Is Google Making Us More Stupid? By Nicholas Carr

Nicholas talks a lot about the benefits of the internet, especially associating it with his writing career. The internet is a great way of accessing unlimited information at ease. So, because of this many are starting to notice the lesser use of hard copies and books being used. They get all their information online versus going to back to a physical copy of the information on a topic. Many use the internet for its convenience, meaning the way we read still has not changed. Some downfalls that are showing up is more and more people are skimming over pieces of information. Even just a few paragraphs are too much to absorb for many nowadays. Leading to a new style of reading focused on efficiency and immediacy.

Does the Internet Make You Smarter? By Clay Shirky

With a change in the way we learn, the smarter we become when it has come to the evolution on media information. With the convenience of the internet, the exchange of information has become very fast. A website called PatientsLikeMe was created to boost medical research by having patients submit their medical records. With these new technological tools, we must experiment and find a way that works with this great freedom.

Why I Asked My Student To Put Their Laptops Away? By Clay Shirky

Clay has been teaching classes about the internet since 1998. He had a lenient view on technology for the most part. Until the increase of distractions, he started to notice in his classes. So, the rule of no technology unless an assignment requires it was added to his syllabus.  For some time, then he did know about how multitasking is bad for cognitive work, especially for the work he asks for from his students. Other problems from multi-tasking include being horrible at staying on task, and negative effects on memory. Social media just adds to the problem too with its constant updates and message that pop up at random. These alerts and notifications have become impossible to resist, show how our visual and emotional systems are faster than our knowledge. But this all comes down to one thing, Clay just wants to help those who want to pay attention. Leading to success while the other students remain in the dust.

In the article, Digital Nativism, Digital Delusions, and Digital Deprivation, Jamie McKenzie reviews an article previously published by Marc Prensky. McKenzie researches Prensky’s claims just prove how wrong he was, along with discrediting him as a writer. At first, McKenzie speaks of how the youth was born into an overly saturated culture of technology. Where it has its own ups and downs as to benefiting the learning process. Prensky calls out older folk, stating their irrelevancy in modern society. Generating the terms digital natives meaning the youth, and digital immigrants meaning elders. Creating a generational and cultural divided that does not exist. Prensky makes many claims already but without backing evidence.

Next topic brought up from Prensky was the effect of video games in learning. He goes on to say how positive these outlets to knowledge are without addressing the negative results, continuing to support this learning medium as great for natives. McKenzie does research on these claims with little success, proving how unreliable his data is. One source used was from Dr. Bruce D. Berry from Baylor College of Medicine. When trying to find any work from him nothing appeared, even on sites such as Amazon, Baylor College, and ERIC. Then Prensky continues his deception with twisting author Dr. Perry’s narrative to fit his agenda. It looks like Perry is supporting his claim, but go back and read the original article, it is out of context. Perry was talking about trauma, not digital experience, further proving how Marc Prensky is an unreliable source.

Today I will be looking at two different articles “Village Phone” and “Love Online”

Summaries of both articles:

It Takes A Village To Find A Phone is an interesting story about how people can come together and overcome obstacles in life. A woman named Ivanna lost her phone in a cab and must deal with a thief who will not return it. So, Ivanna gets help from her friend Evan who is a programmer. With his knowledge, they create a page called StolenSideKick. As word spread about this, newspaper The Digg made it a front-page story. This only helped to fuel a community of like-minded individuals who could relate to Ivanna and wanted to help in any way possible. The page gained some much attention it kept on crashing so it had to be moved to a new site that could handle its high traffic. From all the effort put forth towards getting Ivanna’s phone back, the thief was arrested and the phone was returned. Ivanna also dropped the charges after her phone was returned.

In this article, it brings up the idea of right and wrong. Publicly shaming someone and having the thief’s identity being spread worldwide on a global platform. Privacy almost doesn’t exist anymore. Also how a large group like-minded individuals can come together to accomplish a task as receiving stolen property. Nothing like that has happened before and it probably won’t again which makes this a very unique case.

• The article Love Online by Henry Jenkins is an interesting piece about his son meeting someone online. His son didn’t connect with anyone at his school so he extends his reach by going online. He meets Sarah in an online discussion group. They would chat online and over the phone. Sending virtual gifts to each other. Sarah’s father was not too thrilled with this virtual interaction. He would only allow them to continue if he personally met Henry. Henry asks permission to see her before making the trip, and her father agrees. Henry and Sarah first met at an airport. They both connect with each other over video games and WWE. After the trip, they break up since the situation did not meet their expectations.

Despite online relationships being a new way of life. It is not far off from what has happened before. Long distance relationships have been going on for a long time. In World War 2 sending love letters back and forth was very common. Then also online communication with one and other allows the user to think before they post. While in person they are just living in the moment.