Dwight Macdonald Reading And Thought Summary
In “Reading and Thought” by Dwight Macdonald, Macdonald raises the idea of reading deeply and how our society has changed its reading style. He points out that our modern society constantly reads irrelevant information in articles, newspapers, or magazines in our daily lives. A term called “functional curiosity” is a person’s interest in being amused, entertained or wanting to know what’s happening around the world. According to Henry Luce, the creator of Time magazine, “Functional Curiosity grows as the number of educated peoples grows.” Macdonald argues that being “functionally curious” is not functional because it does not help the individual function. These articles, magazines or newspapers do not help the reader become wealthier, politically known, or a better person. The author believes that reading irrelevantly …show more content…
Reading purposely can help the reader develop connections to the articles because they are taking their time to read and develop these feelings that can relate to their personal lives. I disagree with Macdonald because I believe that there are benefits to not taking the time to read and reading ‘irrelevant’ articles. It can help ones’ personal life because they are able to find more media that can help their personal life and it can also help improve them to be a well-rounded person. Our modern society has evolved a lot since the 16th century, it has become a fast-paced environment from technology and the Industrial Revolution. Many people do not have the time to sit down and read a four-page article, and the result of this has changed how our media presents their media. Articles are very quick and straight to the point, although they are very short, many readers skim through it because they may be multitasking. Readers can be scrolling through their social media while eating breakfast, on their way to work or another activity that doesn’t require their full attention. Even though the reader is trying to read
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Rhetorical Analysis Of The Following Passage By Dana Gioia
437 Words | 2 PagesDana Gioia creates a passage encouraging, influencing, and informing the reader of the recent literacy rate decline. He begins by verbalizing the problem, then moving to how it connects to business, then finally the decline affecting politics. Gioia uses evidence such as facts and quotes to support this idea and drive the thoughts into the reader’s head. These strategies, build his argument and assists with persuading the reader on how this decline will have a negative effect on society.
Summary Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr
1022 Words | 5 Pages“Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore” (Carr 32). The internet has taken a personal toll on Carr, in which he cannot even look at a long piece of writing, because it has become so unfamiliar to him. He has become accustomed to the internet, and therefore replaces his passion of reading.
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Summary Of Why Literature Matters By Dana Gioia
504 Words | 3 PagesBy labeling the diminished percentage of those who read as “worrisome” and “troubling” Gioia is able to convey the negativity of the lack of literacy. Upon reading the article, and mulling over how Gioia feels about America’s current reading levels, a reader is inclined to acknowledge that illiteracy is detrimental to American society and something that needs
Rhetorical Strategies Used In Ian Leslie's Curious
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History In Jane Yolen's Briar Rose
948 Words | 4 PagesThey also gain an understanding of that period in time, how people were treated during that period in time and what went on during that period of time. When reading a novel it is more enjoyable to read than reading a factual report or article. It has been proven that if you find something enjoyable you learn and understand the topic better and in more detail compared to if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing. From my own experiences I can relate to the evidence.
Summary Of Why Literature Matters By Dana Gioia
269 Words | 2 PagesIn this article “ Why literature matters” by Dana Gioia explains that American art has changed. It points out the fact that literary knowledge is declining. Some of the changes that were pointed out is that most people no longer read. His main purpose is to encourage people to begin to read again and that will help them improve their intellectual level. In the article Gioia expresses reasoning and includes evidence of the importance of reading.
Examples Of Hidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff
540 Words | 3 PagesHidden Intellectualism In Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff introduces the reader to his article with the comment that street smart students are being labelled nonintellectual by colleges and schools professors since they do poorly in academic work and their interest is centered into sports, magazines, and video games; nonetheless, these nonintellectual students seem more intellectual than those called themselves intellectual. As a first argument, the author claims that being interested in sport and novel reading more than school work readings could be another form of being intellectual. As a personal example, Graff writes “Until I entered college, I hated books and cared only for sports” (265).
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The Owl Has Flown Analysis
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Mackenzie King And Sir John A. Macdonald's Analysis
1574 Words | 7 PagesFor a long time the debates had been going about how was the better prime minister of Canada. On the the top of most lists of best prime ministers are Mackenzie King and Sir John A. Macdonald. For example, according to the Expert Survey that was made in 2013 “Laurier came first, Macdonald second, and King third, but the difference in their overall scores was negligible”. Both prime ministers had a strong vision of the country that helped shaped Canada to become the country it is today(in 2015). Thesis: Sir John A.Macdonald was one of the founding fathers, but William Lyon Mackenzie King had to lead the country through the part of Depression and WWII, and they both have made different positive contributions to Canada and are highly respected
Why Read Harrison Bergeron Analysis
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Analysis Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr
696 Words | 3 PagesAccording to this statement the readers can conclude that the main reason for reading concentration disturbance is the internet. In terms of the scientific research, the article provides the research by the British Library and U.K educational consortium which states “They found that people using the sites exhibited ‘a form of skimming activity,’ hopping from one source to another rarely returning to any source they’d already visitied” (Carr, 2008). From this statement we can understand that there are numbers of attractive information piled on one page, people have a hard time choosing which one to read, resulting them to skim and jump to one another. From these couple examples, it can be concluded that the author of this essay is strongly attempting to convince the readers in his idea of internet disturbing people’s concentration. However, the essay itself is extremely biased, because of the fact that there is no information about benefits of using the internet and reading online.
Pros And Cons Of Digital Reading
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