In the article, Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr, he talks about the effects of the web towards everyone. He explains that over the past decade he’s been using the web way more often and because of that, he no longer likes reading books and after a few paragraphs he gets distracted. He states, “The more we use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr par. 5). Carr also uses many examples of bloggers or Lit majors who confess that they have stopped reading books altogether and that it’s difficult to read long pieces of prose. The technique that people browse and skim so quickly to get information is being embedded in the way our minds think. When we read books, that’s the method of thinking we’re going to have- skimming. Carr also mentions Maryanne Wolf and she explains how reading isn’t an automatic skill that we obtain, we have to work at. Carr also gives a wonderful example- the clock. The clock has made a tremendous affect in deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise, and it has stopped us from listening to our senses and we just willingly obey the clock. In the same way, Carr thinks that our minds are adapting to the new technologies of today. Carr urges that we “don’t lose those quiet spaces” of reading or else we’re going to sacrifice something important in ourselves and in our culture.
Claim: Technology is to blame for our lack of ability to concentrate. The internet is being used more and more to this day and because of this people fall short to stay focused when technology offers us so many other interesting things to use or see. Nicholas Carr, author of the article Is Google Making Us Stupid?, writes of how he no longer can concentrate on long stretches of prose, but rather, after a 2-3 pages of reading, he starts to drift. He states, “They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles” (Carr par. 4). What Carr is trying to get across is the fact that his mind is being shaped and altered by the internet. The fast, quick method of reading and finding information is being lodged into our minds and being the way we start to think. Technology is being affecting the way we think and the ability for us to stay focused. Even students in high schools or colleges are greatly affected. Students are constantly distracted because of the television, their phones, or laptops. There’s always something better to see or do. So why contemplate on one thing for more than you need to? That’s the way our minds think and people of today need to deter from that mindset because if we don’t, then we lose an important factor of our culture. Instead of relying on our own intelligence, it becomes an artificial intelligence when we start depending on the internet’s apitiude.
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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