...having read the essay, “Does the Internet Make You Smarter?*”, I was immediately overwhelmed with thoughts about this particular topic. Clay Shirky, the writer of this essay, approaches this topic in a very comparative manner. He points out how the bulk of publicly available digital media being created by amateurs in today’s world, is comparable to the way the invention of the printing press made it possible for the flood of mediocre at best, contemporary literature to circulate. I will give you my summarized interpretation of Shirky’s essay and evaluate both sides to this argument. The argument being made here is that since anybody with computer access can type and upload digital media, is the information quality becoming more and more questionable as time passes? In the 16th century, foes of print never imagined that new norms would be built around all this newly abundant contemporary literature. Shirky says, “Novels, newspapers, scientific journals, the separation of fiction and non-fiction, all these innovations were created during the collapse of the scribal system, and all had the effect of increasing, rather than decreasing, the intellectual range and output of society.” We are living through a very similar experience due to the power of the internet. As humans, we have a vast cognitive surplus. In the 20th century, we used a lot of our free time watching TV. Now we have started to devote a large portion of our time to the internet. It took over 100 million...
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...Does the internet make you smarter or dumber? There is a complex debate over the internet and whether it is making society smarter or dumber for that matter. The debate focuses on the internet and the intellectuality of individuals and if the internet hinders or is progressing society as a whole. Some critics argue that the internet contributes to the decline of our mental state. On the other hand, others argue the internet promotes and encourages literacy. Is the collective intelligence gained by accessing and using the internet and social media making us a more intellectual society? The answer is found in many skewed viewpoints and opinions. In Nicholas Carr's article in the Wall Street Journal, "does the internet make you dumber", he makes numerous rhetorical appeals to Ethos to establish credibility or the "trust me" appeal. The Ethos appeal of this article produces an appeal towards the author by providing information the author is credible and knowledgeable. Mr. Carr identifies scientific studies suggesting this in not only his opinion, but statistically proven by evidence collected. Mr. Carr also relates to the Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist, Eric Kandel as well as Roman Philosopher Seneca. He also refers to the Cornell study and Stanford study which applies to Ethos as well as Logos. Additionally, Nicholas Carr uses rhetorical appeals to Logos or reason by referring in his article the internet to being "shallow". Mr. Carr uses this sense of reason...
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...Introduction Nicholas Carr’s 2010 article titled “Does the Internet Make You Dumber” is an attempt to shadow the usefulness of the internet as a whole in a negative light. This short article, originally published in the Wall Street Journal, makes a fervid bid to discredit the internet and persuade individuals that we as a society were smarter before we began relying so heavily on the internet as an avenue to gain information. Carr manages to adequately present and support his very one-sided view of the argument without attempting to make room for a counter argument at all. I personally am of the opinion that Carr is being short sighted; he is beginning with a conclusion and bending the narrative to support his point of view. Summary It is a difficult task to summarize Carr’s article while including the sort of emotional one-sidedness he presents in the full text of the article. The short article is packed with references to studies performed by prominent universities and research groups, all of which contend that the internet is stripping the ability to think critically out of our minds today. This really is the main point of Carr’s article which he seems to circle around and come back to frequently; our ability, as a whole society, to think critically is perceived as being diminished and this will the ruin of man. While Carr doesn’t specifically make this assertion directly in his article, he is circling the topic the entire time and in his concluding paragraph states:...
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...made us dumber. I watched the PBS debate titled Is Technology Making Us Smarter or Dumber?. I feel like team dumber made a couple great points on technology making us dumber. For example, they mentioned how Google caters it's search responses to what we have already searched. Google tells us what we want to hear. The bad thing is that because Google does this we can not open up our world views as easily. They argued that most people take what they see on the internet at face value and don't bother to see any deeper. They are basically saying that we are too lazy to research and don't bother to search beyond the first page of Google search results. Team dumber mentioned the GPS. One of the members mentioned how we rely...
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...favored pass time of many on the internet. The three major social network websites are Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. These three websites have the same basic purpose to connect to people but, they also have different options for the user. According to Bedford/ St. Martins, “Facebook is now the most popular social media website and one of the fastest-growing sites on the internet.” With Facebook arising in popularity many people are being able to connect with lost friends from their past, many families who live across the country will be able to share the special moments with their friends and family online in Facebook that they normally would not be able to do because of the distance. I have the same issue, I live in Texas and my sister lives in Michigan so the only way she can see pictures and videos of the kids is via Facebook. Even people from different countries are able to keep in touch with their families across the nations and overseas, the Facebook website offers a lot to the users by allowing you to connect with friends and family free of cost for the user. Facebook also offers games, horoscopes, and different activities to the users of the website. The advantages of facebook are you are able to connect to family and friends, you are able to share all your special moments, you can enjoy playing the games, and pass time with all the quizzes. The disadvantages of Facebook are you never know if the face you see on the profile is the person you are communicating with, many...
