Right from the start of the first few pages, I realized how
much I rely on the internet. Every. Single.
Day. Even for little things I never
even noticed such as googling what day Easter is this year or completing an
online application for study abroad.
Without the internet, how would any of those things get done? My mind is kind of blown right now. How did students function in college when
there weren’t laptops and cell phones in the 1970s? How did students apply to colleges and fill
out applications? Everything was done by
hand. Can you even imagine filling out
everything by hand and mailing something in? What an inconvenience it would
be. I realized how much I take for
granted with how electronic the world has become today.
His book
immediately begins with the “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” excerpt that I have
read several times over the past year in many of my classes. I always enjoyed his article and discussing
it in different classes to see what everyone has to say. What do you all think of it? Do you think the internet is altering the way
we process and read information? Have
you noticed your reading skills change over the past few years with all of this
new technology?
I
definitely notice a change in my comprehension skills. I have to force myself to sit down and turn
off my cell phone and laptop when I read for classes. For MCS majors, there are a lot of assigned readings
so I try to take my readings seriously and disconnect from the technological
world when I do my homework because I can get it done quicker and more efficiently. Reading for classes with my cell phone out is
never a good idea. So why do I keep
doing it? It’s this habit I have with
reaching for my phone out of comfort, boredom, or procrastination. How many of you have been reading something for
class and after a few paragraphs you stop to check Twitter, Instagram, or
Facebook to reward yourself? I do this
just to delay doing work too.
Then when I
want to continue my reading, I have to reread what I already read and focus
back in on the assignment. It’s always
counterproductive. This also relates to
reading information online. I instantly
become turned off when I see that something is multiple pages. Do any of you always check how many more
pages you have to go? Why do we do
this? Have I become lazy because I am
used to information being right at my disposal?
I agree with
Carr that “the more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay
focused on long pieces of writing” because I am so adapted to going online to
look something up and instantly finding out what I need to know. However, I get frustrated if I have to sit
there and read a bunch of pages to get to the information. The internet has made me incredibly lazy to
actually focus on each page.
All of this
sounds really negative how the Internet has altered my ability to deep
read. However, I think it is more about
my patience like Carr references in this chapter. The internet has made me work smarter though. I can find information easily and narrow
searches down so I can get more work done.
It’s just that when I have to read 50 page articles online I find it
hard to focus because there are other things on the internet that are tempting to
go on. The internet is just so convenient
for everyone because why should a person bother memorizing certain things that
they could easily look up in a second?
Should a person save space in their mind for tedious information that
could easily be looked up such as a person’s phone number? Remember when you were younger and you would
have to memorize your friend’s house number?
The part
about reading books and how people view it as old-fashioned really provoked
some thinking for me. The person in the
book stated how sitting down to read a book would not be a good use of time
when the person could receive the information on the internet. That statement amazes me because I still read
books on my own for fun just to relax. Though
I will admit it takes me a while to finish them. I wish more people would give leisure reading
a chance because it really makes me focus in the moment and step away from all
the online reading and homework assignments.
People complain that they don’t have the slightest bit of time to read
for fun but they have time to sit on Facebook for 20 extra minutes before
starting an assignment? I’m guilty of it
too. However, I am starting to see my
negative habits over the course of this class.
It’s little time slots that could be used to do something relaxing and intellectual.
I don’t see reading before bed as a chore just because it is a physical book I have
to pick up, focus on, turn the page, and read.
It is something I actually want to do.
I think my problem is reading pages and pages of information that I am
not interested in. Do any of you guys
read books on your own time for leisure?
Relating back to life before
technology, it’s not like focusing and sitting down to read a novel hasn’t been
a difficult task over the last decades.
It is not something that has just started now. I’m sure it was hard to
sit down and read 50 pages at a time in the ‘70s just as it is hard today to do
because it is a long task. However, it
is the invention of the internet that distracts us more while we read today which
makes it very difficult. Also, the fact
that information is so truncated and accessible too.
I found this article that highlights how
college has changed over the decades. It
was interesting to read this and see all the different perspectives that I didn’t
even realize. For instance, the article
states that out of a sample of 500 college students, 73 percent of them could
not study without technology. However,
more than 30 years ago there were no cell phones or laptops to use for
schoolwork or distract us from studying that I can’t even imagine what it was
like going to college back then. It
would have been a totally different experience and I would so want to see what it
would have truly been like. I think
technology has altered our patience and the way we find information. Decades ago, a person would have to go to the
library and look up information in books for research papers. Today, a lot of information is online and can
be looked up at the tip of one’s fingers.
If you could go to college in a decade where there weren’t cell phones
and laptops, would you?
No comments:
Post a Comment