Paper
Landon Grim
Synthesis Essay
Professor Bodi
English 111
24 October 2012
Media Limiting Intelligence? In the past, the transfer of information across the world was a slow, painstaking process. However, in today’s society, information can be spread by the media throughout the world in the blink of an eye via television or Internet reports. Anyone who has access to the Internet can tap into an unlimited amount of information quickly. Search engines such as Google have made accessing information as easy as clicking a mouse. Smart phones allow people to take the Internet with them anywhere. Television also provides information rapidly and on a wide scale. Although television does not allow one to control the information flow, it does provide knowledge of a variety of topics with ease. With the Internet and television becoming so prevalent in the lives of many people, a question has arisen. Are computers, specifically the Internet, making humans less intelligent? And if this is true, is this necessarily a bad thing? Being a teenager, I brushed the initial question off without giving it much thought. I had no doubt in my mind that I was as every bit as intelligent as a person fifty years ago. But after some further reading, I began to question my original thoughts. In the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” the author, Nicholas Carr, explains that the invention of the Internet has changed our lives. The Internet has become our primary source of information (318). After spending so much time on the Internet, Carr believes that the Internet and media are rewiring his brain. Reading lengthy passages of text seem challenging to him. The Internet and media outlets are “chipping away at (his) capacity for concentration and contemplation” Carr states (318). Instead of having an inner intelligence, Carr states, “We risk turning into ‘pancake people’ –spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network
Synthesis Essay
Professor Bodi
English 111
24 October 2012
Media Limiting Intelligence? In the past, the transfer of information across the world was a slow, painstaking process. However, in today’s society, information can be spread by the media throughout the world in the blink of an eye via television or Internet reports. Anyone who has access to the Internet can tap into an unlimited amount of information quickly. Search engines such as Google have made accessing information as easy as clicking a mouse. Smart phones allow people to take the Internet with them anywhere. Television also provides information rapidly and on a wide scale. Although television does not allow one to control the information flow, it does provide knowledge of a variety of topics with ease. With the Internet and television becoming so prevalent in the lives of many people, a question has arisen. Are computers, specifically the Internet, making humans less intelligent? And if this is true, is this necessarily a bad thing? Being a teenager, I brushed the initial question off without giving it much thought. I had no doubt in my mind that I was as every bit as intelligent as a person fifty years ago. But after some further reading, I began to question my original thoughts. In the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” the author, Nicholas Carr, explains that the invention of the Internet has changed our lives. The Internet has become our primary source of information (318). After spending so much time on the Internet, Carr believes that the Internet and media are rewiring his brain. Reading lengthy passages of text seem challenging to him. The Internet and media outlets are “chipping away at (his) capacity for concentration and contemplation” Carr states (318). Instead of having an inner intelligence, Carr states, “We risk turning into ‘pancake people’ –spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network
Cited: Bachtel, Rose. “Television: Destroying Childhood.” The Composition of Everyday Life. Ed. John Mauk and John Mentz. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 619-621. Print. Beato, Greg. “Internet Addiction.” The Composition of Everyday Life. Ed. John Mauk and John Mentz. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 568-570. Print. Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.” The Composition of Everyday Life. Ed. John Mauk and John Mentz. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 318-323. Print.