Reading On The Electronic Age

Read excerpt # 3 The Anasazi: Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde and excerpt # 4 The Mississippians: Cahokia and Moundville (pp.29-33) by following the link Pre-Columbian America (Learner.org). Type responses to the following questions on Google Doc and save.

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

Carr identifies how reading a book is different from reading online because when you read online, you don’t think deeply about what it is you’re reading, and you don’t have to concentrate nearly as much. Carr also mentions that the Internet is something people find themselves going to more often than books because it is more time efficient.

In response to Mitoko Rich, “Literacy Debate – Online, R U Really Reading?” In the 21st century, children are learning via many different sources, whether through textbooks, internet, blogs, etc. Therefore, it was not surprising to read what was mentioned in this article. Reading in the digital age is causing a debate, especially in regards to students. After reading the article, I began to wonder; is it possible that digital text can cause more harm than good? Can digital text take away the value of reading books? And what is happening psychologically to a child when they are using digital text?

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

He gathered research from several credited writers, studies, and universities who have done research about the effects of reading on the web. Carr uses his own personal experience, ideas we can relate to, and analysis backed by research to connect to the audience and persuade them that the internet is causing reading focus and comprehension problems in our current society.

Throughout the article Carr establishes the mental process of what reading used to be, and now the modern technology reading. Before one is immersed in the tech world, reading books and newspapers was easy, flying through the books and need to run to the local library. Nowadays, teenagers, and adults all resorts to the Web. Whether it is a blog, social media post, or the online newspaper, many tend to read the bare minimum. Some may complain about the comment or caption is longer than a paragraph. Readers in today’s age

Fahrenheit 451 has changed my perspective. The book demonstrates that technologies have rotten our mind because children, teens, adults, and myself have depended on the advancement of technologies that can help us with school, work, or home. In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred relies on technologies like wall television and “Seashell Radio”. It shows that in the future, many people will rely on technologies because we are lazy people. As Clarisse began to influence Montag on the lack on perception, Montag understands that the government wants the people to believe in a certain way, and with the advancement of technologies, hardcover books, primary sources, textbook, are extinguish to which people cannot find proofs that they need.

“Sometimes writers write about a world that does not exist yet. We do it for a hundred reasons…The reasons for writing about the day after tomorrow, and all the tomorrows that follow it, are as many and as varied as the people writing.” (Gaiman xi)

In today’s day and age, it is common knowledge that students possess different learning styles than those of generations before them. In the essays by Marc Prensky “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” (2001) and “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part II: Do They Really Think Differently?” (2001) the author clearly argues a need to adapt to students modern learning styles. In Lotta Larson’s “The Learning Potential of e-Books” (2015) Larson also argues the clear benefits of eLearning for today’s students. Finally, is Naomi S. Baron’s “How E-Reading Threatens Learning is the Humanities” (2014) a different approach is noted as eLearning could be argued as distracting to a student’s learning process. It is no question that pupils today can

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.

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

The continuing emergence of innovative writing technologies allows people to express themselves and communicate in countless different ways from years past. With these new technologies comes a change in many of our learning and social traditions. The most important change is the metamorphosis taking place in the online literary world. The line between author and reader has become blurred as more and more technology-driven literature, like hypertext fiction, has become interactive. The whole idea of authorship has changed, which in turn affects the role of the reader.

Nowadays, there are thousands of books available free on the Internet, and people find them easy to read the book online instead of getting the hard copy of the book. In his book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr explains that the online readings make it becomes difficult for us to pay full attention to the reading “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing”(7). For example, when I have to read the articles from the Internet for my research papers or class assignments, I always have hard time focus on the reading because I easily get distracted by the ads shown on the pages. I start paying attention to the ads instead of understanding and absorb the information. Carr also states that “For some people, the very idea of reading a book has come to seem old-fashioned, maybe even little silly- like sewing your own shirts or butchering your own meat”(8). In these days, people find it boring to read books, especially young adults, they think it is a waste of time to read books when they can get the short versions of reading from the Internet instead of reading a page to

During the development of technology, most people have shifted to use electronic books to read both academic and non-academic texts. However, despite the technological changes, there has been a wide debate about the benefits of paper books over the e-books. It is important to understand that various reasons are suggesting why people should shift back to using the traditional books rather than the electronic ones. Even though some think that e-books are better that traditional ones, I believe that readers should return to traditional books because of various reasons.