As I started reading “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr, I found myself constantly losing focus and getting lost in other thoughts; I simply could not pay attention to the book. I have always thought of myself as an avid reader, the kind that dives deep into the text, but as I struggled my way through the words I stopped to think about how long it had been since I had read a book that truly engaged me. The conclusion I came to was that I do not have the time to sit down and immerse myself into a story that I enjoy, but also do not have the capacity to do so anymore; my brain is just not able to focus like it used to. As Carr describes his own difficulties in focusing on his work, especially reading and thinking about the text, he begins to consider
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Moore claims that those people are in fact geniuses, and that this is proof that American people are not stupid, and “that the American mind is alive and well”. However, he makes a point that people’s minds are not challenged enough with things that actually matter, such as politics and economics, and that is mainly because those subjects are not engaging and easy to understand like sports. This goes hand in hand with the argument that because of the overload of information available on the Internet, people can easily learn about sports facts, in this case, but fail to focus on the information that matters, like politics and economics, because they simply cannot pay attention to the often long readings that discuss those subjects. In opposition to Carr, both Moore and Gatto ultimately blame the U.S government, more specifically the politicians who refuse to give proper funding to schools while blaming the media and educators for the dumbing down of American people. Moore points out that our nation “goes out of its way to remain ignorant and stupid”, but at the same time students at schools are taught useless information that will most likely serve them nothing later in life, and through standardized testing the government limits students’ learning even
Moore claims that those people are in fact geniuses, and that this is proof that American people are not stupid, and “that the American mind is alive and well”. However, he makes a point that people’s minds are not challenged enough with things that actually matter, such as politics and economics, and that is mainly because those subjects are not engaging and easy to understand like sports. This goes hand in hand with the argument that because of the overload of information available on the Internet, people can easily learn about sports facts, in this case, but fail to focus on the information that matters, like politics and economics, because they simply cannot pay attention to the often long readings that discuss those subjects. In opposition to Carr, both Moore and Gatto ultimately blame the U.S government, more specifically the politicians who refuse to give proper funding to schools while blaming the media and educators for the dumbing down of American people. Moore points out that our nation “goes out of its way to remain ignorant and stupid”, but at the same time students at schools are taught useless information that will most likely serve them nothing later in life, and through standardized testing the government limits students’ learning even