Lawrence Besong
Professor Christopher Werry
RWS 100
15 December 2014
Benefits
of the Internet
Imagine yourself at home or in a library,
surrounded by piles of books that you have been forced to read, with paper and
pen in hand. Flipping through page after
page, reading and writing everything down in order to process the
material. These books were your only
means of learning, collecting information, and gathering research. Interaction with our peers was also
different. Communication happened in
person, through the mail, or talking over the telephone. Believe it or not, there was a time before
the Internet existed and reading books, newspapers and magazines were our
pathways to knowledge. Social
interactions were mainly done in person.
The Internet has created another accessible pathway, through our
fingertips. The discovery of the
Internet has proven to be one of the most beneficial technological innovations
known to man. Now, instead of being
surrounded by books and people, we have access to information and social
interactions through a computer or cell phone screen. Not all may agree that the Internet has
benefitted today’s society. Just as with
any other debate, there are two sides to everything. Nicholas Carr and Clive Thompson are on
opposing sides when it comes to realizing the benefits of the Internet when it
comes to reading, writing, and our overall cognitive behavior. In his article, “Is Google Making Us
Stupid?”, Carr argues that the Internet has a negative effect on how we read,
write and, essentially, how we think. On
the other hand, Clive Thompson believes that the Internet has led to
advancements in our writing and thought processes, thus making the Internet
beneficial to society in many ways. He
expresses this in his excerpt, “Public Thinking” from his book, Smarter Than
You Think. Although both authors
present a strong argument for their particular point of view, I believe that
humans have benefitted greatly from the discovery of the Internet.
Carr and Thompson are just
two of many people who have researched the effects of the Internet on society’s
writing abilities. The Pew Research
Center studied how the evolving technological environment impacted student
writing and the way teachers taught writing.
They presented their research in their report, “The Impact of Digital
Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools”. Although Carr remains on the negative side of
the Internet debate, in his article, he mentions a story about Friedrich Nietzsche,
a German philosopher and poet, who began writing again after purchasing a
typewriter. Nietzsche’s vision had begun
to fail, and he was having difficulty focusing on a page. Due to the painful headaches, he had to limit
his writing. With the help of the
typewriter, a technological advancement during that time, he was able to begin
writing again. “Once he had mastered
touch-typing, he was able to write with his eyes closed, using only the top of
his fingers. Words could once again flow
from his mind to the page” (Carr).
Technological advances allowed Nietzsche to continue writing, presenting
him with another means of expressing his thoughts into written words. The Internet gives us many opportunities to
express ourselves in writing. The
Internet gives students a platform to be able to write and express their
thoughts. Students today are writing
more than ever, through social media, blogs, comments, etc. Although both teachers and students would not
consider this “formal writing”, teachers acknowledge this a type of “informal
writing”, but a form of writing nonetheless.
One teacher expresses, “The informality of the written word and how
students use the language is the downside of technology, but the upside is that
students are communicating in the written form much more than I ever did at
that age” (Purcell, Buchanan, Friedrich).
Teachers agree that the informality of Internet writing can be
considered a downside, but formality can be taught in the classroom. The fact that students enjoy writing due to
the technological advancements takes precedence over having to teach the
“acceptable” way of writing. Even the
finest of writers begin expressing their thoughts in an informal way before
evaluating and editing their pieces. In
“Public Thinking”, Thompson states that, “By putting half-formed thoughts on
the page, we externalize them and are able to evaluate them much more
objectively. This is why writers often
find that it’s only when they start writing that they figure out what they want
to say” (Thompson 51). Writing is a process and the Internet allows our writing
to progress. We are given many
opportunities to express our thoughts, which society seems to be taking
complete advantage of.
There are about 1.5
billion people on the Internet. That
means that it is quite possible that 1.5 billion people may have access to
anything that you may write or post on the Internet, whether it be on a website
or a personal social media account. That
may put a lot of pressure on your abilities to perform, whether it is in
sports, music, and even writing. I have
personally felt the pressure to perform.
