Hard Cover vs. Hard Drive Essay

Technology has become an increasingly advanced as well as an important aspect in modern society. That is why Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, was right to fear books and other printed sources would be replaced by modern technology. Technology has contributed to the significant loss of time children spend reading. Additionally, eBooks have replaced print books. Moreover, television and radio have replaced newspapers as the dominant source of information.

In this article, “Why Even the Worst Bloggers Are Making Us Smarter” by Clive Thompson, talks about how much words we write together as a world per day. The amount of words we use now and back in the days without internet is fascinating. Before the internet, most people only wrote during school days and after that no one took writing seriously. “Altogether, we compose some 3.6 trillion words every day on email and social media — the equivalent of 36 million books.” Internet is something we all use in this world. Most of us use it for communication purpose and others to share their stories and educate others. Digital communications has helped us to become better writers because parents were focusing if their kids were reading every day more

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

“The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr 773). Carr’s point is because people are using the web, it is making it harder for them to concentrate and process information. Carr and Turkle both suggest in their articles that people now have lost the ability to be able to concentrate and to be

The author feels that someone has been tinkering with his brain, making it change. In his essay he says, “the net is chipping away my capacity for completion and concentration” (Carr 333). Carr goes on to mention how the Internet has been a godsend tool to help him as a writer (332). He then says how it also has become the “universal medium to access information”. To support this, he cites Marshall McLuhan. He noted that in the 1960’s the “media are not passive channels of information”. It feeds us information to think about and also “tells” us how to process it. Because of this Carr explains how the Internet forces him to skim through articles instead of really concentrating and taking the time to read like he once did. Carr uses an online blogger as an example of this because he stopped reading books even though his major was literature in college. The online blogger, Scott Karp, thinks it was the way he thinks has changed not the way he reads. Another blogger, Bruce Friedman, agrees his ability to read long articles has been affected by the Web, describing his thinking as having a “staccato” quality because of scanning short passages of text on the

In Nicholas Carr’s article entitled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” he explains that the up rise of computers, and technology, has taken a toll on the former ability to read and understand what is being read. Suddenly, what was once so simple is now a prolonged, agonizing task which readers like Carr have experienced. The infamous internet has become the basis for information people seek to collect. Personally, I think Carr’s interpretation of the increase in technology is most accurate when referring to the overtake of artificial intelligence, the inability to read small to large amounts of written work, and the obvious change in the way we think as a person.

In The Atlantic article “Why I Blog,” Andrew Sullivan explores a relatively new and compelling medium of communication, blogging. He discusses how blogging has changed writing from a future oriented process of writing to a rather provisional sense of writing. Consequently, this makes the process of editing, revising, polishing and ultimately publishing almost non-existent in the realm of blogging. Sullivan goes on to note how the usage of blogs has created a bond between the reader and the author, and the pace at which that bond travels is seamless. Sullivan writes, “And the intimate bond this creates with readers is unlike the bond that the Times, say, develops with its readers through the same events.” Quite notably in this quote, Sullivan explains that the formal writing often associated with well known traditional newspapers, such as The New York Times, seems to lack a human quality; Whereas, blogging generates that constant flux of thoughts and paves a path of reassessment, through feedback from readers. “To blog is therefore to let go of your writing in a way, to hold it at arm’s length, open it to scrutiny, allow it to float in the ether for a while, and to let

Many people may argue that technology has helped us become more efficient in today’s society. Technological advances such as the internet and Google has also opened up many new opportunities for people. However, with such advances some may argue that we begin to lose some of our cognitive thinking ability. In an essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, he argues his thesis that people will lose concentration and cognitive thinking as a result to reading online. Carr begins by explaining how the many innovations of today’s technologies has changed the way one thinks. Carr continues by saying that the internet is affecting peoples concentration, however they use it for its convenience; to quickly scan an article and avoid “the traditional way of reading.” Carr then explains how Maryanne Wolf believes that the new style of reading has altered our ability to interpret and make deep mental connections. Carr shows support of how Frederick Nietzsche enhanced his style of writing beginning with a type writer in 1882. Carr then explains how neuroscience professor James Olds, discovered that nerve cells break apart and form new connections to form new habits. As explained by Danielle Bell and Lewis Mumford, Carr says intellectual technologies such as the mechanical clock, has divided action and thought; helping create the scientific method in a series of steps. Carr then explains how Alan Turning discovered that computers could be used as information processing device;

