...Dr. Victoria L. Dunkley has done research that excessive screen time does damage the brain. When parents are warned about the dangers of screen time for their children: some parents take precaution and set certain time for television in the home, while other parents rationalize that it is a part of their children’s culture or that video games and television keep their children safe and out of trouble. If these parents allow children to be consumed by technology and games the internet will become more increasingly intertwined with our daily lifestyles as a society. These children will also grow to become the leaders of tomorrow: our police, firefighters, senators, judges, and even presidents. The operative word in Dr. Victoria’s study is “excessive”, the innovation of technology and the internet isn’t damaging when it is done in balance, actually it extremely helpful and saves a lot of...
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...“Brain Change” In “ Mind over Mass Media” by Steven Pinker he writes 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...
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...The Wonders and Wonder Falls of the Internet After multiples readings of Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, I found that he is writing from his own person experiences as well as what he deliberates, contemplates, and gets from other significant opinions and/or research. He has a major point that he makes very clear in his text. There are also several indented points that Carr points out. I want to point out that some of the statements made by Carr went through my thoughts as it was exactly what I was having trouble with, myself. He states in the beginning of his text that he starts to notice that rather than actually reading, we begin to speed-read over text. I find his statement somewhat true being it is what I found myself doing the first time I read Carr’s text. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” clearly expresses that the internet is not only distraction to our minds but that it could be allowing us to depend upon the internet more than classic research. Carr used many examples that allowed his claim to stand tall. He referred to the watch, the television, email, the steam engine, and many other modern technologies but Google and the internet being his key points. Carr is writing this essay as persuasive but informative. “If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them with “content”, we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture.” (Carr) The text also displays sub-claims that I found to be interesting. He believes that even though...
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...Brain on Cruise Control Of course with a huge invention such as the Internet. a lot of change would come with it. Some of the change maybe good and some bad. The Internet has brought a lot of information to us that is now easily accessible. With the help of Google and smartphones, the Internet is accessible almost anywhere and we can find answers quickly. In Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making us Stupid?” He discusses how he believes Google and the Internet is making us change. “My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” (Carr). The Internet along with all it’s magnificence has also changed the way we think and put our brains on cruise control. Ultimately, I agree with most of what Carr says in his writing. I don’t necessarily believe that Google is making us stupid, but I believe that Google is changing the way we think. I myself have almost always had Google avaliable to me. In Middle school, when I first began writing papers and doing research I was also required to have a few sources but at least one would have to be from a book reference as well. This only lasted a couple of years til I reached High School and was only using the Internet for resources. After that I never needed to use a book for research ever again. I believe this molded my brain. I was able to find the information I needed instantly with no deep thought needed. I did not need to read through a whole book to find excerpts or the correct research...
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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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...Introduction Technology has been increasing its use in our day to day lives for years now. The amount of technology that kids are using and are exposed to can easily be concluded as being a great deal more than previous generations. Does this increase in technological availability affect us, though? This question is at the heart of Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” In a study done in 2011 by the American Psychological Association, they found that “adults over the age of 55 who had had a black and white television set growing up had a higher likelihood of dreaming in black and white. However, younger users who had always had a color television . . . were much more likely to dream in Technicolor.” This is just one example of how the change of and increased use of technology can alter the way our minds think and function. Carr poses his thoughts and opinions about the effects technology is having on our brains, while...
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...“Are you kidding me? I can’t spend a minute without my phone!” This is the sort of reaction that is pulled out of almost every teenager if you try to take their smartphones away. They sleep with it, eat with it, wake up with it nested underneath them somewhere on the bed, and even go to the bathroom with it. It seems like these smartphones have become such an integrated part in the lives of today’s young generation that it has become an infestation. When you ask them something their fingers go tap tap on their mobile devices to ‘google’ the answer. Even to check what time it is, they rely on their devices to know the date and time. It is certainly alarming to see the amount of human dependence on these gadgets because their absence would certainly render these...
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...In the essay “Mind Over Mass Media” by Steven Pinker, Pinker is clarifying that the media does not negatively affect our mind. A few samples he uses are that in the 1950's people were anxious about the possibility that comic books would hurt the younger generation and transform them into terrible kids, when truly crime was falling to record lows. In the 1990's people likewise imagined that computer games made youngsters lash out and get to be delinquents, when really that was the with the considerable American wrongdoing decay. With any new media that has developed individuals constantly trust that our brain power and abilities will fall. Pinker states that restraint and self-discipline is all it takes to not be occupied or suffocate in the...
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...Society is based upon a set of rules created for all men and woman. It represents that all people of all race, religion, and ethnicity should be treated equal. The unfortuante part about society is that not all people do accept the fact that everybody is the same. You wouldn't think that this has been going on for a very long time, but really, it has. It started in the past, it still occured in the century I know best, the twentith century, and it is still occuring to this very present day. The nature of mankind is corrupt, it always has been and it always will be. I believe that this is what will happen because based on the evidence I have read, heard, and watched on television, the nature of mankind is bad. Mankind led a hard life, men and women worked long, hard hours out in the fields, just so that they would be able to survive. People knew one way of doing things, and the thought of a different and easier way to do things was out of the question. So when it came to the discoveries of certain things, people were outraged. This goes back to the early 1600's when Galileo Galilei was inventing and discovering. He came up with an invention, the telescope, to see into the outer limits of the earth. He spent endless nights, and came up with the conclusion that the moon was actually made up of craters, mountains, and jagged surfaces. He announced to the public his discovery, and many people, including scientists, were...
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...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...
