Steven Pinker Mind Over Mass Media Summary

Technology has played an influential role in the growing society of today. It has been the technological mother-nature to the brain, as people seek guidance from its false intelligence. In the novel Feed, written by M.T. Anderson, the main focus is on the effect that technology has on a society as a whole. With technology, such as the feed, it can be beneficial when used correctly. It can help a person come up with just the “right” words when they’re stuck on a paper, or even when they are having a conversation with another individual. Technology is a good resource in most cases; however, it is not truly a benefit when overused. It turns into an addiction, and people begin to rely on it too much. Technology that is similar to the feed should be removed, because

Television has transformed our culture from a word oriented culture to a visual one. But Carlson also points out that recent advertisements brought words back into the public eye. Yes, I agree completely with what the author had to say in this article, I do believe technology is changing the way we see and act in the world. We have all the knowledge in the world at our finger tips and we use it at our advantage or disadvantage. A lot gunk is leaked onto the internet and someone that doesn’t know any better picks it up and believes it's true. Technology can sometimes be a gift or a curse. I’ve seen people who are gutsy and know-it-alls on the internet turn out to be lonely insecure people. People feel that they are safer behind a computer screen compared to face to face interaction. A lot of things that are said online or on the television can never be said during normal interaction because they know better. By why can’t that same way of thinking be involved when we interact with each other

In his Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr contends that the overload of information is “chipping away his capacity for concentration and contemplation”(315). He admits with easy accessibility of information online, the process of research has became much simpler(Carr 315). Yet such benefit comes with a cost. Our brains are “rewired” as the cost of such convenience(Carr 316). As the result, “we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s...but it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking”(Carr 317). Carr argues the forming of such habits can prevent us from deep reading and thinking. In fact, he provides may evidences in the

Technology helps man, it’s man who abuse this and then become over dependent and obsessed. We morph science and mathematics to do evil. For example, we use it to find cures and bring people together, we are no longer disconnected from the world. But, that doesn’t outway the negatives. We use technology to make bombs and pollute the world, and using too much technology affects you as a person and disconnect you to the people around you. In Fahrenheit 451, there is one night where Montag is laying at night with his wife. As he lays, he thinks “Seashell was tamped in her ear again...why didn’t he buy himself an audio-Seashell...and talk to his wife...What would he say?” Montag and his wife are so distant because she always has her Seashell in that Montag would not even know what to say to her given the opportunity. However, that doesn’t mean being exposed to violence in video games and movies make people violent. In an article by The Guardian called “Video games are not making us more violent, study shows” says “Major new research into the effects of violent movies and video games has found no long-term links with real-life

Advances in technology has altered the world as we know it, and it can only progress farther. Through the minds of many intelligent and devoted individuals across time technology has developed into a twenty first century deity. A young child one hundred years ago could never envision a world like ours today, ruled by ones and zeros. The media has affected us in ways that we can’t even comprehend and will continue to steadily provide humans with a faster and faster flow of information for years to come. But what is the cost to have all of the information you can imagine at your fingertips? The exponential increase in information that we process in all forms of media is affecting the way that we live by making society more alienated.

Kids, teens and adults are now constantly navigating the internet or using some sort of technology. In the article “Is the Onslaught Making Us Crazy” by Tony Dokoupil, different psychologist claim that technology has a bad influence on the human mind. Throughout the text, real life examples, showing psychological breakdowns, are used to support the statement.

Nicholas Carr’s Atlantic Online article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” discusses how the use of the computer affects our thought process. Carr starts out talking about his own experience as a writer and how he felt like “something had been tinkering with his brain, remapping his neural circuitry and reprogramming his memory”. Since starting to use the Internet his research techniques have changed. Carr said before he would immerse himself in books, lengthy articles and long stretches of prose allowing his “mind to get caught up in the narrative or the arguments”(July/August 2008, Atlantic Monthly). Today Carr has found that “his concentration drifts away from the text after several pages and he struggles to get

Both the article, “Why I just asked my students to put their laptops away” by Clay Shirky, and the article, “The collective conscience of reality television” by Serena Elavia have their differences, but mostly similarities. The article by Clay Shirky talks about how electronics affect students while in school. Many teachers had been letting students use their phones and other electronics during a class but later teachers began to tell their students to put their devices away. The other article from Serena Elavia talks about television and how the producers don’t always show the truth behind the television screen and they are only making the viewers upset. The net Media was described on both of the articles, and how it’s also been affecting us today. Although there are many other differences between the two articles, some similarities include social media, distractions caused, and people’s desire over the topics, both articles agree with the topic.

