Extended Essay 1

Kollin Nava
1/30/12
Eric Leake
Extended Essay 1
A Time of Change
[From the perspective of the elder generations, looking down upon the newer generations and how they have changed compared to them is a key factor in today’s society. Writing and reading in particular are some of the most important keys that have allowed for society to be malleable, due to the introduction of new technology. Through the eyes of the elderly, this problem can be easily seen and hopefully fixed. From the teachings of older societies, my generation will hopefully learn to be re-manipulated and taken back from their technological era, and brought back to a time of proper learning techniques that allow them to be successful and not run and distorted by their inventions.]

Throughout history, the usage of technology has become more profound as the qualities of equipment have increased in their capabilities. With this, the population has allowed these advances to permit them to increase their abilities and the ease at which they are completed. However, what consequences do people give up in order to live with these inventions? In this case, writing and reading is the point of issue that one should focus on. From the advancements in technology like the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, to the typewriter, to the computer, to smartphones, they all affected our society at which rate we wrote at and completed literary components. Now, what writing mechanisms has the populous sacrificed in order to obtain faster completion times? There are so many that generations older than mine may not understand, due to their lack of dependency on my generation’s technology. However, maybe Chris Hedges, Nicholas Carr, Sylvia Scribner, and Clive Thompson can help enlighten these generations in what they missed while growing up.
Furthermore, one of the biggest issues that society is facing today with technology’s advances is how it is effecting our younger generations. Now, unlike your older generations, today’s newer technology is showing to be rather prevalent in how children are reading and writing. For instance, “research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes (Carr, 2008). People are now relying more on the Internet to do their work instead of applying their own the traditional way. Kids are losing their work ethic and are allowing technologies to do the work for them. Personally, I do not feel my generation or any below me have a fractional piece of work ethic compared to our society’s older generations. Elderly people use to live in harder times that required more time, more thought, and more persistence. The accomplishments in technology, that younger generations are capable of using, is due to the work that the people put into their projects back in the day. These goals were not just handed to them like they are handed to us these days. In order to regain these qualities that our elder society contains, it must begin in the schools and the ways in which we learn. It is up to the older generations who are teaching mine and younger generations to help prevent these damages. What damages you ask, ones that surround the idea of simplistic and lazy reading and writing. We have moved to a culture that reads in, “a form of skimming activity” (Carr, 2008). Instead of trying to read an entire book or article, we instead try to use a form of reading that is usually known today as speed-reading in order to complete the assignment quicker. However, in Nicholas Carr’s mind, this kind of skimming is only being used in order to score quick finds and wins (2008). Instead of these techniques helping our reading and writing skills, then are having a detrimental effect on us as humans. Some people like Clive Thompson believe that these newer technologies are a great experience for generations to come because they, Facebook and texting in particular, helps promote audience based literacy and communication. Instead however, I always find myself talking about and doing unimportant posts that have no medium and lacks purpose. Texting in particular for me, is always a one or two word chore that serves no purpose other than communication. “Texting is bleak, bald, sad shorthand which masks dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness," (Sutherland, 2008). Even though Clive Thompson feels that, “Young people today write far more than any generation before them,” It is only due to social networking, which does not help promote good work habits, proper grammar, complete thoughts, or scholarly writing (Thompson, 2009). Not only this, but our reliance on technology as well muddles our personal way of thinking.
To add onto how our writing and reading techniques are distorted or jumbled due to technologies influences in our lives, our way of thinking as well is in range of being effected by our innovations. The way someone perceives something, how his or her brain receives the material, how we then in turn use it are all possible regions of infection. The reason behind this is because, by using these machines, we are in fact letting the machine itself do our thinking for us. In other words, “they supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought” (Carr, 2008). These new technologies are not allowing for people to find out on their own what it is like to try and think for themselves. Instead, technology is implementing a new kind of learning and writing, one that is fast pace and has less meaning. Nicholas Carr, in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” mentions how his thinking, “has taken on a ‘staccato’ quality, reflecting the way I quickly scan short passages of text from many sources online” (2008). People’s minds are becoming the tools of the computer instead of allowing the computer to enhance our wellbeing. What are we becoming from this lack of self-work? What are we missing out on while our technology is doing the thinking for our brains? Nothing and a lot are the answers. By not doing our own work, we are slowly allowing ourselves to change. I myself have even become more reliant on technology. As I write this, I am writing to you on a computer. However, instead of following my generation’s idea of finding research on the Internet, I read my articles on paper. Instead of completely conforming to society’s new ways, people should try to either have a good balance of old and new knowledge, or try not to make technology the main aspect of his or her life. This abstinence or sense of balance is key because, “technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains” (Wolf, 2007). Without training our brains correctly, we as people will have the possibility in changing our mental processes and capabilities.
Not only does technology effect our writing/reading capabilities and the way we think, but increase in technology as well seems to be distorting are attention span. Personally, as I type this piece, I cannot help but have Facebook open in another window. The Internet seems to have taken over what my life deems important. Every 30 or so minutes I feel the action of checking Facebook and acting like updates are waiting for me, are taking my mind away from my work and it is some what of an addiction. The Internet deems itself such a big portion of my daily life, and it is sad to admit that it is due to my generation’s comfort ability in accepting the Internet’s ways in effecting our lives. With the continuation of my usage, “the Net seems to be chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr, 2008). The more I keep thinking about it, the more newer technology seems to have so many entrances into my life and how it controls it; from my phone, to typing this project, to television, to music, etc. Almost any action that I do through out the day is only allowed through the usage of a technological device. This mere reliance on technology is taking a toll on society and it’s attention span. Instead of being able to sit down and focus on a book, society would rather go watch TV or do something else that would take their mind away from their reading, even if that means checking Facebook for a few minutes here and there. “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr, 2008). This statement in itself explains what our society is on track for for happening to their mindsets. Sooner or later our populous will need to rely on elsewhere to keep their minds on track. Now, the question is what is the cause of this, is it the fact that we have moved from a paper society to an Internet-based society? Yes. “The change from a print-based to an image-based society has transformed our nation” (Hedges, 2008). Instead of staying at a steady pace and paying attention to detail, our minds are now use to rushing and skimming through reads like it is nothing, while on top of this, not absorbing as much information. Instead of receiving the whole story, our younger generations would rather get the easy win and acquire a general outlook. All this concept does is to deteriorate our core values that our society contains, like self-conclusions, judgments, common sense, etc.
In addition to attention span, core values seem to be much more effected by our futuristic characteristic than any other characteristic in society’s population. The reason behind this is because we as people gain our reasons to life from are core values that we contain and show throughout our lives. Now if our values are distorted or changed, one has the right mind to believe that the consequences then cause the people to change in themselves. Now as our society proceeds through its future, “the core values of our open society, to draw independent conclusions, to express dissent when judgment and common sense indicate something is wrong, to be self-critical, to challenge authority, and to acknowledge that there are other views, different ways of being, that are morally and socially acceptable, are dying” (Hedges, 2008). As the younger generations learn to grow up with these qualities missing, they will soon grow further away from the older generations like you.
























