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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

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