Cordell Brown
October 8, 2018
English 151
Comparative Article Essay
The internet has been a vital tool to making life in the twenty first century much more efficient and expedites the users access to information. Yet, there are those who believe that the internet is detrimental to our brains and makes us lazier. As the years go by and there’s more integration of the internet into our everyday lives, the effects it has on our brains are unknown, positively or negatively. The internet has benefited the education system and continues to do so as we make more strides to increase the technology we have.
On the side of the argument that the internet is hurting our brains, writer Nicholas Carr believes that it has damaged our ability to read longer texts and retain them. Attention to articles has decreased from the readers, even Carr said, “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do” (Carr, paragraph 2). I can attest to this as I too feel that trying to read off a computer screen becomes increasingly less appealing the more I continue to do so. This issue can be a result of people associating the internet with efficiency and think they can quickly skim things and still get the same out of the article as if they read it. Carr sees the internet as a world full of distraction wherever you find yourself, on news outlets, emails, shopping websites, etc. These distractions manifest themselves through hyperlinks, pop up ads, notifications for applications, and other advertisements used to break articles or line them on the side. An example of this is, “A new e-mail message, for instance, may announce its arrival as we’re glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper’s site. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration.” (Carr, paragraph 19). I can see how this can be seen as a distraction but I don’t feel it is nearly as disruptive to our attention as he makes it seem. Simply looking at the notification and deciding if it’s worth looking at in the moment takes all of maybe five seconds, and then you can go right back to what you were doing. Interestingly enough, Carr even praises the internet in his article, “The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes.” (Carr, paragraph 3). This is the main defense for the internet, it has made tasks such as this one become something we can do at any time in the matter of seconds. But then Carr goes on to say this, “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” (Carr, paragraph 5). This isn’t an issue of the internet affecting our brain, it’s more so accountability of the reader to ensure they retain the information and don’t rely solely on their skimming. To fix these issues in a classroom setting, I would suggest providing a platform where there are ad blockers on the devices the students have if provided by the school. This would eliminate the issue of advertisements distracting the student from getting their work or research done.
There are also those that support the internet and don’t believe that there is such a big issue with it’s incorporation into education. Writer Paul La Farge suggests that the fears that people are currently having in regards to technology have been mentioned before. He believes that if anything, with the correct method in which it is executed, “ [the internet] has the potential to expand and augment the very contemplative space that we have prized in ourselves ever since we learned to read without moving our lips.” (La Farge, paragraph 4). With proper integration of the internet, he believes it will only enhance the part of our brain we have already set aside for reading and comprehension. Then La Farge brings up the fear that Socrates had in regards to writing in the fifth century and counters it with, “We may not keep the Iliad in our heads any longer, but we’re exquisitely capable of reflecting on it, comparing it to other stories we know, and forming conclusions about human beings ancient and modern.” (La Farge, paragraph 5). Fears of advancement ruining our current mental abilities has been something that has been going on for centuries, but each time there’s an advancement in technology we prevail on top. Using the technology to our advantage, not allowing the technology to become the only thing our minds rely on to do our thinking. Once again, he makes a reference to human history when he says, “… yet a quick look at the history of books suggests that we have been wandering off all along. When we read, the eye does not progress steadily along the line of text; it alternates between saccades—little jumps—and brief stops, not unlike the movement of the mouse’s cursor across a screen of hypertext” (La Farge, paragraph 6). Not only does this show that the internet isn’t the sole reason we skim but just accentuates that flaw in our nature when reading text. And in a study provided by the writer, “…a 2011 study by the cognitive scientists Rakefet Ackerman and Morris Goldsmith suggests that this may be a function less of the intrinsic nature of digital devices than of the expectations that readers bring to them.” (La Farge, paragraph 10). This backs up a point I made in the previous paragraph where I said it is an issue of the accountability of the user that they thoroughly read the text and don’t expect to get the same result out of skimming. My resolution to the issues that La Farge mentions for the non believers, hold accountability for how effective the information they retain is and don’t assume new technology is bad for our brains until there is viable proof to back that up.
Another aspect of technology that comes with the internet is the ability to multitask and effectively have more than one train of that at a time. In the article NOW YOU SEE IT by Cathy Davidson, she makes the comment, “Multitasking is the ideal mode of the twenty-first century, not just because of our information overload but because our digital age was structured without… one stream of information we pay attention to at a given moment” (Davidson, 6). We have so many various outlets to get our information from that trying to focus on just one would mean you miss out on what all the other ones have to offer. Another very accurate yet simple statement made by Davidson is, “You can’t take on a twenty-first-century task s with twentieth-century tools and hope to get the job done” (Davidson, 7). This sums up how important it is to keep up to date with modern technology as trying to write a research paper without the internet would take days if not weeks longer than if you had access to it like today’s society does. She also then brings up the broader range of influence has had on our world beside just education, “With the internet, we have seen dramatic rearrangements, in a little over a decade, in the most basic aspects of how we communicate, interact, gather knowledge of the world, develop and recognize our social networks and our communities, do business and exchange goods, understand what is true, and know what counts as worthy of attention.” (Davidson, 11). If it weren’t for the advancements in communication the simple luxury of being able to communicate with classmates or teachers in regards to work missed or questions on assignments would not be possible. Making school just that much more difficult if there were unsure aspects on an assignment or homework. Davidson wants integrate internet and technology more into our education system as she says, “So it’s long past due that we turn our attention to the institutions of schools and work to see how we can remake them so they help us, rather than hold us back.” (Davidson, 13). Allowing for a more welcomed merger of technology into our workplaces and schools, we could only benefit from fully utilizing technology to our advantage. Making schools more efficient with technology and added features with the internet would benefit the students along with the teachers to better the education process and introduce the kids to what the real world is like in the twenty-first-century.
The incorporation of technology into our schools and using the internet to our advantage only stands to benefit the students. As long as the kids are taught that skimming online readings are not effective and to read them like they would read a textbook. By teaching the younger generations now that the internet isn’t all about being quick and efficient, they won’t grow up skimming and expecting to breeze through text they read on a screen. This also prepares them for any line of work as it is very common for important documents to be shared via email and they will learn the ins and outs of the internet and other features it has to offer. Especially with technology seeming to be making leaps and bounds, many professions require understanding of online applications and functions that not a lot of students would choose to learn about on their own time.