Reading and thought, written by Dwight Macdonald, has pointed out a thought-provoking read-related fact of our day, which is triggered by the “printed matter inundates us daily”. Admittedly, the nature of “printed matter inundates us daily” this essay introduces is a new style of reading habit which demonstrates a rapid, purely rational, classifying habit of mind. Its implications are far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined. Under this condition, every time when we encounter printed material, all we need to do is to make a great many small decisions each time to decide which one to read or which one to skim, as Macdonald puts it, something like the operations of a Mark IV calculating machine. In other words, there is no need to think …show more content…
This is especially true of reading in depth, which needs us to follow our inner mind to find something we really want, not something given or edited by the modern media, such as magazine, newspaper, and Internet. We are free men to search what we want not to choose from which are given. Speaking of online social media, which is brand new to Dwight Macdonald’s times, the author may not expect this coming. There are a number of social media in our day, which tempt us greatly to acquire too much information or so-called “what-is-happening-everywhere” news irrelevant to our personal interests, namely, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Qzone, etc. Favored by these online social media, we, the residents of this global village, are truly faced with overwhelming and ubiquitous temptations. Online social media seem to be beneficial to us in saving time, which is regarded as money in this golden age. However, the current pervasive online social media have worsened the condition Macdonald has proposed, but the questions remain the same. To read or not to read is not a real concern, the way we do it is. Skimming or scanning is not we want, reading in depth is. Therefore, here comes a question: what is the purpose of reading? The real purpose of reading is not just to be entertained or amused by fulfilling our various temptations, but to challenge ourselves to be a better person in every possible way. There is no doubt that as a …show more content…
Here is something psychological that Dwight Macdonald has so far presented or wanted to imply: the love of being informed or drowned by those irrelevant information. It's not exaggerating to say that a new generation lusting for unthinking, even enslaved lifestyle has emerged. The new generation is willing to accept everything given by the social media only if they are not asked to think a bit more. To think a little or without thinking has already become a necessity for the new generation. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Challenging oneself become a better person is what the life about. What we need is not the unthinking, even enslaved lifestyle which does not need to think. How can we reverse this trend? Think more, read more. No thinking, no reading. We aren’t meant to be encaged or enslaved by this “well-informed” culture. For those who want to get much deeper under the surface of our minds, as Dwight Macdonald suggested it, the real problem of our day is how to escape being “well-informed”, how to resist the temptation to acquire too much irrelevant information, and how to elude the voracious demands on one’s attention enough to think a little. The answer would be closely connecting reading with our thoughts which would ensure the fulfillment of the
One for example is when he talks about how he used to be deeply immersed in readings and now after two or three pages he says “I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” (Carr, 1). Most people would look at the statement and agree. With social media prevalent in society today and with the length of articles getting shorter and advertisements constantly popping up it’s hard to stay focus on just one story. People only scratch the surface when they read now instead of diving deeper into the story. Carr argues that people’s attention spans have gotten shorter over time. But, it’s not only reading stories on the internet, it’s how we’re connected to our electronic devices. A perfect example is we’re always within arm’s reach our phones, ipads, laptops, etc. which can make people lose focus. When’s the last time you looked at your phone to look at a text or check Facebook? Was it 5 minutes ago or even 2 minutes ago? The things we can do with our phones is so technically advanced and Carr believes it’s taking over our minds in a negative way. This generation of children and young adults today are connected to the web constantly. An answer for something is always a click away, which can be a good thing and a bad
Pearson UK (n.d.) stated “Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures. In fact, reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.”
Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
Reading is on the decline and our reading skills are declining right along with the amount of reading we do. This is happening right across the board through both genders, all age groups and education levels, people are busy and they just do not have time to read books that they are not required to read for school or work. There are serious consequences to this neglect of reading that will continue to worsen if ignored. We need to take notice of what is happening to our culture and stop this situation from continuing, we must act to correct these issues that we are faced with. These things are discussed in the essay “Staying Awake’’ by Ursula K. Le Guin who uses the NEA essays “To Read or Not to Read’’ and “Reading at Risk’’ to support her argument that there is a decline in the amount of time that we are spending on reading and our ability to understand what it is that we are reading.
348). Carr introduces his theory by noting the observations in which the reading habits of avid internet users such as himself began to deteriorate (Carr, 2010, p. 348). What initially prompted Carr to invest in a computer was the vast variety of applications and communication tools which benefitted him in his career (Carr, 2010, p. 348). However, he claimed the internet progressed to be a hinderance to his capability to concentrate and work efficiently, thus justifying this phenomenon has changed the way both himself and others were learning (Carr, 2010, p. 349). Drained without having his daily ounce of technology, Carr molded into the man who slowly progressed to be dependent on the internet (Carr, 2010, p. 354). In comparison to his previous rituals, Carr found it all the more difficult to concentrate on a single page, let alone an entire novel. “I used to find it easy to immerse myself in a book or a lengthy article,” Carr states (Carr, 2010, p. 347). These subtle changes in his life was not only apparent in his own, but in through others as well. Carr mirrors the lives of many readers who excrete this same phenomenon today of losing track of their bookmarks. He exemplifies how reading habits have either ceased in entirety, or minimized to skimming as shown through his friend Scott Karp, a blogger who previously worked
Atlantic journalist Nicholas Carr confesses that he feels something has been “tinkering with his brain.” The internet, he fears, may be messing with our minds. We have lost the ability to focus on a simple task, and memory retention is steadily declining. He is worried about the effect the internet has on the human brain, and where it may take us in the future. In response to this article, Jamais Cascio, also a journalist for the Atlantic, provides his stance on the issue. He argues that this different way of thinking is an adaptation derived from our environment. Ultimately, he thinks that this staccato way of thinking is simply a natural evolution, one that will help to advance the human race.
