Luis Cortez
Professor Joshua Belknap
English 101
Homework #5
11 November 2011
I would tend to agree with the author. I think that definitely, we as a society collectively spend way too much time on the internet. People in general seem to have lost the ability to socialize with each other, unless they have some gadget with them that tells them the latest sports news, news headlines, or the latest person they just added on their Facebook page. When Nicholas Carr says that he thinks he’s mind is changing. “I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” He attributes this to too much time online, searching and surfing on the internet. I will also agree with him on that point. I sometimes find myself going through some of the same problems as he says he goes through. Like being able to concentrate on reading a book, I find myself bored or just want to skim through the whole book. For me personally, I find that is easier to go online and do research, read books and browse for the latest news headlines, then it is to do the same thing by going to a library, or picking up a book, or newspaper, and reading it. As the author Maryanne Wolf states, “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. I think Maryanne Wolf is correct, when she says “Reading is not an instinctive skill for human beings” I think that for humans to be able to truly absorb information we may have to at some point get off the net, turn off our computers, and actually get back to reading, and learning the way we learned before the internet came along. I know it’s hard; I’m not going to kid myself and think that tomorrow we’ll be able to log off our pc’s, and suddenly we’ll all be face deep into a book, and forget all about the Net. Unless of course, that book happens to be a Playboy, then I’m sure, I a lot of guys I know, and those I don’t, will be able to turn off their pc’s, forget all about the net, and concentrate on the deep articles in the magazine. Nicholas Carr says in his essay that when Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter sometime in 1882, his vision was failing, and keeping his eyes focused on a page had become exhausting and painful, often bringing on crushing headaches. Carr says the typewriter rescued Friedrich, at least for a time. Carr’s point is that Friedrich manage to use a new medium, the “typewriter” to learn how to write without having to open his eyes, because if he focused too much on the page he was writing, it would bring on crushing headaches. In doing so, Friedrich style of writing had changed. As a friend of Friedrich had noticed, his already terse prose, the language people use in speaking or writing, had become even tighter, more telegraphic. I think the overall message that Nicholas Carr try’s to convey is that whichever medium we use, be it the typewriter, as in Friedrich’s case, or TV, or internet, as in our case, it changes us. Whether is for the better or worse, is still up for debate. But I agree with his overall argument that perhaps the internet, and or Google is dumbing down society. We need to get off the net and read more books. Only then will we be able to put off some of our brain cells from dying a premature death. As to whether that will happen? I don’t think so. We’ve got Google, and the Net so engrave into our brains, that I don’t think we would know what to do with ourselves without them.