Cynthia Selfe Summary

Cynthia Selfe in her essay "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution" talks about the effects that technology has on the world. She talks about three narratives that Americans believe when it comes to technology. Those of which being: "The Global Villiage," "Land of Equal Opportunity," and "The Un-Gendered Utopia." Selfe compares these narratives into their true form on our sociey and calls them, "The Electronic Colony," "Land of Difference," and "The Same Old Gendered Stuff." In her essay Selfe claims that, "Computers, in other words, are complexly socially determined artifacts that interact with existing social formations and tendencies-including sexism,classism, and racism-to contribute to the shaping of a gendered utopia." (page 306) Basically by this she explains that through cultural beliefs, out technology shows the hypocracy of the whole system. People say that technology is curing all those problems in the by creating a "Global Villiage", it is quite obvious that it is the opposite of all it says it is. Selfe used advertisements to show how the changes haven't occurred, and how they don't fail to show difference races in them and the more underpriviliged people. According to Selfe if we are going to allow technology to give us an equal playing field, we need to include all the groups of people in America today and not only focus on the privilaged few.

Selfe claims, "That America is the land of opportunity only for some people" The evidence that shes used to back this claim up is the history of slavery and deaf education, womans sufferage, immigration, and labor unions. she says that all these remind us of this fact that only the more priviliged people get more opportunities than the underprivileged people.

Another claim that Selfe makes is that ,"We tell ourselves in connection with computers and change focuses on equity, opportunity, and access-all characteristics ascribed to the electronic landscape we have constructed on the internet and the computer use in general." she says that this landscape, or so we life to believe, is open to everyone no matter what the gender, race, class or connection is. Later in her essay though she proves that this land if equal opportunity is not exactly open to everyone, but more so just to the more priviliged people in the world.

Cynthia L Selfe: summary

Cynthia Selfe's essay "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution" is about the change technology has on the world. These days all that goes on in an English classroom is Teachers talking to us about the change that is happening in the world caused by technology. Technology is taught by Teachers of all subjects to ensure that their students understand the world and can inter a profession with string values Selfe is not siding on either side she is simply stating both. Technology is having its effect on social productivity. It is said to believe that Technology is like it's own subject, like science or math. Americans don't want the change to happen slowly and by its self, what Americans want is to embrace the advantages of technology. Even though it is hard to make changes we have to work for that change.

Claim 1:
"Americans are the smart ones who use technological expertise to connect the world's people, to supply them with technology and train them to use it." I believe that Selfe is trying to say that Americans have adapted so well to the technological network, that we are part of it. Americans use technology every day if its not the television or the computer its an Ipod or cell phone, and since we use them so much we understand the meaning and whats behind the technology. It's funny to see my 13 year old sister know more about my mom's cell phone then my mom does, it just goes to show that my generation has adapted better to technology than my parents or grandparents generation.

Claim 2:
On page 303 the first full paragraph it states, "American family-- three smiling kids, two smiling, upwardly-mobile-parents posing in front of a spanking new functionally designed, split-level home, with all the optimism characteristic of the Eisenhower era." Right there shows the image of a TV family, not a "real family." The Ads show a family with no problems in the world just a happy-go-lucky family that has everything going for them. But what you don't see is what the family really is a family that has problems in some-way or another. I personally hate seeing families like that because in reality you don't ever see a family that is perfect, at least i never have. Yes, that family may not have had any types of technology in their house that may have corrupted their children, but now you look and see kids on their computers or watching TV and that's all they do. So yes TV may have an effect on Americans, but its something that really can't be changed.

Cynthia Self Blog post 2

Cynthia Self's article "lest we think revolution is a revolution" Is about the effects of technology on the world. Self makes many main points. She starts off by talking about educators and how they are undecided about technology. Self then moves on to talk about the social changes that people think the internet will bring. Self claims that the internet was thought to bring about a social reform where women and men have equal rights and will merge, the same with different ethnicities. However she points out that the internet has just reinforced our social differences and not merged them. Self also tries to show that while technology is looked at in a good light because it is helping third world countries and their struggles it is rather just displaying our technological superiority and forcing a cultural difference and stereotype. Also self notes that technology is being used more for profit rather than as a tool to help others.
One claim I found interesting from Cynthia Self's article is "This landscape, Americans like to believe is open to everybody--male and female, regardless of color, class, or connection. It is, in fact, at some level, a romantic recreation of the American story and the American landscape themselves--a narrative of opportunity in an exciting land claimed from the wilderness, founded on the values of hard work and fair play" (301). The landscape which she is referring to is the electronic or internet landscape. She uses an advertisement to demonstrate her claim, one that emphasizes on traditional American values but connects it to an operating system from Microsoft.
Another claim from Self's article is "Our cultural experience, indeed, tells us something very different--that America is the land of opportunity only for some people" (304). Self explains this by mentioning the history of slavery , deaf education, women's suffrage, immigration, and labor unions, she is refuting the idea that she earlier claimed Americans believe.

