...04/05/2012 Is internet really making us better off? Comparing Diana Schaub’s “Unfriending Friendship” and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nowadays it can be considered a general fact that the internet helps people in various ways, not only at work, but also in their personal lives. Most people see the internet and social networks as an enormous asset to their everyday life. However, according to Diana Schaub in her essay, “Unfriending friendship,” and Nicholas Carr in his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” the internet and social media also causes negative effects on our everyday life. Even though these two essays, both written around the year 2010, have different topics and there are certainly differences in the authors’ writing styles, they still have some similarities. These two essays share a similar theme: that the internet and social media diminish our human capabilities to think and make friends. Some differences occur in how Carr and Schaub approach their readers’, one author uses personal examples and the other shows differences in word meanings. In Carr’s article, he includes his own examples to show readers how the internet has changed his capability of reading longer texts; now his attention span has greatly decreased because he is used to short style of text on the internet. At the beginning of Carr’s essay there is a short part of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Oddyssey which Carr uses to show readers how far we have come with technology. Carr...
Words: 1100 - Pages: 5
...In our society today, mass media and the fast growing rate of technological advancement has made a major impact on the loss of humanity's intelligence. Yet, the solution to this theory can be answered and argued about in various ways. In the essays, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and “Mind Over Mass Media” the Authors share their opinions on the impacts that technology advancement and mass media have made within the following amount of recent years. For example, in the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Author, Nicholas Carr, who is a much known writer and also finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, discusses how his level of thinking has changed due to using technology. He also supports all of his evidence that he discusses throughout his essay...
Words: 1082 - Pages: 5
...In this essay by Carr Nicholas “ Is Google Making Us Stupid” and published by The Atlantic in JULY/AUGUST 2008 ISSUE. Carr’s main point in his essay is that internet is making us dumb. He states, “ The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr 315). I may agree with his argument but also i would also have a disagreement because internet does help in many cases but not all the time. Many people use google to find what they want, although we may feel like google is the answer to everything. Sometimes that goes to show that we as a society are so use to technology that we don’t even bother trying to look for an answer reading a book. Using the internet “Google” also has advantages, making a research much faster than going to the library reading books all day. Carrs points out how he used to read long articles with no problem. Now he can’t anymore he says “Now my concentration often starts to drift two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread,...
Words: 585 - Pages: 3
...Ilona Apelsinov September 13th, 2015 Weekly essay #1 What is the point of music? Why do people listen to music and often tend to not understand what the lyrics are? Why do we like to listen to something we don't understand or is not inspirational? There are people in this world that like some songs for no apparent reason either because the beat is catchy or just because everyone likes it. Philosophically it is not possible to like a song for no reason because there is always a reason for our actions. For something not to have a reason, it is an action without thought. But since liking something has an idea behind it, it is impossible to like something without reasons. When you like something, it is like an emotion because emotions are caused by reasons. Everyone has reasons for liking songs, some are fond of their likings and some are not. That is why some people admit to liking the songs they listen to and some just keep it to themselves. Therefore, liking something for no reason is impossible. From my experience, I tend to listen to the songs that sound catchy. I have many reasons why I like the songs that I listen to because they are either catchy, have significant lyrics that have meanings behind them or because the words that are being sung in the song connects with the situations that I might be dealing with. People use some songs to express their emotions when they can't explain it by using their own words. For example, the song "Trap Queen"...
Words: 685 - Pages: 3
...Introduction When was the last time you held still and read the same book or article for thirty minutes, an hour, two? Living in a modern world means many great inventions filled with interesting information all at the touch of a screen. Anything a person can think of can be “Googled” and thousands of results will come up in a near instant; Google even helpfully informs how long it takes to retrieve the information. With so much material at one’s fingertips the possibilities are endless. In his paper Nicholas Carr addresses the issue, how much of this information is processed by the brain and how much do we surf past like a wave in the ocean? Summary In his essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” author and member of Encyclopedia of Britannica’s...
Words: 1603 - Pages: 7
...Assessment Essay p. 5-10 College Learning Essay p. 11-17 Analyzing Arguments Essay p. 18-23 Cover Letter This midterm portfolio shows how I have progressed has a college reader and writer. Before this class I had trouble even understanding how to write a thesis and now I think I can definitely write a college level thesis. I have progressed to know how to incorporate my evidence into my concise and focused thesis statement. For example in the self assessment essay my thesis was, “Due to transferring to many schools over my first two years of college, I feel like I have had the opportunity to build up many habits of mind from Framework for Success in Post-Secondary Writing, especially in flexibility, openness and persistence but still can develop in metacognition and creativity in order to become a more successful college writer.” This showed that I could adapt a thesis to the assignment and it was focused and used my sources. At this point in the semester, a strength I have is the ability to connect source evidence with my thesis. I am able to develop my focused thesis around source-based evidence. For example in the college learning essay I was able to use my interview with my friend who was an elementary teacher to help develop my thesis about how teaching has changed due to technology. I also think another strength I have is organizing my paper in a proper order. In the three essays in this portfolio I organized the essays with...