Work Cited
(To be completed)
Carr, 2008
Hedges, 2008
Sutherland, 2008
Thompson, 2009
Wolf, 2007

The End of Reflecting

During this process of writing, my thoughts of have changed about reading and writing. However, my actions have not changed. Instead I just have started to realize more of how I am writing and reading and what works best for me, and how my surroundings are affecting me. Instead of this whole blogging thing being a hassle, I somewhat enjoyed reading and writing about literacy. I can’t say I didn’t learn anything from this experience. I learned to sit and express myself for at least 250 words hah. At first, this was my biggest challenge. No not the expressing thing, but the 250 words thing. I though at first that the blogs could not be over 250 words, but that we could not be too far under the mark. Until about last week, when professor told us how to gain an A in this assignment, did I start to writing more and expressing my opinions. Now I find myself writing more than double the required amount. This is no longer a chore, but some what of a liking, due to the fact that I get to express myself, not to mention, I get more time listening to music, since I listen to music to get my brain and train of thought going.
This entire experience has been a fun and interesting one. I went from running around trying to turn these posts in late, to double tasking eating and typing posts in Nelson hall, to finally doing two posts 12+ hours before they are even due. This last post especially is like a diary or a way to reflect upon what is happening in my head on a certain topic. However, once these blog requests are over, I won’t feel upset about ending my blogging “career.” Instead I will be somewhat happy that I won’t be rushed or be forced to read something that I am not that interested in. However, if this is my last post, I hope you enjoyed my some \what interesting posts as much as I did. Fair well general public. Until next time?

