Analysis Of Daron Acemoglu And James A. Robinson 's Novel Why Nations Fail

Birkerts provides three effects that will occur as a result of moving away from the printed word to the electronic media. The first effect is the language erosion. He explains the reader that transition from books will lead to the “complexity and distinctiveness of verbal and written communication, which are deeply bound to transaction of print literacy, will gradually be replaced by a more telegraphic sort of plainspeak” (9). In the future our language will start to become more simple and dumb. Whereas, by reading books and printed materials people are able to dig more depth and understand and imagine the contents. But, soon this will start to disappear as people will no longer be able to understand the complex language of the literature and intelligence level of people will start to decrease. The second effect of electronic media is the flattening of historical perspectives. This means that due to the electronic media the history will start to recede because the “printed page itself is a link” and when this link is broken the past will gradually diminish (10). Birkerts explains the audience that the past is best represented in the books and libraries. Therefore, moving away from the printed word means moving away from the past and its history. The last effect is the waning of the private self. Birkerts worries that in the future people will forget how to live because of the electronic

Enthusiasts and self-appointed experts assure us that this new digital literacy represents an advance for mankind; the book is evolving, progressing, improving, they argue, and every improvement demands an uneasy period of adjustment.

If a person wishes to be up to date on what is going on the world around them, in all facets and walks of life, then they must spend a considerable portion of time merely skimming the water of each pool of knowledge, never having the time to truly sink their feet in. This correlates directly back to the massively increased availability of information and writings, whose shoulders Birkerts puts the blame of our loss upon. Nicholas Carr cites a study done on the “behavior of visitors to two popular research sites” which gives its users an even larger degree of online texts.

Rightly dubbed the information highway, the Internet today offers not only the best in quality merchandise and up to date information, it also offers a myriad of educational experiences for those desiring to further learn about the many cultures found on this planet.

There is no denying the incredible library of knowledge the internet has made readily available for all to use. Having such a resource is transforming modern society in many ways, as it brings insight and news across the world at a moment’s notice, all the while enhancing educational and technological advancements. However, according to Sven Birkets, an American essayist and literacy critic, in his essay, “The Owl Has Flown”, it is not without fault as observations are to be made on how this new resource has transformed people’s intelligence and wisdom. The author theorizes that the large, almost unlimited, library that is now being offered by services such as the internet, reshapes the public’s knowledge. Knowledge is transformed to be horizontal or insubstantial compared to the much deeper lateral understanding pertaining to older generations because of the amount of time they spent dwelling on a much smaller set of resources. This observation made by Birkets in the late 90’s is expanded upon, and modernized by Nicholas Carr, an American writer and author, in a more inflicting and self-reflecting article for The Atlantic magazine entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains”. Carr does not just blame the Google search engine in this claim, but the internet as a whole on how it impacts concentration and our ability to contemplate. These cognitive impacts are observed and explained in more scientific terms by Eric Jaffe, a regular Observer

Carr said “What if I do all my readings on the web not so much because the way I read has changed. i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?” (Carr, pg 7). Since the internet has come into play people have stooped reading books because is easier to just google what they are wanting to know. The internet can change the way someone can process the information on a screen than in a book and how much is actually being consumed by the person. Not only is it changing the way we understand but every technology is an expression of the human will. This allows us to reshape nature to better serve our needs and desires. The internet has the greatest power over how and what we think

According to the International Adult Literacy Survey there are a great number of people in Canada that do not have the required literacy skills to fully comprehend written material (Statistics Canada, 2007: 17). However, the internet has a solution. Imbedded within informative websites are often links to activities, videos and simulations which may serve to enable those with lower literacy levels better comprehension of the material at hand. This is evidenced by findings of the International Adult Literacy survey that determined that individuals who use computers generally scored higher in prose literacy defined as the ability to understand and apply concepts learned from text (Statistics Canada, 2005). The internet has the potential to provide these individuals with a better understand the concepts contained within text through the use of multimedia beyond the one dimensional pictures contained in a traditional book. Therefore, the internet serves as a means of transferring knowledge that is more inclusive than traditional print media. Although the internet facilitates the transfer of information, there are concerns about how this information is interpreted and understood.

