ipl-logo

Explosion Of Information In The Information Age By Dwight Macdonald

806 Words4 Pages

The debate of whether or not an explosion of information is considered a harm to society varies between people. Authors Dwight Macdonald, of “Reading and Thought”, and Joseph Epstein, in “Is Reading really at Risk? It Depends on What the Meaning of Reading Is”, believe that there is a negative impact on the readers. However, author Gordon Crovitz, in “The Information Age”, acknowledges the explosion of information, but believes society is able to adapt to the growing change. Though there is ample amount of irrelevant information in our society today, I believe that it is possible for a person to limit their search by using modern technology to cut out the unnecessary information.
Macdonald stated that the information in today’s society can be considered as irrelevant and insignificant (Macdonald 109). In his essay, Macdonald believed that the overwhelming amount of information causes a negative effect on the reader. Readers today will not comprehend and really analyze what they are …show more content…

Epstein analyzes a government survey “READING AT RISK” which gives statistics on how modern social media negatively affects readers. “For the first time in our history, apparently, less than half of the population bothers to read any literature (so defined) at all” (Epstein 165). Though Epstein gives statistics from the survey, he believes the numbers may not be accurate as it is to just give readers a general idea, of the situation. It can be considered a risk because people are constantly being distracted by the growing electronics culture. “He expresses his own opinion by stating that our constant use of social media actually leads to a shortened attention span (Epstein). This causes readers to lose focus The interest in literature reading has decreased as people now find enjoyment in using social media instead. Therefore, the amount of people reading any type of literature

Show More
Related

How Facts Backfire

1091 Words | 5 Pages

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.  

Read More

Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

1340 Words | 6 Pages

The rise of the technological age has brought to pass the downfall of mindful and comprehensive reading. At least this is what Nicholas Carr believes, as stated in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”. He argues that because of the golden age of computers, in depth reading no longer occurs to the extent that it once did. According to Carr, people now simply skim and skip over articles instead of actually reading them in depth. Carr constructs his credibility by having a prestigious background, and citing academic sources.

Read More

Attention Span In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

1099 Words | 5 Pages

The Current State of Attention Span A book, “Fahrenheit 451” written in 1965 by Ray Bradbury is seen as a powerful message as to why society should value knowledge and not let censorship distract the world from it. The book also shares fears about how technology could override people's lives. How has technology affected attention span? Technology has had a major toll on the attention span of people.

Read More

Technology In Fahrenheit 451 Essay

696 Words | 3 Pages

When Carr discusses how the internet has affected people close to him he discusses their experiences by saying, “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing”. This phenomenon is quite evident in "Fahrenheit 451" with Mildred, the programing she views has reduced her attention span to nearly nonexistent as she doesn’t fully comprehend what Montag says in their discussions. A con of the internet would have to be the fact that information is readily available, it allows us to consume lots of information in a shorter amount of time. In the past information took time to find and was mostly found in written books, "Fahrenheit 451" is a society in which this concept has been brought to an extreme. Print literature/any form of physical writing is extremely important according to Maryanne Wolf, an author referenced in the article, “The media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains”.

Read More

Technology In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

799 Words | 4 Pages

Technology is gradually brainwashing the people living on the planet Earth. Technology can be a prodigious thing, but if not used properly, it can have a gargantuan effect on the human race. Many adolescences spend an abounding time on their smartphones, tablets, televisions, or computers. The book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is warning current day society by displaying the effectiveness of knowledge, the ramification of continual use of technology, and the impact reading has on the human brain.

Read More

The Effects Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

1016 Words | 5 Pages

Information is key to a humans life and it build their life. An example is the book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” Information is power and if it is taken away from someone their power goes with it. In the book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, books are taken from society and these people are left with the radios and televisions for entertainment and daily updates. With the absence of the books it takes away the knowledge of the citizens leaving them very careless and stuck behind the televisions.

Read More

Summary Of Why Literature Matters By Dana Gioia

411 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More

Nicholas Carr The Shallows Analysis

1621 Words | 7 Pages

He ultimately claims that although there are many benefits that can come from using the Internet, it is harming our brains and changing the way we process information, read, write, remember, and do everything. When it comes to reading, whether it be news, fiction, literature, science, history, articles, or the like, reading on the Web is inherently different from reading from a physical printed book, magazine, or newspaper. Both the Net and print have many advantages and disadvantages. For example, the Net provides a wider range of access to information than a book does, however, the book provides a linear way of thinking and reading, whereas the Net causes non-linear thinking (Carr 104). The primary disadvantage of reading on the Internet is distractions.

Read More

Summary Of Is Google Making USupid

490 Words | 2 Pages

The author says he feels as if his own mind is changing, and he feels it when he reads. Although he appreciates the internet he does feel as if all these shortened articles and short-cuts to information have changed the way people intake information and preform at reading. From reading all these internet articles, some people feel that reading a traditional text just isn’t the same anymore, he feels distracted and bored. The author has a strong argument; we live in an instant, lazy generation. People today prefer to read quick articles on the internet rather than flipping through a paper or text book and most don’t understand that this is all actually changing the way we intake information.

Read More

Nicholas Carr's Analysis

434 Words | 2 Pages

Our way of thinking is beginning to change to the way that computers do. Advancements are made everyday. These new advancements are attempting to make life in general easier for everyone. Nicholas Carr makes the claim that, “as the internet because our primary source of the information it is affecting our ability to read books and other long narratives.” Carr suggests that using the internet is altering the way that our minds operate.

Read More

Analysis Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

696 Words | 3 Pages

According 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.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Shallows By Nicholas Carr

1626 Words | 7 Pages

The world is evolving at an alarming rate and the internet is at the center of this advancement. Nicholas Carr wrote the literary piece “ The Shallows” in which Carr explains his views on how the internet is hurting human beings rather than helping them. A few points that Carr goes into detail about, are how the internet is causing the attention span of average people to slowly decay. Carr also explains that due to the internet, people are tending to skim through what they are reading rather than reading the full text they are searching for the key points in each price of writing. Additionally Carr points out that the internet is causing relationships between people are becoming weaker due to the lack of face to face interactions between each other.

Read More

Exploratory Essay

1129 Words | 5 Pages

Reading is an essential part of human life. We use writing as a way of communicating and without it, people would not be able to clearly comprehend what others are thinking and their ideas. As we move along throughout society things change and advance. There are so many more distractions now then there were just 30 years ago. All these distractions are causing kids and teens to focus less on reading and more on how many likes their post gets on Instagram.

Read More

How The Internet Changed The Way We Read

1240 Words | 5 Pages

When it comes to this theory, the theory does not tell the public what to think but what to think about. This is one of the theories that can be used to explain about the contents in the article on ‘How the Internet Changed the way we read’. The information that is contained in this article clearly sets the agenda on how the public is thinking about and even the issues that the public is talking about. As much as the content is no longer in the books or most Americans are not getting it from published terms, it is understood that the internet has in a great way made it clear that the public can still get information and utilize it in the best ways possible which will aid in making the public to think about some topics that are being put across(Johnson,2013).

Read More

Analysis Of Informing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman

906 Words | 4 Pages

Even just a couple years ago, if a student was writing a research paper, they would go to the library to read and learn about the topic, so they could complete the assignment. Now people depend on the internet to do most of the searching for them. With information easily attained, people no

Read More

More about Explosion Of Information In The Information Age By Dwight Macdonald

Related Topics

Open Document