Cody Janowski 12/2/10 English Comp Assignment 4 The Internet has undoubtedly changed the way people live their lives. Any information we could possibly want- and more- is at our disposal, and has made life for us incredibly convenient and easy; some, however, might say too easy. One of these people is Nicholas Carr, author of the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” featured in the July/August 2008 edition of The Atlantic. Carr argues that the Net seems to be slowly demolishing our abilities to concentrate on one subject, as well as contemplate information, based on the ease of access to everything the Internet provides today. I agree with Carr to an extent; however I would say that his theory most certainly does not apply to everyone.
It speeds up the retrieval and dissemination of information, partially eliminating such chores as going outdoors to the mailbox or the adult bookstore, or having to pick up the phone to get hold of your stockbroker or some buddies to shoot the breeze with. That one thing the Internet does, and only that.” * - Tom Wolfe, from Digibabble, Fairy Dust, and the Human Anthill in Hooking Up (published in 2000) Established only a few decades ago, the Internet itself is a neutral device originally designed for easing researches and studies among academic and military structures. The Internet is a system of enormous technical and social complexity.
WEB 2.0 The internet has advanced rapidly from the time it was first created. The new generation 2.0 has made life easy for a lot of people. In doing so the internet has also reduces humans from being their natural selves. People have become so dependent on the internet. Humans cannot do a lot without a computer; they use it to communicate, socialize, to help each other for their jobs.
David Foster Wallace states, “Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise control over how and what you think (Carr 195). According to Carr, “The seductions of technology are hard to resist, and in our age of instant information the benefits of speed and efficiency can seem desirable beyond debate” (224). Unlike machines, human beings possess free will. People can choose to limit internet usage. They can choose to engage in deep thinking activities.
Some of the common use of World Wide Web is to gain knowledge in research. When students are doing their home works, instead of going to the library and spending a little more time, they just need to go in front of the computer and search for the topic that they are researching on. Using the internet as a learning resource is somehow more efficient than books when it comes to time. But when it comes to reliability, books are still the best options for us to research since anybody can write, edit, and publish an article on the Web. Internet helped us to communicate with the ones we loved especially those who are far from us.
But as the internet grew, it became a major part of everyday life. We have come to rely on it for information and to facilitate communication. Globalization has created an unimaginable connection between nations, people, and culture. As innovative information and communication technologies have spread from global centers to the emerging populations, these technologies and ideas have been reinvented and adopted in numerous linguistic, political, economic, social and cultural contexts. (Eko, Kumar, and Yao) While it has proved to be relatively easy to provide and translate this information for global use, some nations are more welcoming of the information than others.
I believe school boards should not restrict the availability of “Fahrenheit 451” or any book to its students simply because they only disagree with the ideas or content of the book. Even though a book might be banned from a school library, students have access to the largest public facility in the world, the internet. The internet connects the world through social media and has the ability to find the answer to any question. With just the click of a button any book (no matter what the content) can be found on the world wide web. Also Technology has offered us so many advantages to finding, buying, downloading, and reading books anytime, and anywhere.
A Humanitian . Quantity of Unlimited Text Stephen Marche’s article “The iPad and Twenty-First-Century Humanism” is about the importance of how the rise of the Internet and the advancement of technology has de-materialized the notion of text. In his article, Marche discusses the need to sort out good information from the bad ones from the vast sea of unlimited text. Marche focuses on the emergence of unlimited text, the devaluation of material, the rebirth of credibility, and the challenge made to humanists. Thanks to the advancement of technology the use of the internet is far greater than before.
The amount of data and free press is unprecedented and as someone who has grown up with such technology virtually constantly at my side it not difficult to immerse myself in this digital age and culture of limitless connectivity. For better or for worse, the internet has undoubtedly had an impact on my life. It can be, if you so wish it to be a wholly welcoming world – when you have the ability to contact the billions around the globe. They say that university is much different to high school in that now you are exposed to so many different people from such vastly varying backgrounds that it is hard to form the stereotypical clique and be as discriminatory. The internet is so much more than that.
By using the internet as a resource, we depend on it by quickly finding answers to all our questions in a matter of minutes which changes how we process information. Carr states that we become too dependent and almost expect to find answers so quickly since it sensually serves its purpose of being convenient to people who are trying to get answers right away and eliminate having to read longer texts. Carr, Nicholas. “Rural>City>Cyberspace: The Biggest Migration in Human History.” The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings. Ed.