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Friday, September 18, 2015
wk6 - SEVEN – quotation sandwich
From The
Shallows, chapter “Seven: The
Juggler’s Brain,” create a “quotation sandwich”: locate a pertinent quote,
build a “frame” around it, and “blend” the author’s words with your own. While
being fair and accurate, use the quote, but bend it to your purpose; use it for
your “I say”—yes / no / okay, but.
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The net has caused people to switch between tasks which disrupt concentration. “The Net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine geared for dividing attention.” The importance of Carr’s argument is that people in today’s world are not able to focus on a single task because they try to multitask between work and the internet, causing “hurried and distracted thinking and superficial learning.” Carr’s argument is true to me because I see myself glance back and forth at my phone when I sit down to read a book, trying to think deeply. The net has distracted me and has changed the meaning of reading from sitting down in a quiet place and reading a book, to sitting at a desk, trying to concentrate, on reading a book WHILE waiting for something new to pop up on the net.
ReplyDeleteMultimedia has put a hold on our ability to think well and retain things we have once learned. “The division of attention demanded by multimedia further strains our cognitive abilities…” (129). This is important to Carr’s argument because it shows that people spend more time and attention on the internet and that causes problems with our ability to think clearly. Carr goes on to say that multimedia is “diminishing our learning and weakening our understanding.” (129). I agree with this because I find it harder to make sense of the things I read on the web, due to distractions like hyperlinks and advertisements. Multimedia has made it a lot harder to learn because of how tempting it is. I find myself focused on what the latest post on Instagram says instead of trying to read my book or do my homework.
ReplyDeleteSome people may believe that our focus is perceived as the same whether we are surfing the web, reading a book, or watching tv. Despite this, I believe that you use a lot more attention to use the internet than any other resource. The author of, “The Shallows,” Nicholas Carr, agrees that “The Net commands our attention with far greater insistency than our television or radio or morning newspaper ever did” (117). I agree with this because it exemplifies the idea that our attention is distributed very differently with the internet than other sources of information.
ReplyDeleteThe net, as well as other devices that we use to connect with each other is becoming a pit for people’s attention span. Nicholas Carr, the author of “The Shallows” strongly believes in this idea. Carr argues, “The division of attention demanded by multimedia further strains our cognitive abilities…” (129). Carr believes that people’s strive to work and focus are being deteriorated by the boon of technology. Even though we have a plethora of benefits from technology, we are becoming too dependent.
ReplyDeleteSome people believe that the use of technology and devices sharpens our brains and makes us better thinkers. Others believe that doing things such as; reading a book, writing, and deep thinking requires more attention and focus. Nicolas Carr, author of “The Shallows” states, “The division of attention demanded by multimedia further strains our cognitive abilities, diminishing our learning and weakening our understanding” (129). I agree that technology and social media has begun distracting our generation and making it harder for us to focus. But technology has brought us many new opportunities that generations before never had.
ReplyDeletePsychologist Patricia Greenfield, a teacher at UCLA, has done extensive research on the effects that media has on the intelligence and learning capabilities of humans. She concludes her research with the idea that "Every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others." (141) I completely agree with Greenfield. Each new form of media has its pros and cons. Each trains and develop cognitive skills in different ways. However, they also might have the potential to cause other cognitive skills to become goal. This is because certain skills stop being used in order to focus on the kind needed for the newest medium, therefore becoming less and less sharp.
ReplyDeleteIn today’s society people think that we are becoming too consumed with technology. We live in a world today were everything we do is on the internet and we have become accustomed to always relying on it. Carr states, "The Net commands our attention with far greater insistency than our television or radio or morning newspaper ever did” (117). I believe that this is true because the reliance on the internet has made lose touch with certain aspects of our lives. The internet is constantly getting our attention we are losing touch with what we think and no other form of technology has done that.
ReplyDeleteCarr defies the widely-accepted belief of numbers/grades being a reflection of individual's aptitude. Instead, in chapter seven of "The Shallows" Carr frames his definition of intelligence as "our ability to transfer information from working memory to long-term memory and [being able to] weave it into conceptual schemas" (124). Carr wants to make the case that perhaps intelligence is the ability to understand facts rather than merely declaring them because understanding the reason of phenomena can help us connect them conceptually. Carr's idea about intelligence is fascinating because it does not side with the generally believed scheme that high GPAs reflect higher IQs. It is also fascinating that until today I hadn't realized that some of the really smart individuals were college dropouts. Lastly, I will conclude by saying that education is a path to success; not its epitome.
ReplyDeleteWhen you bring hypertext into reading, it makes our minds go astray. When people see something out of the norm we are more likely to indulge into it and see what it is about. Zhu wrote in Nicholas Carr’s book, “The Shallows”, “Reading and comprehension require establishing relationships between concepts, drawing inferences, activating prior knowledge, and synthesizing main ideas.” (129). He is stating here that when we read we need to be completely involved in what we are reading. When hypertext is involved we become distracted and lose focus on what we are supposed to be reading is about.
ReplyDeleteWriter Nicholas Carr strongly believes that the Net has ultimately changed people into an easily distracted society. In his book, The Shallows, he writes that “We focus intensively on the medium itself, on the flickering screen, but we’re distracted by the medium’s rapid-fire delivery of competing messages and stimuli” (118). Carr’s point is that, even though it may seem like we are all very focused on the screen of any device, the constant change of what’s being viewed causes the easy distractions in our thinking. Even at this very moment I find it difficult to stay on this app and continue writing.
ReplyDeleteThe internet has had an intense impact on the way we a humans think today. “The net is best understood as the latest in a long series of tools that have helped mold the human mind.” Like any other tool made, the internet is intended to make the daily lives of humans easier. Carrs point however, is that it has caused us to change the way we think maybe a little too much. Humans now have shorter attention spans than ever and are seemingly “glued” to their devices. Live as we know it relies on these little machines and we would be too lost without them.
ReplyDeleteAttentiveness and comprehension diminish when reading online content. Hyperlinks cause our minds to wander off and as a result authors make content more “shallow”. This theory is backed up by Swedish neuroscientist Torkel Klingberg, who says, “(human beings) want more information…more complexity.” Torkel is saying that it is human to want more distractions and that is exactly what the Internet is giving us with hyperlinks, ads, videos, and shallow information.
ReplyDeleteMany believe the internet to be one of the most important breakthroughs of all time. In Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows he states, “The net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use”. The Internet is so common that in an American home it is unusual for one to not have access to this vast database. The breakthrough of the internet may not be more significant than the book but it is definitely has a more vast effect on those that use it.
ReplyDeleteIn Nicholas Carr’s “The shallows”, Carr shows how people maintain their focus on information provided by online sources throughout the web, and watching news on television. Carr shows that using the internet provides the most information by offering the ability to see information through other sources on the internet. Nicholas Carr shows how using the internet provides greater amounts of information in relation to the television and reading. With the use of the internet, the ability to find many sources of information is very easy to manage and access. Whereas a book, there is less information provided in a book and television rather than online.
ReplyDelete