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...Gary Soto’s “Looking for Work” One July, while killing ants on the kitchen sink with a rolled newspaper, I had a nine-year-old’s vision of wealth that would save us from ourselves. For weeks I had drunk Kool-Aid and watched morning reruns of Father Knows Best, whose family was so uncomplicated in its routine that I very much wanted to imitate it. The first step was to get my brother and sister to wear shoes at dinner. “Come on, Rick – come on, Deb,” I whined. But Rick mimicked me and the same day that I asked him to wear shoes he came to the diner table in only his swim trunks. My mother didn’t notice, nor did my sister, as we sat to eat our beans and tortillas in the stifling heat of our kitchen. We all gleamed like cellophane, wiping the sweat from our brows with the backs of our hands as we talked about the day: Frankie our neighbor was beat up by Faustino; the swimming pool at the playground would be closed for a day because the pump was broken. Such was our life. So that morning, while doing-in the train of ants which arrived each day, I decided to become wealthy, and right away! After downing a bowl of cereal, I took a rake from the garage and started up the block to look for work. We lived on an ordinary block of mostly working class people: warehousemen, egg candlers, welders, mechanics, and a union plumber. And there were many retired people who kept their lawns green and the gutters uncluttered of the chewing gum wrappers we dropped as we rode by on...
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...Gary Soto’s “Looking for Work” Gary Soto is a professor of English at UC Berkeley. He grew up in Fresno, California and has published several volumes of poetry as well as essays and prose memoirs. “Looking for Work” appeared in Living up the Street: arrative Recollections (1985). One July, while killing ants on the kitchen sink with a rolled newspaper, I had a nine-year-old’s vision of wealth that would save us from ourselves. For weeks I had drunk Kool-Aid and watched morning reruns of Father Knows Best, whose family was so uncomplicated in its routine that I very much wanted to imitate it. The first step was to get my brother and sister to wear shoes at dinner. “Come on, Rick – come on, Deb,” I whined. But Rick mimicked me and the same day that I asked him to wear shoes he came to the diner table in only his swim trunks. My mother didn’t notice, nor did my sister, as we sat to eat our beans and tortillas in the stifling heat of our kitchen. We all gleamed like cellophane, wiping the sweat from our brows with the backs of our hands as we talked about the day: Frankie our neighbor was beat up by Faustino; the swimming pool at the playground would be closed for a day because the pump was broken. Such was our life. So that morning, while doing-in the train of ants which arrived each day, I decided to become wealthy, and right away! After downing a bowl of cereal, I took a rake from the garage and started up the block to look for work. We lived on an ordinary block of mostly...
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...Assisted Learning Imagine you had a computer with 10,000+ times the computing power than was necessary to put man on the moon, now imagine that computer easily fitting into your pants pocket. That is the current state of our technology. Yet even with our tremendous advancements people believe that having such easy access is detrimental to our society. I believe that the opposite is true, the Internet as a learning tool is of tremendous benefit. The Internet has an endless source of information but getting past all the headlines and top 10 lists can be a nuisance but well worth the perseverance. In 2012 author Nicholas Carr published the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in which he argues that the structure of the Internet is resulting in shallower and scattered thought. Carr argues that the amount of information available on the web is causing him to “zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski” (Carr 2). Carr believes that because information is so vast and quick to access it is rewiring his brain for decreased contemplation. While it may be true that skimming information is the easiest option, I believe that delving into a subject is just as simple. Recently I was interested in learning a programming language and was introduced to the website codeacademy.com where users can take a free guided online class to learn the basics of a language. I finished the class and had a much better understanding of coding than I had prior. But I realized that what I learned was just...
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...“Are you a boy?” an older girl had asked from behind. “Do you like girls?” a younger boy inquired. The kids were so unpleasant. I continued to keep my head up high and keep smiling. Bullying is an event that still occurs after high school. When I was in sixth grade, I had a circle of three best friends. We would spend every day together, hanging out, having sleepovers, etc. The third marking period, I started having problems. I had accidentally said a “bad word.” These three girls started to laugh at me. “You said a bad word” the girls joked as they pinned me against the gym wall. One of the girls tattled and told my teacher, and continued to antagonize me more. “I am sick” I told my mom when I woke up every morning. Eventually, my parents figured out that I was not sick and called the school. “We need to figure this out” my parents screamed on the phone with my school. A few weeks later, not only was the school involved, but the cops were as well. Not only did they talk to me, but they talked to the group of girls. The girls all tried to deny that they were bullying me. “We didn’t do it” the girls cried. “We never did any of that” they continued to whine. As the cops called in witnesses from class, the girls received detention strictly from the principal. This was the least of my worries. In middle school, I was an outcast. I sat by myself at lunch. I had no friends. I found comfort in confiding to celebrities. I would look up to people that were on the television. I would...
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...Internet Addiction In today's world, most Americans use the internet daily for daily needs. It has become very common to go online because it makes research and socializing easier. The internet is a great place for social networking and meeting or communicating with people across the world. Nicholas Carr, author of the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, claims that using the internet can make people less intelligent. After spending a number of days researching on the topic of internet use, I have came to agree with Carr. I not only agree with him, that using the internet does make internet users less intelligent, I also believe that using the internet too often can make a person addicted to the internet. Once a person is addicted to the internet, they not only become less intelligent, like Carr believes, but they also develop mental and psychological problems. People should be more aware of internet addiction. The signs and symptoms should not be avoided when someone sees themself in the addiction situation. Once they become addicted, it is like a real drug, it will pull them in slowly and be hard to get away from. DSM IV and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) define addiction in terms of substance dependence or pathological gambling. To define internet addiction, it would be someone that meets at least three of the following criteria: tolerance, salience, withdrawal symptoms, difficulty controlling use, continued use despite negative consequences...
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