Carr opens with various statements making the reader understand his stand point, that the Web has changes the way his mind works, “uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. (Carr, 2008)” After rising this personal comments Carr, uses the experience of acquaintance to inform the reader more about this statement. Using Scott Karps, a blogger, statements to makes the viewer see the after effect of the web, Carr tells the reader, “. Scott Karp,[…] recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader[…] “What if I do all my reading 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, 2008)” Carr uses these comment to further address the

Technology is used around the world and is a valuable resource used in our society but our society has surrendered valuable reading to technology.

Birkerts explores this idea thoroughly, projecting almost a sense of fear at the thought of any changes to what was already present. “A change [was] upon us—nothing could be clearer” (Birkerts, 2), and the unpredictability of it seemed frightening as is. But beyond this fear, there was a sense of urgency. An urgent need to halt whatever was yet to come, or at least stall these progressions until the importance of physical text was completely established. Having “ co-managed a used and rare book shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan” (Birkerts, 1), the value of literature held to be astronomically important to him. This, however, seemed to be slowly not applying to more and more of the general population with every advancement we’ve made electronically. Shifts in popular methods of learning held as no surprise to him, especially since this had been the case multiple times throughout history.“ [In] Greece…[around] the time of Socrates, the dominant oral culture was overtaken by the writing technology, [while] in

Technology grows broader and more advanced every day, unbelievably. Now more than six billion eight hundred and eighty million people own cell phones and devices like it. I will have you ask yourself first, when is the last time you read a novel on paperback instead of from a kindle or looked up a word on Google, maybe even had a full conversation with anyone regarding anything? Technology will make knowing anything about a subject obsolete as made evident in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, multiple online sources and an interview with Mrs. Rucker a teacher for many years.

There are evidence and accounts that the internet has caused us to change the way that we read and write. From the beginnings of time, we have had technology change the way that our brain has functioned. Currently, the invention of the internet has caused the most change to our psychological hardwiring. What had caused us to change our way of reading? Nicholas Carr and Toby Litt, two authors, have written about the way that the Internet had changed the way we read and write.

The way of learning and reading has changed dramatically over many generations because of new technological advances. Learning is the knowledge acquired through experience, study, or being taught. In Birkerts essay, he explains that learning and how we gather information has changed over time. He says newspapers, magazines, brochures, advertisements, and labels are things that are around individuals every day. These are things that individuals will read to gain knowledge of certain things that are going on. For example, individuals will read labels on food items to see what the food is made out of because some individuals are allergic to certain ingredients and need to know this information. Time has changed the way individuals learn. Learning at one time was all from books and individuals taking notes on those books. Years ago, books were rare and that is what individuals used to learn and when they had a book they had to take out all they could from that book. Learning has gone from just books to many different ways of receiving information. Today’s big new way of learning is from the internet. Individuals have gone from staring at a book for hours to typing a question they have into the internet and getting results back from many sources. Birkerts describes this in his essay, “As we now find ourselves at a cultural watershed-as the fundamental process of transmitting information is shifting from mechanical to circuit-driven, from page to screen-it may be time to ask how

Now days with the rise of digital technology many physical items such as pen and paper are slowly being replaced by computers and smart phones. But is this really a good thing? I read books and of course so do many other people in this class and around the globe. But since the creation of ‘e-readers’ more and more people have been converting to the technology based side of reading. Although technology is slowly becoming more predominant in this era we should not rely on it to always entertain and keep us occupied.