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Friday, September 25, 2015
wk7 - NINE – quotation sandwich
From The
Shallows, chapter “Nine: Search,
Memory,” 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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Have you ever been sitting there reading and half-way through the page you realize you simply just did not bring in any of that information? In this situation, you would have to reread the passage more thoroughly and attentively. The point is, the best way to remember something, to encode it into your memory, and to just take it all in, is to be completely alert and focused. For example, in Nicholas Carr’s, “The Shallows”, he states that “The key to memory consolidation is attentiveness” (193). Carr personifies my notion by explaining that, in his opinion, the best way to control and encode important information into your brain for good is to interpret it very carefully and diligently.
ReplyDeleteWe have heavily relied on technology for help, whether it's for research or so we don't have to memorize things. In The Shallows, Carr states that "I'm not sure I could live without it." This statement is ironic because he speaks about the importance of releasing our grasp we have on technology. He also mentions that it's hard to concentrate for long periods of time so that is why we don't read books anymore. Nicholas Carr wrote a book which requires long amounts of concentration. An author who wrote a couple hundred pages struggles with the same issue. He is obsessed with the capabilities of technology.
ReplyDeleteMany advocates of the Internet claim that the accessibility of limitless information is a blessing to humans. They say that we are so lucky to not have to remember anything for ourselves anymore. Yes, everyone benefits from the helpfulness of the Internet at times. However, Carr's perspective is that we are taking it too far. He says that using the brain for memory is actually very important. He claims that "What gives real memory it's richness and its character, not to mention its mystery and fragility, is its contingency. It exists in time, changing as the body changes." (191) so while the Internet has its pros, the benefits of using your mind far outweigh them. The process in which memories go through to become long-term in your brain is what makes them so special, it makes them unique to you. I fully agree with Carr. In my opinion, learning things for yourself is a privilege, not a chore.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the use of technology is a very popular, it has many effects on the human brain that many people are oblivious to. The Web not only effects our ability to concentrate, it also effects our memory. In Nicolas Carr’s book “The Shallows” he argues, “As our use of the Web makes it harder for us to lock information into our biological memory, we’re forced to rely more and more on the Net’s capacious and easily searchable artificial memory, even if it makes us shallower thinkers” (194). We do not realize how reliant we are on the use of the Web; therefore, the internet usually does the dirty work in our “deep thinking”. We are not required to remember anything on our own anymore because our technology does it for us. In my opinion, remembering things on your own, without the help of technology, should be something that is honorable and desirable.
ReplyDeleteThe more and more we are referring to others’ work and relying on others’ help, the more we are hurting ourselves and our minds. If we continue to focus on what others are doing or saying, then we are not using our minds and letting them grow at all. “Socrates was right. As people grew accustomed to writing down their thoughts and reading the thoughts others had written down, they became less dependent on the contents of their own memory.” (177). If we continue to do exactly what this quote is saying our memory will become less and less, since we will not be exercising our own brains. We need to stop just using technology to find a shortcut out for something or referring to someone else’s work and then trying to change it up and make it your own. If this keeps going we will not have the common sense and ability to do something on our own.
ReplyDeleteIn today’s society people have started to become more and more dependent on the Internet. We are have all the information we need at our finger tips and we have become lazy about remembering information. Carr states, “Socrates was right. As people grew accustomed to writing down their thoughts and reading the thoughts others had written down, they became less dependent on the contents of their own memory” (177). I agree with Socrates statement because everyone has become accustomed to others thoughts. The internet has weakened our memory and I believe that we should change that because its only hurting ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe ability to memorize has been the most valuable and unique quality in humans since the Ancient ages. Carr, with the help of his extensive research skills and powerful writing, informs us that the power, the Greeks thought to be godly is no longer important to the present generation. Carr states his hypothesis that “Not only has memory lost its divinity; it’s well on its way to losing its humanness” (181-182). I would agree with the fact that we have forsaken our power of memorizing and some of our thinking abilities too. We have also made machines to think for us. However, I will disagree with Carr on the topic that we will rely on those machines for our evolution. These machines are not capable, and they probably will never be capable to innovate as humans do. Statistically, every invention started with an imagination and these machines will surely not be able to imagine and create as we can!
ReplyDeleteIf we only ever read of culture and do not apply ourselves in it isn’t that good enough? Nicholas Carr fears that such a thing might happen and warns his readers. Carr claims that “the offloading of memory to external data banks doesn’t just threaten the depth and distinctiveness of the self. It threatens the depth and distinctiveness of the culture we all share” (196). The idea of losing our depth brings Carr to the using of the phrase “pancake people.” Carr’s point is that with each person’s memory comes a uniqueness of their own views on culture. Yet these “pancake people” have such a wide view on everything they’ve read from the internet, but they have no experience to understand the heritage behind it.
ReplyDelete"As the machines we use to store data have become more voluminous, flexible, and responsive, we've grown accustomed to the blurring of artificial and biological memory"(181). We rely so much on the "artificial memory" that we believe that it is our actually thinking. Personally, I have a hard time remembering if it was my thoughts or the thoughts of others on the Internet. I do not have to worry about memorizing what I stored rather I worry about where and if I stored the information. The web has "quickly came to be seen as a replacement for, rather than just a supplement to, personal memory"(180).
ReplyDeleteAs humans our natural instinct is to make life easier. I find myself constantly looking for shortcuts around the “struggles” of life. Being the smartest creatures on the planet we were the first to make and use tools. Tools are simply an extension of our mind that allows us to do things we couldn’t do before and often times cut down on time needed for a certain task. Carr exemplifies my idea perfectly in saying, “People began, as the great orator had predicted, to call things to mind not “from within themselves, but by the means of external marks”. Before humans began to write things down they were very limited in what they could do because the brain could only process and remember so much. These external marks are human’s way of sidestepping the brains hold on a civilized expansion.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet is a very useful tool that can help us learn more faster, but abusing the power of the Internet can be harmful to humans. Our memories have suffered from our use of the Internet, Clive Thompson a writer for wired magazine believes "by offloading data onto the silicon, we free our own gray matter for more." Thompson is arguing that as we rely on the Internet for memorization we free our minds to be open for more. Some might argue that this is a good thing but the mind is instead filled with pointless thoughts and daydreaming that is not helping our brain. Therefore the use of the Internet for memorization is not beneficial to us.
ReplyDelete"Socrates was right. As people grew accustomed to writing down their thoughts and reading the thoughts others had written down, they became less dependent on the contents of their own memory" (177). Our ability to read, write, and think independently is becoming impaired through the use of technology and others thoughts. I agree with Nicholas Carr because the generation of kids today constantly plagiarize and copy others work because they are loo lazy or distracted. This is creating a deterioration of the human minds capacity to comprehend. Soon enough, our minds will become as blank as the paper we have to write.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my day, whenever I need to know something or want more information I just simply it up because of the easy access I have. I have always loved the progression of technology and admired the boon is has given to this generation. However, I have never considered the cost. “The arrival of the limitless and easily searchable data banks of the Internet brought a further shift, not just in the way we view memorization but in the way we view memory itself. The Net quickly came to be seen as a replacement for, rather than just a supplement to, personal memory” In this quote from page 180 of "The Shallows" Carr continuously stirs this idea that technology has impacted humans; being more negative then positive.
ReplyDelete