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...Paper Does Internet make you smarter The story of Nicolas Carr is about attention and distraction that we internet causes us. The difference between book reading and computer reading is quite noticeable. For example, while reading a book he or she might focus more, whereas, internet causes distraction to our mind while studying a subject. Pop-up windows, banners, emails notifications doesn't allow the brain to focus, as a result, we tend to memorize less. It is necessary to stay in a quiet place without distraction in order to progress with any subject. Internet can make you smarter if used properly, such as doing research and creditable database. We tend to believe what we read online versus reading the book. Forty Acres and a Gap in Wealth Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes how society equally Blacks and Whites has changed over decades. I believe it wasn't fear and not equal to have such a huge gap between African Americans and Whites rights. Blacks were in such poverty that cannot afford even to go to school. Very few Blacks could afford to own properties. However, the moral of the story is always remember where you came from and where your family started at. It is important to also understand how life was back than and how it is today. It also shows the end of middle-class to poverty discrimination between Blacks and the Whites. A Woman Alone with Her Soul A story “A woman is sitting alone with her soul” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich is quite short that makes one think...
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...After having read the essay, “Does the Internet Make You Smarter?*”, I was immediately overwhelmed with thoughts about this particular topic. Clay Shirky, the writer of this essay, approaches this topic in a very comparative manner. He points out how the bulk of publicly available digital media being created by amateurs in today’s world, is comparable to the way the invention of the printing press made it possible for the flood of mediocre at best, contemporary literature to circulate. I will give you my summarized interpretation of Shirky’s essay and evaluate both sides to this argument. The argument being made here is that since anybody with computer access can type and upload digital media, is the information quality becoming more and more questionable as time passes? In the 16th century, foes of print never imagined that new norms would be built around all this newly abundant contemporary literature. Shirky says, “Novels, newspapers, scientific journals, the separation of fiction and non-fiction, all these innovations were created during the collapse of the scribal system, and all had the effect of increasing, rather than decreasing, the intellectual range and output of society.” We are living through a very similar experience due to the power of the internet. As humans, we have a vast cognitive surplus. In the 20th century, we used a lot of our free time watching TV. Now we have started to devote a large portion of our time to the internet. It took over 100 million...
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...how technology is not making us stupid, but is actually making us smarter: “ The Internet and information technologies are helping is manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e- books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid these technologies are the only thing keeping us smart.”(Pinker). The constant updates that these devices are giving us are yes, more convenient but not making us stupid. Pinker believes that the technology is very much distracting, but not if the users have some self control. Pinker said “ Distraction is not a new phenomenon. The solution is not to bemoan technology but to develop strategies of self-control, as we do with every other temptation in life. Turn off email or Twitter when you work, put away your Blackberry at dinner time, ask your spouse to call you to bed at a designated hour.” He argues that although these devices can distract us and interfere sometimes, they can easily be shut off to allow full focus. It is the users of these devices who are at fault, not technologies. In the essay, Pinker is very much disagreeing with Carr. While Carr takes the other side and argues that technology is altering the way we think in a negative way causing us to skim through things and expect the obvious answers, Pinker believes that using technologies like PowerPoint and search engines are causing us to be smarter and gain more knowledge effectively faster. With every generation...
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...ABSTRACT Technology is developed to aid society in various ways. As time progresses so do advancements in technology. Technology has become mobile enough through smartphones and tablets that accessing the Internet and other applications instantly have become the norm. As these conveniences become expected by society there will be positive and negative impacts on the individual users. Keywords: smartphones impact society, advancing technology impact Technological advancements increase convenience for society. Computers allow users to keep data organized and available through various programs and the Internet. The launch of handheld, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets allow users to have instant access to these conveniences from anywhere. Though conveniences are often thought to have a positive impact on an individual’s life, sometimes they can take away essential skills or processes in everyday life that can be beneficial if the technology fails. Mobile technology obviously has its positives, if it didn’t it’s popularity would not be increasing as rapidly as it is. Technology in general helps to keep people better organized. Mobile technology can take it a step further in the fact that the user’s information will always be available to view or update. Advancing technology also offers the ability to sync all devices together so that the users information can be typed into one electronic and transferred to all the others. Another positive aspect about...
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...Robots are taking over jobs because they can perform them faster and better than humans. The increase in productivity due to mechanization and automation might create opportunities to remake societies, adapting them to the new technologies. This will reduce poverty and misery around the world, with the consequent decrease in the frequency of armed conflicts. The protection of our environment and our biosphere, for that matter, cannot be fully accomplished without the development of new, more advanced technologies. Technologies like the internet, for example, made it possible for billions of people to communicate and trade on a global scale. Some people believe that technology is negatively affecting our capacity for concentration and deep thought but in reality, we are not fully certain of that because we are not completely aware of how our brain react to the existent technologies or the introduction of new ones. New technologies have augmented our learning capacity, while making it easier for us to adapt to changes. So, we are not racing against the machines, but racing with the machines, in a man-machine symbiotic relationship toward a better...
