we are not capable of learning or that the Internet is making us struggle.
The fact that people use the Internet does not mean their brains cannot analyze things as well as those who do not use it. Technology is helping people to succeed in many ways; they are opening their minds to share new ideas while writing through devices connected to the Internet. Nicholas Carr states, “…As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.”(7) It is not quite coherent the idea of making our brains artificial just because we utilize the Internet in our own convenience. This statement is making us unable to comprehend as well as others by this idea of making the Internet a bad thing for our society. Boyd asserts, “Government agencies viewed technology—and the internet in particular—as playing a critical role in economic opportunities.”(193) The previous sentence shows as an example how experts agree with the fact that the Internet is making us a better person. Clive Thompson states, “They are writing so much more than students before them ever did…” (67) He supports the idea of teenagers using technology because he thinks since the Internet came along students started to write more. In the article “Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies” by Howard Rheingold the author disagrees with Nicholas Carr statement which is that the Internet is a negative impact in our society, he states “Today’s media enable people to inform, persuade, and influence the beliefs of others and, most important, help them to organize action on all scales.”(4) By stating this, the author completely agrees with both Boyd and Thompson, they argue that technology is something positive rather than negative. On the other hand Nicholas Carr does not agree with them because his beliefs are that while being surrounded by technology people cannot concentrate and their brains do not function as well as before.
To conclude, I agree with both authors Thompson and Boyd with their argument of technology making a positive impact in our lives. I also think that Nicholas Carr should add to his argument how technology have helped us in many aspects as well as he included all the negative comments about it. I believe that Boyd and Thompson’s arguments are correct; technology is something easy to learn since we are young, and also something we can work with until we grow old. Everybody can learn the same even though their ages are different, I also think that the Internet makes people write more and develop more ideas. In my opinion technology have not ruined our brains, people around technology have more opportunities than those who are not. People can get focused on more than one thing at a time because our brain has the capacity to do so. I think that maybe people cannot remember everything they are working on or trying to learn, but the important facts will get in our memory all the time. If we have problems on concentrating and remembering thins it is not fault of technology, we have to learn the skills to process more than one thing at a time. I completely disagree with Nicholas Carr arguments about the negative impact that the Internet have had in our society.
Work Cited
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Atlantic Online. (2008): 1-7. Web. Retrieved 2015, from https://rws100wiki.pbworks.com
Boyd, Danah. “Its Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.” Online Social Networks. (2014): 176-198. Web. Retrieved 2015, from https://rws100wiki.pbworks.com
Thompson, Clive. “Public Thinking.” Online. Smarter Than You Think. (2013): 44-82. Web. Retrieved 2015, from https://rws100wiki.pbworks.com
Pinker, Steven. “Mind Over Mass Media.” NY Times. (2010): 1-2. Web. Retrieved 2015, from https://rws100wiki.pbworks.com
Mcwhorter, John. “Talking With Your Fingers.” NY Times. (2012): Web. Retrieved 2015, from https://rws100wiki.pbworks.com
Howard, Rheingold. “Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies.” Vol. 45, no.5. (2010): 14-24. Web. Retrieved 2015, from https://rws100wiki.pbworks.com
irmavilla 