John Gentner
Professor Minnick
ENG-W131
10 October 2017
The Internet: Out with the Old
In the book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr focuses on the issue of the Internet becoming our second nature to us humans and replacing everything we know now with technology in a passage that appears in a chapter called, “Hal and Me.” Nicholas Carr opens the passage by writing, “The net has become my all-purpose medium…” (Carr 6). Next, he indicates that having access to so much material in a matter of seconds that he has all this time on his hands to spend like a kid in a candy shop. Following that, Carr points out how other people, such as Bruce Friedman, a blogger who talks about the internet changing his mental state, have “almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print” (Carr 7). Finally, Carr closes the passage by stating reading books in the modern times is obsolete or even weird to see someone reading rather than using the internet. Some might be troubled by what Carr says. They would argue that using the internet lets you absorb information faster and more efficient than pushing through chapters of a book is a better way to think about the issue. On the other hand, Carr’s position on this issue is good one for several reasons. One is that people are losing interest completely with reading books or anything that involves having long, intensive focus because of the internet. We can see why this idea makes sense if we consider the following
At the beginning of his essay, Carr describes his interactions between reading and the internet: “I’m not thinking the way I used to think... Now my concentration starts to drift after two or three pages... For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online” (150). In this passage, Carr depicts how the internet has changed him; he used to be able to concentrate for a long time, but with distractions from the internet he is unable to hold his focus while reading and can only concentrate for “two or three pages.” By including himself in the group of people who are afflicted by the pitfalls of the internet, Carr appears more honest and credible, which makes his argument believable.
Since the rise of technology and smart devices, the public has seen controversy over the benefits and drawbacks of internet usage. Nicholas Carr shared his opinions in the article “From The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.” In the text, he claims that it seems to be “chipping away” his “capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr 5). In addition to that, he does not hesitate to state how “some worry they’re becoming chronic scatterbrains” from using the web (Carr 6). His views are painted purple in this piece of writing, as any reader could infer that Carr possesses a slightly bitter tone when it comes to the interwebs. He displays his dislike for the way it is reshaping our brains and mental function, even going
Browsing the internet contrasts sharply with reading from a book. The internet is not intended to be read; it is meant to be scanned hastily for relevant information. In Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows, Joe O’Shea, a Rhodes scholar, writes that reading books “is not a good use of my time, as I can get all the information I need faster through the web” (Carr, 9). O’Shea believes books are “superfluous” because of the efficiency of the internet (Carr, 9). They must be read carefully in order to find relevant information, but the internet allows one to, “cherry-pick the pertinent passages using Google Book Search” (Carr, 8). Carr writes, “we’re no longer guided toward a deep, personally constructed understanding of the text’s connotations” (166). Internet users do not have to think deeply about the meaning of an online text
Nicholas Carr, the author of The Shallows, wrote his book to convince further society that the internet is having an adverse effect on their brains and how they are receiving information. His major thesis for the novel was expressed when he exclaimed, "...the Internet controls what we think and the process in which we think because with its efficiency and speed, we are formulating all of our thoughts through the speed of the internet rather than through the speed of our mind." Throughout the novel, Carr discusses multiple reasons on how we have changed to depend on the internet. As well as how we have let go of older versions of technology and methods of learning because they seem insufficient compared to the internet. Carr was very biased
The Internet is something that some consider their lifesavers, while others believe that it takes their life away. The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr is a novel that explores the different areas of how new technologies affect humans in different ways, regarding multi-tasking and distractions, to how new technologies make us lose a little part of ourselves. Throughout the book Carr puts forward very strong arguments, but then loses creditability with his use of fallacies in argument.
Nicholas Carr published The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains in 2011 as a result of his own personal experiences and observations of his own behavior. The book was published by W.W. Norton & Company with ISBN 978-0-393-33975-8. Carr began working on the book after he noticed that since the birth of the internet, he did not think in the same ways that he used to think; he was easily distracted and had trouble concentrating on tasks requiring a lot of thought (2011). This effect, he noticed, was not unique to him. Many of his colleagues reported that they too had lost a lot of interest in reading books, had trouble concentrating and were easily distracted (Carr, 2011). What if, Carr wondered, everyone doesn’t just prefer to do their reading on the internet for its inherent convenience and speed but rather, what if the internet was actually changing the way we all think?
