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Anti Intellectualism And The Dumbing Down Of America Summary

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Ray Williams talks about how America as a whole is foregoing conventional knowledge and replacing it with what could be considered more self-absorbed information in his article “Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of America”. He goes on to include a quote from Susan Jacoby, paraphrasing senator Moynihan, about “the triumph of video culture over print culture”. This is of great interest due to the fact that if someone wants to learn a skill or get information about how to accomplish something, one of the first places that individual goes is YouTube. Although senator Moynihan made a great point with his quote, the quote that resonated with me was made by Catherine Liu when she said “We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get
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“Is Google Making Us Stupid” is an article written by Nicholas Carr, where Carr tries to make the point that our ability to read books and other long pieces of information is being affected by the internet's ability to become our primary source of information. Carr States (2008) “ And what the net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation”(p.610).Even though the internet offers a highly efficiencient way of knowledge, it also melts our brain's ability to learn by experience. Carr starts by sharing a problem with the us about how he can hardly focus anymore when reading more the three or four pages. Carr goes on to prove how information on the internet is meant to be consis, and meant to get the point

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Humanity is in a perpetual state of trying to make living in the world an easier place. In just a few seconds, people can access information at their disposal, instead of having to look through different books to find what you need. But the question arises; does this boundless place for information honestly make us more informed than before we had the internet? Joe Keohane, the author of the article “How Facts Backfire,” is a political journalist who has also written articles on technology and culture.  

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1311 Words | 6 Pages

Brainless.com: Rhetorical Strategies in Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Do we depend on the Internet to answer all of our questions? Nicholas Carr, an American author, wrote “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” published in 2008 in The Atlantic, and he argues about the effects of the Internet on literacy, cognition, and culture. Carr begins his argument with the ending scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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She describes the rise of technology as “[...] a disjunction between Americans’ rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science, and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.” Is this truly what Americans are doing in their spare time? According to measurements by comScore, the top apps downloaded by smartphone users in the last year include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and Snapchat. Slowly but surely, our love of learning is being replaced by the societal norms of social

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As a journalist, media theorist, and author of Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson is a formidable activist for the most revolutionary technological achievement to date; the internet. In “Dawn of the digital natives,” an article in the Guardian, Johnson urges readers to look at the positive impact of the new electronic media age and critically at the National Endowment for the Arts study “To Read or Not to Read” that provoked a panic about the decline of reading. However, Nicholas Carr, a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist, shares his testimony of how his internet usage of more than a decade has eroded his capacity to concentrate and contemplate. Although the two articles were published in 2008, before the explosion of smartphone sales in 2012, the presence of social media, YouTube, and smartphones increased sensitivity to the issue. Consequently, this sensitivity might make readers more receptive to opinions about these new technologies.

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470 Words | 2 Pages

After reading the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, our group came to a decision that we agreed with Carr. Google is, in fact, making us stupid. Throughout the article, Carr emphasizes how our minds are changing as a result of the time we spend online. Throughout the article, Carr makes the argument that the internet has affected how human beings process and retain information. The problem with the internet that Carr addresses are that media does not just supply information to the users, it also shapes the thoughts that flow in the people's minds.

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1332 Words | 6 Pages

People believe technological advances are changing the public’s mind that they must avoid and restrain from using the technologies because they are destroying our experience with real life. This new movement is educating

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As the digital age comes upon us, more and more Americans become dissatisfied with the state of literacy in this generation. Because the Internet paves the way for shorter and shorter interactions, namely articles versus novels and six-second viral videos versus films, many people that grew up in the age of the Internet have a preference for this condensed form of entertainment. Dana Gioia of The New York Times asserts in his essay “Why Literature Matters” that the decline of reading in America is destined to have a negative impact on society as a whole. Gioia opens his essay with a bittersweet account of which trend is occurring in the twenty-first century America arts scene. He notes that as college attendance rates blossom, the interest

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672 Words | 3 Pages

Steven Pinker wrote “Mind over Mass Media” which tells of this claim is more false than true. Pinker reminds us that if technology was actually making us more stupid, then how are we scientifically better than ever before. Critics are believing that the mind is being shaped by everything it is seeing and hearing. The only problem here is the lack of self control people have when it comes to the distracting parts of the internet we use so often. People tend to find themselves reading tweets instead of articles now.

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In conclusion, although many people believe new forms of electronic media are harmful to people’s intelligence, Steven Pinker thinks otherwise. He successfully proves this by bringing up many counterarguments and disproving them as well as having very trustworthy credentials. That being said, he also thinks it is important to practice self control to avoid becoming too distracted with these new forms of media and

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289 Words | 2 Pages

In the article, “Anti-Intellectualism and the “Dumbing Down” of America” Ray Williams discusses the increasing trend of anti-intellectualism in American culture. There is an anti-intellectualism that exists in American culture that is the result of the unpopularity of being smart in High School, the lack of the importance of teachers in the U.S. compared to Japan and the effect of reality TV and pop culture. Williams indicates that one of the reasons that anti-intellectualism exists is that education in the United States is not as strong as it once was. Williams says, “After leading the world for decades in 24-34 year olds with university degrees, the U.S. is now in 12th place. The World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. at 52nd among 139 nations

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181 Words | 1 Pages

The article “Mind Over Mass Media”, written by Professor Steven Pinker, describes the impact of media on human lives and brains. Pinker illustrates the benefits people gain from using the worlds quickly increasing technology and media. Pinker suggests that today’s technology such as, PowerPoint, Google, and other forms of social media can actually enhance and bring more intelligence to the mind, instead of being detrimental. Critics believe that the many different forms of media can lower intelligence. However, Pinker declares that scientists are using all of this technology everyone else is using, and are still discovering new things.

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492 Words | 2 Pages

The Influence of Technology In the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr argues that utilization of the internet has an adverse effect on our way of thinking and functioning in everyday life. Whether it be reading a newspaper, or scrolling through Facebook, internet media has forever stamped its name in our existence. Carr explains to us that the internet is a tool used every single day in today’s society, but also makes most of us complacent with the ease of having the world at our fingertips.

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925 Words | 4 Pages

The author, Nicholas Carr (2010), in “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” argues that the internet, which is usually looked upon as the most abundant source of information, is actually what is leading people to become “superficial thinkers.” People who are always on the internet tend to not be very productive or creative. Even with the advantages using

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906 Words | 4 Pages

In only a couple of decades, technology has imbedded itself into people’s lives, to the point it would be difficult to live without using technology. In Neil Postman’s speech “Informing Ourselves to Death,” he explains how not all technology is being used for what its original purpose was, and how people are starting to drown in the useless information technology gives. Postman also makes the claim, “And therefore, in a sense, we are more naïve than those in the Middle Ages, and more frightened, for we can be made to believe almost anything” (5). Though Postman gave this speech about thirty years ago, this accurately describes modern society. Technology was meant to help people learn and improve their lives, but it has instead increased the naivety of the world.

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