In source C, William Blanche explains how people are being too dependent on others words instead of finding out themselves. He states “Critical thinking has become a lost art form filled with media’s attempt to persuade us to sidetrack our ability to come to a conclusion, based on the facts”. What Blanche is trying to explain is that people are looking for media to give them answers and explain news and situations instead of trying to find out themselves. Having help from media isn’t a bad thing, but completely depending on media is a bad thing. Using your brain to decipher information has become quite rare in this day and age and this can be related back to students in the classroom. Instead of trying to learn and go out and struggling to find information, students easily search on Google and click on the first link. They inhale all that information without thinking for a second if they should find out more information. Why? Because it is easy for them. By doing this, a student isn’t learning, but rather, they are simply regurgitating ...
Carr supports his claims by including personal experiences with the Internet of others. Scott Karp who was literature major in college, admitted to Carr that he has stopped reading books altogether (732). Karp now prefers to read everything online. Karp also questions whether the Internet has changed his course of thinking (Carr, 732). Bruce Friedman explained how he barely has the tolerance for reading long pieces, and skimming is now how he reads (Carr, 732). By Carr discussing changes brought by other technologies, he strengthens the support of his claims. He proves that technology does have a way of affecting us cognitively whether the effect is negative or positive. Carr also proves that as technology advances our mind is modified to according to those advances. “As we use what the sociologist Daniel Bell has called our “intellectual technologies”—the tools that extend our mental rather than our physical capacities—we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” (Carr, 737).
In “Reading and Thought” editor Dwight MacDonald emphasizes that everything we read on a daily basis is worthless. MacDonald defines functional curiosity as a habit of reading rather than giving valuable information. MacDonald also alternates that people read too much material in a limited time frame; which results in hollow reading and thinking. Although, MacDonald encourages us to read more to become brilliant, I partially disagree with MacDonald’s argument because we waste time reading unimportant material, do not have time to reread and understand the material and we can now read our books electronically.
In the article “Reading and Thought” the author Dwight MacDonald provides criticism and disagreement with Henry Luce’s idea of “functional curiosity”. Luce developed the term “functional curiosity” defining it as an eagerness of people to know the latest news happening around the world. On the other hand, MacDonald concludes that functional curiosity only strengthens reader’s practice in reading rather than in providing invaluable information. He underlines that literature nowadays is deficient and insubstantial since there is no deep meaning in the texts. Modern printed literature is simply being skimmed through by the reader as the reader nowadays tends to avoid too much information resisting thinking in such a way. Because of the new nature of the printed materials, MacDonald considers today’s reading behavior and the way people think as flimsy and indifferent. I agree that our thought has definitively changed since we are paying less time to serious critical thinking losing connections with society and awareness of it.
...rtant for people to read it helps exercise the mind and allow it grow and learn new material.
Carr concludes his excerpt with the statement “I missed my old brain,” because he was once so active in his learning, but now with exposure to the internet he has become close to being the contrary. Successfully, does Carr create a stance on how the internet has had a negative impact on how a person thinks and learns, from trading away an “old linear thought process” in return “for the riches of the Net.” Also, Carr creates a point that if society continues in this new form of mind, everyone will become human HALs and turn rogue against
In Is Google Making Us Stupid, Nicholas Carr disputes that due to new digital tools, peoples’ ability to retain and acquire information has been negatively altered. Even though, we have information at our fingertips, we often don’t take the time to soak in all the information. Carr mentions Bruce Friedman, a blogger, who finds it extremely difficult to read a “longish article on the web” and to try to focus on the importance of the text holistically (Carr 316). This is an issue that many can relate even Carr knows that, “ the deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle (Carr 314). Additionally, media theorist Mcluhan describes the net as “chipping away [mental] capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr 315). In essences, Carr states that we are having less of an attention span and consequently, less patience for longer articles (Carr 314). Therefore, this affects media outlets such as magazines, newspapers, and other articles, because they must conform and shorten their texts to fit the status quo that people safely enjoy (Carr 321). In addition, the net forces people to be efficient, and so, causes people to “weaken [their] capacity for deep reading” (Carr 317). People are becoming more driven on how quick he or she has to do something rather than think why this text is important. As a consequence, Carr believes that we are starting to lose our ability to be critical readers and
Nowadays, many people think reading is not necessary, since there are so many sources of information and types of entertainment, such as TV, cinema and the Internet. I believe they are wrong because reading is very beneficial in many ways.
Reading – we do it every day. In almost every aspect of our lives and often take it for granted. Reading is essential for human communication and increasing knowledge. However, because reading is so important even a small change can have a significantly large impact on our modern society. We are currently in a midst of a cultural revolution. In which the printed word is being transformed by the digital.