Being the captain of the basketball team, I knew that everyone in the
stands relied on me to make the great play or score most of the points. I felt that pressure from the audience, and
it helped me perform to the best of my abilities. In “Public Thinking”, Thompson calls this the
“audience effect – the shift in our performance when we know people are
watching.” Studies have shown that the
audience effect have had a positive impact on performance, including the
positive effects on writing over the Internet.
That pressure could be felt in small things like a status update on
Facebook, or a tweet on Twitter. Often
times I find myself rereading what I wrote, thinking to myself, “Does that make
sense? Did I spell that right? What will
people think?” In the research collected
from teachers by the Pew Research Center, “52% strongly agree and 44% agree
that today’s digital technologies allow students to share their work with a
wider and more varied audience” (Purcell, Buchanan, Friedrich). With their ability to share their writing to
a more varied audience, students spend more time organizing their ideas before
beginning to write. They are more
conscious of their writing, knowing that a larger audience may possibly be
exposed to it. They feel more invested
and become more creative with their expression in words.
Aside from the
opportunities for writing, collaboration is a huge advantage of the Internet
and the innovation of technology. With
the popularity of social media sites and the ability to network and comment, worldwide
collaboration over the Internet is entirely feasible. We have access to a plethora of
information. In his article, Carr states
Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful” (Carr).
If we should ever have a thought pop into our head, we have to ability
to “google” it. Google will provide
hundreds of links that will lead us to information and people who may have
previously expressed the exact same thoughts.
This allows us the opportunity to collaborate with others locally or
across the world. Thompson also mentions
Google when he writes, “Anyone who’s googled their favorite hobby, food, or
political subject has immediately discovered that there’s some teeming site
devoted to servicing the infinitesimal fraction of the public that shares their
otherwise wildly obscure obsession” (Thompson 58). He adds, “Propelled by the hyperlink – the
ability of anyone to link to anyone else – the Internet is a connection-making
machine” (Thompson 58). The Internet
allows us to reach people and information that we otherwise may never have come
across. According to research done by
the Pew Research Center on writing teachers, “23% strongly agree and 56% agree
that today’s digital technologies encourage greater collaboration among
students” (Purcell, Buchanan, Friedrich).
Rheingold describes social media as “networked digital media such as
Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and wikis – [that] enable people to socialize,
organize, learn, play, and engage in commerce” (Rheingold). Rheingold addresses the positive connection
between the Internet and collaboration when he states that “using the
technologies and techniques of attention and participation allows people to
work together collaboratively in ways that were too difficult or expensive to
attempt before the advent of social media” (Rheingold). Using the Internet and social media allows us
to communicate with a larger group of people more quickly than ever
before. This can be extremely beneficial
during a time of disaster, when important information must be quickly spread or
gathered. Often times, you will find
breaking news being tweeted before it articles can be written about them on
major news websites. Collaboration
through social media and the Internet has been proven to be a great advantage.
Of course there was a time
before the Internet. I have heard
stories from people close to me about times when they would have to research
information using an Encyclopedia or look up phone numbers using a phone
book. There was a time when you had to
use a paper map to navigate around cities or when you had to call a landline in
order to communicate with a friend. As I
mentioned before, there are always two sides.
Carr believes that the Internet is causing our though processes to
become computer-like. Thompson believes
that the Internet has given us a platform to perform better, and collaborate
far beyond what we thought could be possible.
Whether you agree with Carr or Thompson, it is easy to see how the
Internet has affected society’s abilities to read, write and think. The Internet truly has its advantages that we
can see and benefit from today.
Works
Cited
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The
Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 July 2008. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
Purcell, Kristen, Judy Buchanan, and Linda Friedrich.
"The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing Is Taught
in Schools." Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS.
N.p., 15 July 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
Rheingold, Howard. "Attention, and Other 21st-Century
Social Media Literacies." EDUCAUSE.edu. N.p., 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 7
Dec. 2014.
Thompson, Clive. “Public Thinking.” Smarter Than You Think: How
Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better. N.p: Penguin, 2014. 45-69.
Print.
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