A Problem That May Help

In “Literacy In Three Metaphors,” and in the “New Literacy” the aspect of literacy is rather different. In the first article, Scribner talks about hoe literacy should be described and how it comes to be defined in a certain society. On the other hand, in the second article, Thompson talks about the new type of literacy and how the new generation’s form of literacy has helped them in becoming better writers. Now, both of these writers possess the aspect of there being new types of literacy in their articles. Scribner talks about how literacy depends upon what is present and what is deemed necessary in the society, talking about how societies create their own form of literacy. For example, how in some religious societies, literacy is not granted status until the person is able to read and memorize the holy book. However, in other places, literacy is not seen until one passes a certain grade in primary schooling. However, Scribner tends to focus more on the aspect of how literacy is originated. Scribner talks about how literacy is an outcome of cultural transmission, meaning that one does not gain the meaning of words through the interactions of the words, but through the interaction of how other people use them and mean them. On the other hand, Clive Thompson tends to lean more towards going against what Carr states in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid.” Instead of agreeing with Carr about how Google, along with other sorts of technology, are making us more stupid and are lowering are capability to read and write as good as our past generations. Instead, Thompson focuses on how technology has allowed my generation to develop a type of writing that is very audience-aware, which in turn allows for a more academic style of writing that contains a countless amount of prose in the body of the argument. The reason behind this style of writing is supposedly brought on by the constant communication between one another on technological devices. Now, as for my thoughts on this subject, I am kind of stuck in the middle of the beauty of it all. I some what agree with Carr that I have lost my concentration due to the implementation of technology into my life, which allowed me to focus more on what is happening in the social world, instead of focusing on what is in front of me, like homework or a book that I am reading. However, in the words of Thompson, I feel I have increased my abilities to be a better by writer by being able to express my thoughts and feelings on a daily schedule. I do agree that I write more than my past generations, mainly thanks to the availability of being able to share my thoughts with friends, family, and the world in general. But, even though I feel technology has helped my generation, and me I still feel it is allowing the gap to increase between the literate and illiterate. I feel that since technology cannot be dispersed equally throughout the world, that we are in a way holding back a huge percentage of the world’s populations’ abilities. I feel that if this were possible, that literacy would skyrocket due to the increase in possibilities in one’s society. People would be able to use their teachings more often and in a real world sense.

Illiteracy That Has Symbols

After reading Chris Hedges’ “America the Illiterate,” I was some what disturbed by the statistics that were thrown around. How almost a third of America’s people today are illiterate or barely literate, or how the presidential debate speeches have been dumbed down as the years have progressed to a now astonishing fifth grade reading level. The fact that a good portion of the people in America who aren’t able to read are still liable for electing our president is appalling. How Hedges describes and develops the issue of this is quite interesting. When I first began reading this article, I didn’t expect it to be about the presidential debates and how the illiterate are having huge effects over the final decisions. He seems to have blamed this exact opinion on why Obama won his election and why he feels he may win his reelection this year. Due to the fact that Hedges feels that Obama uses millions of dollars to dictate the general public and manipulate them with “appealing,” “glittering,” and “self-destructive” illusions, he feels Obama as well supplies to the political side of the story that they are all giving in to the fact that people are simply forgetting about the truths about elections, and are simply now focusing on how someone looks on TV, to the way they carry themselves, or how they seem to be a “nice person” who will take care of the peoples’ needs. I on the other hand believe that since Obama came from this kind of background, that he is not just playing that game, but that he is truly trying to do things that benefit the grater good.
Now, in order to understand where Chris Hedges is coming from in this argument, one must know the aspects of what he feels is America’s form of illiteracy. Hedges focus on the aspect that people pay attention to the visualizations of the commercial world. How people who are illiterate are deprived of other forms of getting by in this world. People who are illiterate will go to fast foot restaurants because they can order from pictures. Because of these lacks in daily life, Hedges sees these illiterate people as struggling on most basic chores, and that they watch helplessly as the world around them continues on with out them knowing how to enter into this realm.
Now, as for the connections between Chris Hedge and Nicholas Carr, they both described how our society’s change from a print-based culture has transformed our nation. As well, they both see that the core values of our society, like thinking for ourselves, common sense, understanding historical facts, and separating truth from fallacy are all dying because of the change from a text-based society, to one that is controlled and dominated by technology.

