Is Google Making Us Stupid?

There is no doubt about it that we are in the age of knowledge. Carr goes in depth and he illustrates the differences between now, and yesterday due to the Net. It seems that 200 page books are always increasing in length; even if the page number stays the same.

I was able to have a couple laughs throughout the article about how much my mind wonders during long, focused readings. Once upon a time, I really enjoyed reading, but now I am staring at a tall mountain for the book review. The article helped understand what happened, and that I am not alone in my deficiency in reading. Carr makes reference to Scott Karp, a lit. major in college, who gave up reading books altogether due to the convenience of the Internet.

This one article alone took me about four days to read. Maybe it was the amount of time that we had to read it, or that the article was a constant reminder that I am a mindless drone. I read it in one or two page increments per day; however, I would have been able to do it all in one sitting at the height of my "reading days."

I can see how the Net has undermined my reading ability, but I could not help but feel a little frustrated with the article. At first it was humorous how I was able to connect so well with the first three pages. But the article only seemed to bring up on point: the Net is evil. I thought that it was very one-sided. The author found a way to comment on how every milestone in human inventing history, somehow made us more mindless and less independent. He even found a way to make clocks seem evil. Carr made it seem like the results of the Net's influence on the world is negative. I see the results of the Net as the solution for the quest of knowledge.

It seems to me that life in this era goes by so much faster than it did in previous years. What I mean by that is that students, for example, are expected to know an incredible amount more than previous generations. It seems that the only way accomodate this demand is to skim through pages and find relevant information. The bottom of page two says that the British Laboratory and a U.K. education consortium conducted studies on how people read written information. The use of skimming was evident. I believe that skimming was found, because that is how one has to read in order to keep up. To illustrate my point, did anybody read the every word for the reading portion of the ACT? I didn't and I got a decent score.

All of the special interest groups in the world can protest on how the Internet is making us "stupider," but I will always say that the Internet is aiding us into the future. What we do today will affect tomorrow, and if I have to skip a couple pages to get through the night, I think I will sleep very well.

Skunk Dreams

As I grow a little older and a little wiser, I start to appreciate the small details in life. It seems to me that I stand alone on some simple issues of appreciation. We often say that we have to do things such as: going to church, work, practices, and the list goes on. I like to say that I get to go to church on Sundays, go to work on the weekends, and go to practices on days that are less than desirable. When it comes down to it, I enjoy doing things that I trick myself into liking.

Louise Erdrich, the author of "Skunk Dreams," seems to be a couple steps ahead of me as far as appreciating the small things. She used a very descriptive choice of words to describe very simple, basic scenes of everyday life. Erdrich did not fail in painting a mental picture of what she was trying to portray. I was especially impressed with the descriptive language of the park scene (p. 343). It seemed like I was there which was pretty good, but I really appreciated the way that she tied it in with her dream that she wrote earlier. The way that she set the scene and captured my minimal attention span for reading, was a unique twist.

On a heavier note, I do not know if my attention span for reading is so minimal that I could not fully comprehend the material, or if her style of writing is so caught up in the fine details that it leaves the main point vague and unclear (COMMENT OPPORTUNITY). I understand that people do things for the most obscene reasons at times, but there are normally motives behind some decisions that can explain things. While reading the essay I drew a blank to why she was in a football field camping. At the age of 17 I like to say that I have done most of the childish things that I will do. Somehow camping on a field that is 120 yards long by 53 yards wide did not make my "to do list." I believe that more emphasis could have been brought upon the main idea, versus the little details (I did enjoy the details though).

I was not blown away by Louise Erdrich's "Skunk Dreams" piece. I often search for the deeper meaning in things; I could not find it within the descriptive words of this essay. For the most part, I do believe that Erdrich is a very skilled writer. If I saw another one of her works, I would probably sit down and give it a fair chance. Even though I did not understand this particular essay, I am still left saying that I got to read this piece of work.

The Talk of the Town

It seems today that special interest groups and public outcries against violence are exponentially increasing. In contrast to these pleas for help, little to nothing is being done. When I was reading the article, "The Talk of the Town," I gained a further understanding of the destruction that firearms and firearm laws (or lack there of) can do.

To the best of my knowledge, the only law of purchasing a firearm is a five day waiting period. The idea behind this is to let some one's rage subside of over the waiting period. To some degree that is effective. However, there is nothing stopping a person from using that firearm for further violence. Since the nineteen sixties, the United States has claimed half of the top 14 worst mass shootings of the Western democracies. The government response to this: nothing.

In 1996 a gunman claimed the lives of 17 people at a school in Dunblane, Scotland. The government response: increase firearm control and ban the firearms that resembled the ones chosen for the murders. The point that I am trying to make with these two contrasting examples is that our elected officials are doing almost nothing in comparison to our easterly neighbors.

A point that I would like to make that was not mentioned in the article, but would be beneficial for others to understand is the concept of greedy politicians. The reason why very little firearm progress gets made is because firearm companies and retailers make a considerable amount of money from their death dealing businesses. These companies feel the need to bribe politicians into voting against firearm control laws so they can still have the same profits (relatively). Something that I believe in is that just because we are the home of the free, the brave should not be afraid of the coward behind a firearm.

The last bit that the reading included was something of what I strongly thought was referring to the 9/11 attacks. It talked more about how our elected officials assure us that everything is O.K. and that things are being taken care of. Both of the articles had different subjects, but depending how one looks at it, they have very similar points. The common point that I found was that America is a great nation that has a lot to offer; however, we are not living up to our potential, we still have much to work on to become who we think we are.