Anoop Dhillon
ENG 100(O)
Nicholas Carr’s main point in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is in a way a question making us wonder if easy access to information on the internet is making us stupid or in a way very impatient. As he claims, Google has led us to skim through stuff instead of read it in context. An example he gave was that he cannot keep his focus on a long article or essay for about more than 5 minutes now, his mind and eyes start to wander.
Carr talks about how the internet affects our brain, habits and ability to read. How Google uses different kinds of responses to adjust peoples patterns of thinking. The more you start to use the internet the more you have to fight to stay focused. Like how now we look at the clock for sense of measurement rather than follow our own senses.
Carr also claims that there is no such thing as perfect search engine or site to find correct data; we just have to use the one we have properly and cautiously.
As Carr once quoted, “The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and bigger hard drive.” When he says this I pretty much think he’s trying to say that Google and the internet go the extra mile that our brain cannot. He tries to explain the fact that it is a huge advantage to us in this day but we can’t always depend on it. We may fall into the trap and take it as our own brain at times but we need to know to not get too emerged in it and not depend on it.
Everything is like clockwork; we look at time now more than anything. My life especially I look at that clock multiple times a day. I have so many things to do and literally so little time that I need to be checking every now and then or I won’t get anything done. Internet is a huge contributor to me and to my school and social life especially. Its quick and easy all the way around, Facebook lets me quickly communicate with friends and family while Google and things like Moodle help me keep my assignments in check. Carr quotes “Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice.” Although I agree that we are reading more for sure, I can’t seem to decide if it’s helping me or actually making my dumber? For me I also know that since all this came about I don’t think I have read a whole book for years and that’s mostly for two reasons, no time and lack of focus.
Were in a new generation were standards and expectations seem to be lowering in some cases and growing in some cases depending upon technology. There is really no deep thought process now, we seem to just be skimming right along the surface for now.
Welcome!
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversations Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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