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...Julie Diaz Writ101 September 23, 2012 Analytical Essay “Is Pop Culture Actually Good For You?” Popular culture which has been shortened to pop culture is defined as “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people.” (“pop culture”) Television, movies, music, art, the internet, famous people, sports, and politics are some of the major components that make up pop culture. As expected by the standards of society there is a profuse amount of controversy about pop culture being either good or bad for someone. In an email written to Schlessinger, the writer expresses that, “...teenager had been using very offensive swear words since the age of 5 when this person saw an R-rated movie” and “...teenager had started inhaling cocaine after seeing it done in a movie.” (Schlessinger) According to the writer, the above actions are a result of children being over exposed to pop culture. Yes, it is possible that the effect pop culture can have on children can be more profound since it influences their developing morals, but that does not rule out the possible effects it can have on adults as well. In his own experience Carr states that, “[He’s] not thinking the way [he] used to think...[he’d] spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now [his] concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages...” (Carr) So it can be concluded that pop culture has a way...
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...Since the beginning of computers and the internet, society has become very dependent upon them, wasting many hours browsing and suffering the different sources of the world wide web. According to Nicholas Carr, “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation. The toll can be particularly high with our intellectual technologies. The tools of the mind amplify and in turn numb the most intimate, the most human, of natural capacities- those for reason perception, memory, emotion”(211). What Carr is saying is that the internet causes the brain to be affected more than any other form of technology. With the invention of the printing press, books has had a major impact on the mind, but between that time and the invention of the internet, no other device has had the effect that the internet has. As society becomes more dependent upon the internet, researchers have discovered that the brain has changed the way a person reads, focuses, and performs certain activities, also the internet being the easiest place to gain any information it makes it number source...
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...1/14/2012 By: Raymond Price I. Introduction In today’s world technology has come a long way in helping people: examples of these ways are phones, medical, internet, science, machines, engineering, computers, and social media. Technology has made the world much easier place to live in. Not only has technology made the world easier to live in, it is now much safer and more comfortable than ever. The technology field is always making challenges for us to do as we grow towards more on a everyday basis. Technology has change us many ways too. The question to ask is. Why is Technology is so important us around the world? The phones that we use in our everyday life has become a lot smarter and become more easier to use in our home or we just out and about. We use this technology over a radio link or a wave and by this we move around a wide spread geographic area. There are some variety of service and some examples of these are text messaging, emails, sending pictures, and the last one is the best part of this is having internet access. The smart phones know days come with some software and application on them to use such as some examples of this are GPS navigation, MP4, MP3 playback, and the last one is a video recording. Why would you ask question to yourself is? How come this company’s are making the cell phones smarter for to use is to help us out if a problem that came up in our life such as example having wreck with your car. There are more business getting more smart...
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...Cloud Computing: A Brief Introduction The origin of the term cloud computing is obscure, but it appears to derive from the practice of using drawings of stylized clouds to denote networks in diagrams of computing and communications systems. The word cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the standardized use of a cloud-like shape to denote a network on telephony schematics and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. In the 1990s, telecommunications companies who previously offered primarily dedicated point-to-point data circuits, began offering virtual private network (VPN) services with comparable quality of service but at a much lower cost. By switching traffic to balance utilization as they saw fit, they were able to utilize their overall network bandwidth more effectively. The cloud symbol was used to denote the demarcation point between that which was the responsibility of the provider and that which was the responsibility of the users. Cloud computing extends this boundary to cover servers as well as the network infrastructure.[10] The underlying concept of cloud computing dates back to the 1950s; when large-scale mainframe became available in academia and corporations, accessible via thin clients / terminal computers. Because it was costly to buy a mainframe, it became important to find ways to get the greatest return on the investment in them, allowing multiple users...
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...Television Media Abstract Television is an amazing thing. Many years ago, we had a black and white screen with big knobs, as bulky as a microwave for a television. Now, with technology so advanced, we have it almost paper thin and we sit in front of it just mesmerized by what we watch on the screen. We watch anything from the news, to reality television, to educational programs, and so on. It’s such a powerful tool that can have a big influence on most consumers because most of us sit in front of it either when we are bored or just want to relax. It is a phenomenon that has allowed us to see the latest news, advertisements, the latest movies, or even the most up to date current events that is happening throughout the whole world. History of Television There are different Era’s of the televisions. Prior to the year 1935, it was called the Mechanical Television Era. It was the first generation and was not completely electronic which displayed a TV screen and it had a small motor with a spinning disc and neon lamp. (Bennett, 2001) First Media Advertisement in the United States In the United States, the first advertisement shown on the television was for Bulova and it had showed for 10 seconds and was placed before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The company paid only $9.00 for the advertisement. There are two main characteristics to television advertisement in the United States. The first task is to create a television...
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