2). Carr explains the issues he is having with deep reading after spending too much time on the Internet, beginning with; how he becomes fidgety and distracted when reading. He looks for other things to do as opposed to reading and now struggles with reading all together; a hobby that used to be so easy for him. Today, the Internet is an essential source of information, as Carr explains in paragraph four. Despite the endless knowledge the Internet has to offer, Carr argues that it is doing humans more harm than good by saying, “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. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” What Carr is trying to say is that the Internet is leading individuals away from reaching a deep level of reading, thinking, and analyzing. By comparing his concentration to the ocean, Carr shows his audience how the internet has negatively altered his way of reading intellectually. Bruce Friedman, faculty member at the University of Michigan Medical School, describes how the Internet has changed the way he reads into a sort of “staccato,” meaning
There is a transformation happening today that is completely changing the way that we do things. The ways that we are communicating are shifting from face to face interactions to short, interactive messages. Technology seems to be making it easier to stay connected, but it is restricting our interactions with others and leading to isolation.
Carr said “What if I do all my readings on the web not so much because the way I read has changed. i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?” (Carr, pg 7). Since the internet has come into play people have stooped reading books because is easier to just google what they are wanting to know. The internet can change the way someone can process the information on a screen than in a book and how much is actually being consumed by the person. Not only is it changing the way we understand but every technology is an expression of the human will. This allows us to reshape nature to better serve our needs and desires. The internet has the greatest power over how and what we think
Nowadays, a lot of people are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and so on. Since the Internet has propagated rapidly, social media have progressed a lot. The generalization of the internet makes us to live conveniently and fast. People are almost using smart phones, i-phones or comfortable devices which can access to internet. These equipments make us to do social network easily. It helps contact friends, family, and other people even though they live far away. It could be, however, abused, if you don’t use properly. Especially, it is important that we understand and regulate the use of social media by young children.
Our society has become heavily reliant on social media, and today’s younger generation cannot avoid using it in their everyday lives. As time has progressed, social media has advanced significantly, becoming easier to access with a touch of a button. These advancements provide both positive and negative consequences to youths’ relationships. Due to the rapid advancement of social media, youths’ real-life relationships with their peers have been affected both positively and negatively.
The internet was invented roughly about 30 years ago by the World Wide Web. However, the first social media came out circa 20 years ago. The name of it was Six Degrees and it was created by Andrew Weinreich in the 1900’s. Six degrees users had the capabilities of uploading a profile, making friends, and sending messages with family and friends. Nevertheless on 2004, Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old who created the biggest social media that changed the world. Till this day, Facebook probably has up to 2 billion users and still counting. Nonetheless, most people seen on Facebook ranges from their teens to mid-40s, that have the capability of spreading information across the globe setting a chain reaction that created and spread fake news. Social medias’ fake news is spread by a heap of people that are easily convinced by false statements. According to Gretel, “In the midst of a nationwide debate over the proliferation of fake news on social media sites – and, as one 2015 study by the Media Insight Project shows, at a time when nearly 9 in 10 Millennials regularly get news from Facebook – the numbers, at first glance, may point to a bleak, uninformed future.” (n. pag.) Therefore, teens need to use social media to disintegrate some of the repercussions of real news.
Out of the variety of news sources such as TV, radio, or newspapers, one of the popular sources in today’s world is social media. People are getting addicted to and can’t live without social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. They use social media as of where they can post their status but also where they can receive a lot of different news. While social media are spreading any kinds of news such as trend, celebrity or even politics, people easily get the information that is not true called “fake news.” The fake news raises the major problem in social media as the news source. Once people see the news, they tend to believe and share it. Liking can spread out fake news in a second. When people like the news, the activity
In this age of social media, we are constantly worried about being popular. We are driven by “likes,” “comments,” and “followers.” Not caring what our peers thought, our middle school selves posted anything and everything. Now, as seniors and having had access to social media for an abundance of years, we are far more cautious about what we post but not in the way you might imagine. Instagram is a resourceful tool but, if used incorrectly, could impair your social status.
Over the decade our generation has become more and more into Social Media. We can post any picture, tweet about our daily lives and comment on everything. However, as you pose for a picture, or tweet about something that happened to you, do you ever think if it interferes with the First Amendment? Most people do not consider that, and sometimes what they posted can lead them into a lot of trouble because it could violate the first amendment. Many argue that first amendment grants us the freedom of speech; however, to what extent should our activity on social media be protected as free speech under the first amendment? The people’s activity on social media should be protected as free speech unless the activity is determined to be an actual threat towards someone because there are different interpretations, our comments reflect our opinions, and the right of free speech is the foundation of our country and forms what this country is about.