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Digital Reading Comparison Essay

1208 Words5 Pages

Reading has developed over time and now the common way of reading is digitally. Reading has changed so maybe the way people read has changed also. The two articles “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr (2008) and “The Deep Space of Digital Reading” by Paul LaFarge (2016) explain the effects of digital reading and the pros and cons of reading information online. Both articles explain how our brains are malleable and can be altered by the way we read. Digital reading has been said to cause people to skim through information without fully reading the information. Digital reading has made it easier to access the information, rather than trying to search for it through hundreds of pages in a book. Society has changed a lot over time, and maybe because society has changed so has the way people read. Has our fast changing society caused the way people read to change also? Literature Review
In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr (2008), Carr explains how …show more content…

LaFarge (2016) stated, “The internet reduces us to mindless clickers, racing numbly to the bottom of a bottomless feed; but done well, it has the potential to expand and augment the very contemplative space that we have prized in ourselves ever since we learned to read without moving our lips” (n.p.). The internet can be a bad thing if not used wisely but it can also be a great way to learn new information. LaFarge (2016) also describes the different ways reading has changed over history and he explains that digital reading is just a new part of reading history. Reading has changed dramatically throughout history, and reading now is very different from how it was in the past. Reading in print allows people to take their time when they read the information while reading online is seen as being best suited for fast and empty

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In his essay Is Google Making Us Stupid, Nicholas Carr argues that our dependence on the Internet changes the way we read and think. He includes his own personal testimony to support this claim, as well as others’ descriptions, including several friends, and bloggers that Carr quote. While he lacks scientific proof supporting his claim, multiple testimonies support his claim that the internet has changed the way people think. However, Carr views this negatively, saying that “I’m not thinking the way I used to think… my concentration often starts to drift… I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text” (633-634).

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