The article "Mind Over Mass Media" by Steven Pinker uses logos, ethos, pathos, and other rhetorical elements to effectively communicate that mass media is a positive development and is not a reason for panic. The first noticeable rhetorical element in Pinker’s essay is the presence of a rhetorical triangle. A rhetorical triangle is made up of a rhetor, the audience, and the rhetor’s purpose. In this essay Steven Pinker is the rhetor because is the one trying to make a point to the audience. The audience is the reader of the article who is listening to the rhetor. Finally, the text or point the rhetor is trying to make is that e effects of mass media are not a cause for panic. In fact mass media is an effective way for humans to keep up with the modern age. The clearly defined rhetorical triangle in Steven Pinker’s essay is a surface level example of rhetorical elements in the text.

In both technology oriented text "Mind over Mass Media" by Steven Pinker and Jonah Lehrer's summary of Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other had opposing views on technology. Both texts were meant for magazine readers to hopefully either realize technology is a benefit or it is what is hurting society. After analyzing both texts I feel strongly that Pinker's text was more rhetorically powerful due to his argument structure with a more logical approach. Lehrer's review took a more emotional approach but did not seem to back up his initial emotions and then went into a completely different path leading me as a reader to mistrust him.

“Societies have always been shaped by media for communication, it is impossible to understand social and cultural change without knowledge of the workings of media even the alphabet is a technology that is absorbed by young children to learn to speak through communication. The digital age is changing the way we use our brains. Rather than store important facts, today we are more likely to store information about how to find those facts where a particular file is located on the computer, how to find an important webpage again.

The internet has become so pervasive that 64% of internet users consider it a necessity (McKenna and Bargh, 57). As 64% of the population doesn’t suffer from mental health issues, it is clearly not the internet itself that leads to mental illness. The fear of new technology continually pervades society, starting with fearing the telephone and electricity. As long as there are new technological outlets developed, there will always be fear an superstition of their potential harm (McKenna and Bargh, 58). McKenna and Bargh believe that newspapers and media itself have falsely represented evidence in order

Certain media theorists such as Sherry Turkle do an incredible job on studying these properties of technology and their bearing on us, but sometimes seem to dwell on the negative side of the analysis. In short some of these media theorists do astonishing work studying the impact socially that using and communicating through modern technology has, but then takes a negative stance due to their archaic understanding of what is capable with these technologies. We have come so far in the past years in advancing humanity and its natural predicaments while being heavily reliant on technology to communicate. Not noting that advancement is pessimistic and

People very often debate whether technology is good or bad. Many people believe that technology can only cause harm to their lives and society, while many others strongly defend the technologies which have made their lives much more leisurely and enriching than it could have been several hundred years ago. In my opinion, both of these views are correct to an extent, but I also believe that what should be examined is not whether technology in its self is good or bad, but rather how we as humans use it.For decades now, television has been accused of contributing to the dissolution of the American family and the destruction of the minds of those who watch it. However, although the TV has been involved in this, the problem roots not with

Technology has more negative effects on today’s society than positive. Due to technology in the past few decades Canine Shock Collars have been increasingly popular. Students in school pay more attention to texting than they do their classes. Violent addictive video games have made their way into American homes. Parents encourage their children to not text as much, but them to face the problem of constant communication. The Internet gives the students easier ways to cheat in school, and reinforces laziness. Internet Porn gives every bored male a chance to look at the seediest film in the comfort of his own home. Technology has taken the innocence and mystery away from the American family.