A New Way to Get Dumber

At first glance, I felt that these 8 pages were going to be about how Google is so bad for our generation and how we are getting dumber by the second due to the massive use and control of Internet in our lives. However, as I read, I felt Nicholas Carr strayed away from the concept of Google’s causation of dumbness, and focused on the actual use of the Internet and technology in general, and every so often he connected back to the idea of Google being the cause. So, as of now, I don’t know what Carr thinks is the causation of us dumbing down, and I don’t think he does either.
Even though I don’t know exactly Carr’s position, I will still explain what his title means. So since I feel that Carr is trying to explain that the Internet and the rise of technology are the perpetrators of people losing contact with the way they use to think when they read textbooks and not online articles and fast past research. I myself have to agree with Carr that, “all the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” Even as I type this blog, I have my Facebook open to the right of the screen barely so I can chat with friends, I have my smart phone to the right of me so I can text friends, and music is blaring. My mind is not really in control right now, I am simply looking at what my computer allowed me to highlight and I am just regurgitating what is typed on my screen.
Nicholas Carr as well touches base on the fact that our minds and brains are starting to work in the pace and ways of computers and not like “clocks”, like they use to. Instead of slow, steady and patient, we are now skimming books, taking in countless of information all at once, and rushing through the learning process. So to go as far as saying that we are getting dumber due to Google, the Internet, or technology, seems kind of hard to believe. Instead of saying my generation is getting dumber, I feel we are simply just using characteristics that are not so much needed or prevalent in our world today. Instead, we are simply adapting to our surroundings and are learning in a new way instead of sticking with “who knows best.”

Harris and Sullivan are Rewriting

After reading Harris’s introduction and “Coming to Terms”, I feel him and Sullivan themselves carry a few characteristics with in them that are a like. For instance, both of these men are able to view the purposefulness of writing and how it is used in a social setting. As well, they both take into account that that writing and reading should be used in order to either elaborate on another topic or to reiterate what one has once said or felt. One of the biggest comparisons that both Harris and Sullivan have in common is the fact that they both believe that when one reads, they must first take in what is actually read and what the author might mean by this, but then proceed on to interpret the text itself into one’s own thoughts and meanings. However, on the other hand, Harris himself is more focused on the actual topic of meaning rather than format, while Sullivan talks a lot on his last post that we read “Why I blog,” about how his job of blogging has a different format than other typed of writers like reporters, columnist, and novelist.
Now, for our next readings, I am a little hesitant to continue already due to the fact that I am getting this vibe that what I am about to read about is going to entirely be about reading, writing and how they connect one another through different styles and how people view these styles. Personally, I am not a huge fan of this kind of reading and writing, but I guess only time will tell. Either way I have to read this, so I will let you know in future posts.