Words: 4843 - Pages: 20
...Melbrooksjew 10/28/2014 Argumentative Essay “Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking- perhaps even a new sense of self”(Carr, P.g 2). The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the internet is doing to our brains”, is an interesting article written by critically acclaimed author Nicholas Carr. Nicholas Carr speaks upon how the internet is losing one's ability to concentrate on large physical texts or regular literature, and trading this ability for quick, to the point, internet articles and information. But this trade off is considering as without the ability to concentrate on literature, ones ability to critically analyze and have deep, thought provoking thoughts on what the person has read is suffered immensely. The main thesis that Nicholas Carr demonstrates throughout the article is “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy in a Jet Ski.” ( Carr. P.g 1). Nicholas Carr’s thesis explains that before we were all introduced and influenced by the internet, we were able to understand the physical text in front of us. We were able to have deep, critical thoughts that almost felt like an adventure. But now, do to the Internets speed and wealth of information, we don’t...
Words: 1450 - Pages: 6
...A Trip to Grand Rapids - Essay In the short story, ‘a trip to Grand Rapids’ by Garrison Keillor in 1987, the main topic is family, where we are getting to know about the conflict and how it is to realize when your children are getting older and more independent. Roger Hedlund, his wife Cindy and their two daughters, Cathy and Martha Hedlund are living at a farm in Lake Wobegon with their new black kitten, a dog named Oscar and some hens and chickens. Roger Hedlund is a strict man and kind of like “his words is law” type of person and he is conscious of it. “You don’t? No? Well. I don’t know either,” She said. “I was hoping you’d know. You’re always so – so-“ “Strict?” (Line 87-89) Here we can see that he is aware of him being so strict. But I don’t think he really is as tough as he tries to be, for example at the beginning of the text, when he orders Martha’s new little black kitten to spend the night outside. Here I think Roger wants appear tough on the outside, but really is softer on the inside and that’s why he ends up in the middle of the night looking for the kitten because he feels pity for it. I will say that this is one of the signs about Roger’s honor and pride. He doesn’t want anybody to know that he gets pity over a “stupid” kitten. So when Martha says it’ll be easier if it just stays inside, he immediately agrees, which she didn’t seem to expect, so without notice she continues to try and convince him, even though he already agreed to...
Words: 623 - Pages: 3
...Mountains are tall. If you are stupid enough to jump off one you fall fast and you land hard. The five-paragraph theme is my mountain and I have just jumped right off it. There don't seem to be any outcroppings to grab for, and my assignment is to discuss my cliff as I continue to drop from it. So I will not grab. I will let myself fall, and hope for pillows at the end. I feel lost without my introduction to conclusion formula started at the beginning of this paper. Why do I have to do this assignment? Oh, I understand that I need to break a mold that has been added to, layer upon dreadful layer, for the past eight years or so. The only problem isHOW? I think that what I am feeling is not unique to me, and that the instructor will more than likely read these same words a dozen times in other fonts. I do not want to spend my entire paper feeling sorry for myself and wasting paper complaining that the answer to my question is not right under my nose. I would pity my reader. I would also hope that I am a stronger writer than that. Strong writers should be able to get beyond the theme. I propose that the theme is no more than a weak writer's response to demands tired English teachers put on them, or a Lazy Writer's cop out. The theme is easy. We know how it works and we crank it out like so many machines. My question is this: what normal everyday Joe in his right mind would not take the easy route to writing a paper? There is no reason to make things harder than they have...
Words: 1134 - Pages: 5
...of the family drama as well. Christina sneaks out and does not come home until three in the morning; she also sneaks people in and usually is very loud at night when Kirra is trying to sleep. Kirra also suffers from several health conditions, such as cyst in her ovaries and high blood pressure. Every month it seems that she is in and out of the hospital trying to discover what is causing the high blood pressure. On top of Kirra’s toxic home life and also her health issues Kirra does not have it easy at school either, when she was in fourth grade she had a teacher call her stupid and worthless and told her she would never amount to anything. hurt Kirra because she is nowhere near a straight A student. She constantly studies for test and come test time she fails the test. During class she has a hard time staying focused and following along with the class notes. She always complains that the teacher goes to fast, which makes her...
Words: 1563 - Pages: 7
...including Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys (1995), the introduction of which is included here. Despite its title, "Guys vs. Men" is not a comparative study of these two basic types of males. Men and manhood have been written about far too much already, says Barry. But guys and guyhood are neglected topics, and even though he "can't define exactly what it means to be a guy," Barry's essay lays out "certain guy characteristics" that distinguish his quarry from other warm-blooded animals in the field. ______________________________________________________________________________ This is a book about guys. It's not a book about men. There are already way too many books about men, and most of them are way too serious. Men itself is a serious word, not to mention manhood and manly. Such words make being male sound like a very important activity, as opposed to what it primarily consists of, namely, possessing a set of minor and frequently unreliable organs. But men tend to attach great significance to Manhood. This results in certain characteristically masculine, by which I mean stupid, behavioral patterns that can produce unfortunate results such as violent crime, war, spitting, and ice hockey. These things have given males a bad name. And the "Men's Movement," which is supposed to bring out the more positive aspects of Manliness, seems to be densely populated with loons and goobers. So I'm saying that there's another way to look at males: not as aggressive macho...
