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