Reading Response #5

Nate Averna
February 10, 2010
English 100
Reading Response #5

In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, the author, Nicholas Carr suggest that the way people comprehend their written language is changing and that is due to reading texts online instead of the traditional book reading. Carr stating that, “ I'm not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I'm reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose.” and “When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances- literary types, most of them- many say they're having similar experiences. The more they use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” These quotes from Carr suggest that he is not the only one who feels that same way about reading long text on the internet. That his friends are also noticing trouble when reading longer texts on the internet and off.
One of Carr's most important claims is how the internet and online media change human thought patterns. Carr tell readers how easy it is to gather information on the internet apposed to gathering information from a physical book. The efficacy and enormous amount of data compiled on the internet make it a very useful tool, Carr states, “The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks of periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes.” But media theorist, such as Marshall McLuhan warm that what we as humans read effects out thought patterns, McLuhan states, “Pointed out in the 1960's, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” The fact that human thought patterns can be altered by reading and the incredibly attractive convinces of reading on the internet shows that readers, reading style or comprehensions can be altered by reading online. But this still doesn't prove why Carr and his colleagues would suggest that reading on the internet would causes people to lack the ability to concentrate or focus on lengthy texts. Carr's secant most important claim illustrates just this.
Researchers used the British Library and another by a U.K. Education consortium- both sites allowed readers to view references to books, articles, and other texts online- the study showed that visitors to the sites only briefly read the online texts, as stated by the researchers and Carr, “A form of skimming activity, hopping from on source to another and rarely returning to any source they'd already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of a article or book before they would “bounce” out to another site.” This claim is so important because it proves to readers that, while reading online texts, most readers only briefly review books, articles, and other texts instead of reading threw them like a person would do with a book. This, combines with the internets ability to attract readers and the fact that reading effects a persons thought process all suggest that reading online really will cause readers to lack focus when reading a article or text that is longer then a few pages. Could I dare say that perhaps that is not the only thing reading on the internet does to human though. Because of the internet, national literacy rates are declining. The amount of information available causes reader to have to short threw unwanted texts and because of all the sorting readers go threw, more people are reading more text. The basic principles that cause a declining literacy rate. So with that said, next time your reading see how long it takes you to lose your concentration and how many texts your sort threw before you find the right one.