Words: 2080 - Pages: 9
...A Catcher in the Rye: Essay!!! Feelings are difficult, everyone who has ever experienced; love, pain, rejection, happiness etc. honestly doesn’t know what is causing that feeling or why they feel that way. We react to events with things called emotions, which are types of feelings; they are pretty different from things that happen to you physically. They can make you feel empowered, beat up, stupid, important and many other things. Physical feelings basically go just as fast as they came. Whereas, mental feelings linger and have much more of an effect on how you look at yourself as a person. They can weigh on your mind for hours, days, sometimes even years. This is why being able to talk to people is important. You need to be able to express yourself with confidence. Mainly because if you don’t know how to talk to someone you won’t be able to speak about how you feel and will eventually drive yourself mad. But the important thing is that we speak to the ones who build us up and not knock us down. We never really find out who or what type of people they are until they reject us in our time of need, and then we recognize their true colors. In this novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden has this MAJOR mixture of emotions that he simply cannot handle alone. First off pick the time and correct place to be venting to someone about your feelings so that they aren’t overly shocked by what you are telling them. What Holden could have done, considering he has been getting “the axe”...
Words: 1273 - Pages: 6
...is the author of twenty-three humor books, including Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys (1995), the introduction of which is included here. Despite its title, "Guys vs. Men" is not a comparative study of these two basic types of males. Men and manhood have been written about far too much already, says Barry. But guys and guyhood are neglected topics, and even though he "can't define exactly what it means to be a guy," Barry's essay lays out "certain guy characteristics" that distinguish his quarry from other warm-blooded animals in the field. This is a book about guys. It's not a book about men. There are already way too many books about men, and most of them are way too serious. Men itself is a serious word, not to mention manhood and manly. Such words make being male sound like a very important activity, as opposed to what it primarily consists of, namely, possessing a set of minor and frequently unreliable organs. But men tend to attach great significance to Manhood. This results in certain characteristically masculine, by which I mean stupid, behavioral patterns that can produce unfortunate results such as violent crime, war, spitting, and ice hockey. These things have given males a bad name. And the "Men's Movement," which is supposed to bring out the more positive aspects of Manliness, seems to be densely populated with loons and goobers. So I'm saying that there's another way to look at males: not as aggressive macho dominators; not as sensitive, liberated, hugging...
Words: 2092 - Pages: 9
...Cedar Behnke Lisa Martin (please give me a A+) English 111-(green) 21 April 2016 Technology and How It Helps People Read Better Most people use or have used technology, and even many of them using tech daily, hourly, or more often. Even with the large amount of people who use technology, they don’t commonly think about if or how technology is affecting us, but recently, the effects of technology on reading have come up and been debated if they are either mostly positive or negative. A comprehensive view of what technology does to our reading retention, access to information, speed of reading, new and struggling readers, perception of good work, lateral reading, and a person’s relationship with reading is important to come up with a solid conclusion. Why does knowing the effects matter? They are important for humanity, if they are negative people need to know how to prevent them; and if positive, then how to use them more for humanity’s benefit. While National Endowment for the Arts argues that people are reading full works less in their free time, and Nicholas Carr argues that the internet is making people lose the ability to read long articles, the effects of technology on reading are mostly positive because the ease of reading laterally is more accessible, helps struggling readers to learn, and promotes people to read more on the internet. To begin, Mathew Kirschenbaum argues “that reading is being both reimagined and re-engineered” (para 2). In his article “Reading is...
Words: 2432 - Pages: 10
...Mansimar Nanda Information Technology March 2, 2016 Professor Mondol USB Interface In today’s new world of technology, we are very fortunate to be have USB ports, many of us ask ourselves about what USB ports are and why they play an important role in our lives. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and is used for so many purposes whether that be in the technical world or daily uses. The main purpose of the USB is to receive and deliver different types of data. This is a protocol for connecting peripherals to a computer. USB are small, reversible, fast, powerful, and flexible. They play a really big part in my college life. Being an IT stupid means that I have many essays and projects to complete, and with the help of a USB I can easily save my information and not have to worry about it getting deleted. Many times I have important documents such as resumes and job applications, but with just a couple steps I can keep all my files safe. USB are also very helpful to me when I have to make a presentation in class, rather than having to drag my laptop with me I can just connect my USB and my presentation will appear on the screen. USB have been around for almost 20 years now. The first USB starts to develop in 1994, this was Co invented by an Indian young man named Ajay Butt. Ajay collaborated his idea with 7 well known companies. Compaq, Dec, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nec, and Nortel got together and created the first USB specification. After a year had passed the ...
Words: 939 - Pages: 4
