The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.
Essay
Since the introduction of computers, they have served me for numerous purposes. In his book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr suggests that even though the internet is an important tool, it is also a distraction causing users to be less attentive people. By constantly being on the web people are acquiring bad reading habits, this leads to users only skimming articles or anything they read. In my paper, I will discuss when computers were first introduced to me, as well as my history with them. I will show how social media isn't always bad. Social media serves as a method for communication with family and friends. And as to Nicholas Carr believing …show more content…
We are no longer able to retain information the way we used to, before we used the net. We are no longer socializing face to face but we are doing it online through social media. Communication for me over the last few years through social media has been key to me and my family sometimes due to bad weather I can’t get ahold of my grandma through phone calls but since my aunts and uncles own a Facebook account it has become so much easier to get ahold of them. “The net differs from most of the mass media it replaces in an obvious and very important way: it’s bidirectional”. (85) resulting in the net replacing home phones, televisions, radios and much more. The net has so many uses it is indeed bidirectional. The feeling of being online and being able to feed my hunger for communication and entertainment is a great sensation Carr states “The Net delivers precisely the kind of sensory and cognitive stimuli- repetitive, intensive, interactive addictive- that have been shown to result in strong and rapid alterations in brain circuits and functions” (116). It gives me the exact amount of nourishment that my brain needs to be fulfilled. If I’m not on the web I don’t feel I’m myself; I need that stimulation that only the web can provide me …show more content…
“When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. It’s possible to think shallowly while reading a book, but that’s not the type of thinking the technology encourages and rewards” (116). Today we are not learning we are only memorizing which only lasts a couple of days at the most. It’s the rise of social media and other entertainment that has us hooked. We are no longer incorporating those lifelong skills we once had we are expecting to get the fish without fishing. In order to learn we have to know when its correct to use the web we have to learn how to limit ourselves and set standards because if we don’t we will soon be living in a life of “brighter software and dimer users, just like Carr states” (216). When it should really be the other way around we have to remember we are the users and computers should only be our tools not the item we think is indispensable. Reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr has made me more aware of the time I spend on the net. I don’t want the net to take over the way I think or act. For that reason, I will try to limit the amount of time I spend on the web, as well as limit my sons time on the web. I will try to encourage my two-year-old to do
Essay
Since the introduction of computers, they have served me for numerous purposes. In his book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr suggests that even though the internet is an important tool, it is also a distraction causing users to be less attentive people. By constantly being on the web people are acquiring bad reading habits, this leads to users only skimming articles or anything they read. In my paper, I will discuss when computers were first introduced to me, as well as my history with them. I will show how social media isn't always bad. Social media serves as a method for communication with family and friends. And as to Nicholas Carr believing …show more content…
We are no longer able to retain information the way we used to, before we used the net. We are no longer socializing face to face but we are doing it online through social media. Communication for me over the last few years through social media has been key to me and my family sometimes due to bad weather I can’t get ahold of my grandma through phone calls but since my aunts and uncles own a Facebook account it has become so much easier to get ahold of them. “The net differs from most of the mass media it replaces in an obvious and very important way: it’s bidirectional”. (85) resulting in the net replacing home phones, televisions, radios and much more. The net has so many uses it is indeed bidirectional. The feeling of being online and being able to feed my hunger for communication and entertainment is a great sensation Carr states “The Net delivers precisely the kind of sensory and cognitive stimuli- repetitive, intensive, interactive addictive- that have been shown to result in strong and rapid alterations in brain circuits and functions” (116). It gives me the exact amount of nourishment that my brain needs to be fulfilled. If I’m not on the web I don’t feel I’m myself; I need that stimulation that only the web can provide me …show more content…
“When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. It’s possible to think shallowly while reading a book, but that’s not the type of thinking the technology encourages and rewards” (116). Today we are not learning we are only memorizing which only lasts a couple of days at the most. It’s the rise of social media and other entertainment that has us hooked. We are no longer incorporating those lifelong skills we once had we are expecting to get the fish without fishing. In order to learn we have to know when its correct to use the web we have to learn how to limit ourselves and set standards because if we don’t we will soon be living in a life of “brighter software and dimer users, just like Carr states” (216). When it should really be the other way around we have to remember we are the users and computers should only be our tools not the item we think is indispensable. Reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr has made me more aware of the time I spend on the net. I don’t want the net to take over the way I think or act. For that reason, I will try to limit the amount of time I spend on the web, as well as limit my sons time on the web. I will try to encourage my two-year-old to do