Steven Pinker Mind Over Mass Media Summary

Steven Pinker writes about the criticisms that media has on our minds. He disagrees with the statements that say media take a toll on our knowledge and intelligence, but in fact states that they improve it. His article, “Mind over Mass Media” also states that we have control over our minds to not become distracted, hence the title of the article. Pinker persuades the readers by using his own experience as a professor of psychology, reputation and scientific evidence to support his argument. Pinker states that new forms of media have always caused panic in the readers. The printing press, newspapers, paperback books and television were all denounced to be threats to the readers minds and morals. PowerPoint is decreasing the amount of information that you should get and putting them into bullet style statements. This is only giving the reader a portion of what they should have learned. Search engines are taking away from looking into books and paper forms of information and making the point of finding the information you need much easier.
Most scientists use technology throughout their entire day. They are always close to their emails, hardly ever use any paper and they have to teach by using PowerPoints to show the information. If electronic media were a supposed to be hazardous to people then all of science would diminish. Science is getting better and better every day. The results are multiplying what they once did. The brain is not just a blob of matter that is encased in the skull. It holds quite a bit of information within