ANNOTATION ASSIGNMENT 2:” IS GOOGLE MAKING US STUPID.”
3.A. The main point about this article is that internet is becoming a hinderance to our learning ability. It is starting to affect our ability to read long pieces or books. The author clearly shares his personal experience of how he can’t focus on reading a lengthy article and that it is no longer the same as before. Although, he also points out that the Internet has facilitated him as a writer as he said, “The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer,” meaning that the Web has made research easier and quicker for him. But mostly it is impacting us negatively. He provides evidence from different studies carried out in London, and he also explains how technology is not only affecting reading, but also our thoughts. He gave a very good example of the mechanical clock which has impacted us and people began thinking of their brains as operating “like clockwork”. Now people no longer listen to their own senses, we are obeying the clock by deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep etc.…which is going to be the same for today’s Internet.
B. In my opinion I am convinced that the Internet is a threat to us because of how the author mentions his colleagues who also confess same thing about having trouble reading because of the Internet. He also proves his argument by citing studies that were proven right, thus his claim became more valid. Personally, I am also having a hard time reading long pieces of writing because I get distracted by ads and more interesting things on the Internet than boring long books or passages.
C. This article was published by Nicholas Carr in July/August 2008.on the Atlantic Daily website, a free weekday email newsletter.
D. I believe the author was addressing to all internet users in general because the internet would not affect a person who does not know the use of internet or technology.
E. The use of Anecdotes. The author shares his personal experience about this article which makes it real. It proves that it can happen to anyone. He also points out his colleagues who have same experience which makes the article more real and easy to understand.
He also used a scene from a movie which make reading the article less boring and attracting to readers.