According to the United Nations Agency, approximately 3.2 billion people have used the Internet since 2015, which has made a drastic increase since 2000 with there only being 738 million internet users then. That is almost 43% of the world's population that uses the internet. A controversial topic that is commonly being brought up in today's arguments is the use of the internet and how people believe it is becoming such a detriment to our society, because nobody in this generation acknowledges the value of books, or even prefers to use an actual copy such as a paperback. The internet, such as Google, is being classified as lazy or ignorant, but reading a book is labeled as literate or being knowledgeable. Thesis:“Teaching in the #Age Literacy” by Jennifer L. Nelson and “Is Google Making Us stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, both analyze the pros and cons to having the internet and information at our fingertips, how it is affecting the way we read and analyze text and different scientific experiments that have been put to use to decode why we think the way we do now and how to improve our intelligence.

This explosion of technology has opened many doors to the way we think and process information. Instead of the mundane linear cognitive thought processes involved in reading a book, the Net offers instant access to social media, games, shopping, and many other exciting and stimulating programs. This not only changes the entire spectrum of knowledge, but it also changes the way we look at the world. That is something the book has done, but not to this extreme.

Furthermore, later Carr describes on how the convenience of the internet may be affecting us as a whole and may in fact may be making us dumber: “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”. As Carr said that the printing press made us think deeply about the text that was now available due to the printing press. But, the reverse happened with the internet how it made text more available but as a result it made lose that deep thinking we once had making us dumber. This shows

The modern world today could not be more different than 200000 years ago when the first homo sapien first appeared on Earth. Over these 200000 years period, many things have changed the face of the Earth forever. The Neolithic Revolution 12000 years ago changed the way human lived from foragers to agriculturalist that forged the Earth into their images. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed knowledges to spread all over the world. The rise of the internet in the 1990s united the world under a network of informations for all to access. Another drop in mankind's endless ocean of ideas is the concept of literature. The concept of expressing one's beliefs via a “body of artistic writings of a country or period that are

Throughout this essay I will be discussing how the digital age has transformed society in many ways. The digital age also known as the information age, is the evolution of technology in daily life and social organizations have led to the fact that the modernization of information and communication processes has become the driving force of social evolution.” This is a time period in which we live in now where Internet and email are available; this is an example of the digital age. The Information Age is the idea that access to and the control of information is the defining characteristic of this current era in human civilization.

Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson explains the different and unique origins of power, prosperity, and poverty for certain nations. The preface of Why Nations Fail foreshadows what is next to come by explaining that key historical events in life can make or break a country’s success and future. Next, each chapter dives into these key historical events, known as case studies, and analyses that chapter’s nation(s) and why the nation is either poverty-stricken or prosperous. This is known as the book’s methodology. The authors give examples such as with inclusive and extractive institutions to argue against theories that suggest why nations are poor that are not correct such as the geography hypothesis, culture hypothesis, and ignorance hypothesis. This book argues that nations have and will continue to fail politically and economically if they implement extractive institutions instead of inclusive institutions.

Just how destructive is the internet to education? According to author and journalist Judith Levine, the internet is far from empowering (1). She argues that the students are incapable of finding good sources, ignoring scholarly articles in lieu of relying on sketchy blogs. Levin says no facts on the internet can be truly verified, and that the sources themselves are too limited to be of any use. It is easy to misuse the internet. Falsities are rampant and less reliable sources can be cited with ease. With proper training, however, students will benefit from using the internet for academic purposes without abusing its capabilities. The issues that are most often brought up can, upon closer inspection, be dealt with through the same tool that the internet itself is a tool for: education.

Why Nations Fail takes an in depth look into why some countries flourish and become rich powerful nations while other countries are left in or reduced to poverty. Throughout this book review I will discuss major arguments and theories used by the authors and how they directly impact international development, keeping in mind that nations are only as strong as their political and economical systems.