Society's Way of Life

It seems to me that people not only in our class but also in our generation for the most part share a lot of qualities when it comes to using technology and how they incorporate reading and writing. From spending 20 to 30 minutes on Facebook simply just checking in to see what the latest news that is going on in their “social network”. As well, not only do a lot of people my age do this, but also they usually incorporate the aspect of accessing Facebook through their phone’s Internet, which means a lot of people have moved to digital media and are now using smart phones that have Internet.
Not only do people in our class tend to migrate towards the usage of Facebook, but they also manage to reunite with their roots of their parents by eventually reading an article here and there through out the week to catch up what is happening around them and in the world. So, it seems that people today are informational deprived and are hungry for either gossip to give them something to talk about, or to be engraved into the personal day to day life of people and the world itself. With out people knowing what is going around them, I feel this world would not be a very happy and productive way of life. People seem to strive off of what they seek and find interesting from the Internet, by reading, gossiping, commenting, and blogging. Almost everyone’s blog posts included one of these verbs, and I feel that is what makes our society what it is today.

Inside My Search Engine

From looking at my history and studying where I visit and how I specifically use all my website, I only see a few sites here and there. Varying from facebook.com, blackboard.du.edu, webcentral.du.edu, stumbleupon.com, youtube.com, backcountry.com, REI.com, and various web links that are for my classes and their homework assignments. On the websites of facebook.com and stumbleupon.com, not only do I read and watch certain contexts, but also at times I am asked to actually interact with the content of the site. Either I will be asked to type something, play along with a game, make a video, take a picture, or even analyze something that is in front of me on the screen. Compared to the other sites, these two sites contain more than one action that is needed of me. For instance, on backcountry.com and REI.com, all I simply do is look at snowboarding gear and topics that surround skiing. On the other hand, blackboard.du.edu and webcentral.du.edu are only used for school and viewing assignments and grades. So, in a sense, the four previous sites do have the concept of looking things up, as their thing in common. I simply use those web sites to gain knowledge about a certain topic that I am at the time interested in, or need to be interested in. Lastly, the only web site that I visit that is simply only used for visual, and that is youtube.com.

Purpose for Innovating a Genre of Writing: Why?

Andrew Sullivan really opened my eyes to the world of blogging with his article “Why I blog”. Before the concept of blogging never seemed complicated or deep. However, after reading nine pages of his opinion about blogs, my idea of posting online for the purpose of expression and publishing of myself became kind of liberating, like Sullivan suggested. As well, Sullivan’s expression of blogging being a spontaneous expression of instant thought that has no borders or restrictions warmed my thoughts about becoming a blogger. Not only did this article show me that the idea of posting one’s thoughts online for the public can be liberating, but also it is kind of a step down from a personal diary that forms relationships with the people that follow you. All of these aspects and more, I feel are the reasons of why Andrew Sullivan finds so much enjoyment in blogging. As well, he expressed his opinion about how being a blogger is better then being a reporter, columnist, and novelist; for the reasons of having free-form writing, being in a more accident-prone genre, being able to write less formally, and you develop more of a personal relationship with your readers. However, I feel the number one reason Sullivan feels the need to blog, or initially had the need to blog, was to have a presence “online”. With have a presence online, people get to find out what he is about and get to critic his work, like he explained, “blogging is kind of a community effort,” in the aspect of people writing on his blog with links, stories, and facts to help improve his stories. I feel he likes that people out there on the internet know more about a topic that he writes about, and I feel he appreciates that people care enough to express themselves.

The Creating of a Blog

Well first off, I had no idea what web site I was suppose to use, so I got some kind of humor out of that because I felt lost and hopeless. Honestly, this part of creating the actual blog was probably the hardest hah, even though it was rather obvious that if one wanted to create a blog, they should try www.blogger.com. Either way, I finally found out the website only because of my great roommate Patrick, who actually happens to be in my class. Other then finding the actual web address, the process was rather easy, especially since my email is already a g-mail account. However, I haven’t yet started to customize and personalize all the little characteristics that my profile and actual blog page contain. I’m kind of confused by the whole thing because I have never actually used a blog or left postings on a website that had a sense of importance. Now that I finally get a chance to be involved in aspect of blogging, I feel my thoughts towards blogs and bloggers might change. On the other hand, I feel it already has started. I am starting to see blogging as another way to vent and spread your ideas with out feeling too conscious about your odd thoughts or abnormal trends. Hopefully this will be a fun experience that I will learn to like and finally get a chance to get to learn to like writing as well. Only time will tell. I guess it’s time to take a leap…