Technologic Progress and Social Progress

What I’ve gathered from Cynthia L Selfe’s essay is that she is exploring different views on the technological movement influencing modern society. She describes how educators always end up talking about change. Change caused by technology and computers. She elaborated on three main myths or narratives.
There’s the “Global Village and the Electronic Colony” which involves all people of race, sex, and social status being connected all over the world. On the surface this sounds like a good narrative, a closer look would reveal that this does not work so perfectly. We would begin to use the internet as a source to solve world problems, but end up using it as a tool to “…increase our own cultural profits at the expense of others…” (301)
Narrative #2: “Land of Equal Opportunity and Land of Difference.” Like the previous narrative this one has a concept that is beneficial to most. They use past memories of American culture to make Americans of all race, sex, and social status feel optimistic and upbeat, utilizing ads depicting images of hope. Yet, the ads sometimes lack people of a certain race, sex, or social status making the “Land of Difference.”
The final narrative, “The Un-Gendered Utopia and The Same Old Gendered Stuff” explores the idea that technology is not gender specific. Gender won’t predict success or social status. However, its American culture that has taught us that some things are specific to gender. Each gender sends a message relating to the culture we have acquired from our lives, and advertisements play off this perception.
Interesting quotes I found are “Such a realization can serve to remind teachers that technology does not necessarily bring with it social progress…” Selfe claims that even though the benefits of technology could help future generations evolve, the existing cultural standards are hard to overcome. Another quote is “These are also the reasons that the ads included in this chapter can reveal to us the complications of our feelings toward technology and illustrate how these feelings are played out in the shared landscapes of our lived experience.” Certain ads will trigger a response in Americans due to the fact that we already have set cultural beliefs. It will be difficult for technology to produce social progress because of these beliefs.

Selfe Summary

From what I understand so far of Self's essay is that she is letting her readers know from an educators point of view the feelings on technology and social change in america today. She has said that" on some level , english departments have come to terms with technological change" but she also has said "however, even though educators have made these adaptations, we remain decidedly undecided about technology and change." Selfe is basically saying that even though she can see the benefits that technology can bring to one's life, there is also that fear of the technology because of the changes it can bring to the familiarness of one's life. In this essay, as I understand, Selfe brings in 3 narratives,#1 "the global village and the electronic colony" In this narrative she is saying how americans feel like the computer will help benefit us, or help us help people around the world By creating a unified world system free from all injustices due to race,sex,financial status. Of course there is also a down side to this narrative, with a system in place like this one as selfe states "But it becomes a world in which different cultures and people exist to be discovered,explored,marveled at, in a sense, known and claimed- by those who can design and use technology" so to me that doesnt seem very wonderful for us or the other cultural people around the world. selfe goes on like this in her other 2 narratives, showing us the pro's and con's of what technology can do for us or how it can harm us. A claim that is interesting to me from selfe is "As much as americans might like to think it,technology is not the solution for all of the worlds problems-and, indeed,it might be a contributing cause to many of them"(301)She goes on to say how "technology,in these ads,is an american tool.And we use this tool for reveal all too clearly our values as homo faber-the tool maker." Selfe suggests "that americans are not using this technology to help the world without a cost,but to multiply our own markets and to increase our own cultural profits at the expense of others." Another claim from Selfe that I found interesting was her claim that "because our culture subscribes to several powerful narratives that link technological progress closely with social progress,it is easy for us-for americans,in particular-to believe that technological change leads to productive social change."(293) She supports this claim by stating that Vice President Albert Gore has noted that the global information Infrastructure (GII) would increase opportunities for intercultural,communications among the peoples of the world. Selfe herself states "more importantly,an exclusive focus on the positive changes associated with technology,often serves to distract educators from recognizing how existing social forces actually work to resist change in connection with technology;how they support the status quo when technology threatens to disrupt the world in any meaningful way;how our culture,and social formations that that make up this culture,react with a special kind of conservatism to technology,even as we laud the changes it promises to bring." Like with all positive thing in life we need to be careful of the negative things that come along with it. Technology is a tool that is capable of progressing americans in a good direction but it can also be a downfall to us as a whole if we're not careful.

Cynthia L. Selfe Second Blog

Cynthia L. Selfe has more than one point in her article of “Lest We Think The Revolution is a Revolution” For starters I found that she is voicing the fact that us as Americans only use technology for our own benefit but as some of her examples show advertising that makes American believe we are helping other countries when it is clearly not the case. The other main point I noticed in Selfe’s article is that technology is supposable making social progress when in reality we are in social trouble at the rate we are going. Gender roles are still played out in technology and how men and women are suppose to use it. Men are supposed to use it to be the leaders and women as the followers. We all link the tech narrative to the social narrative which is unrealistic. She can be very repetitive in some of her writing in this article, but I think those are the two main points she was trying to explain.
On page 306 of “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution” Selfe explains “We find ourselves as a culture, ill equipped to cope with the changes that this Un-gendered Utopia narrative necessitates. We cannot, indeed, even imagine, collectively, ways of relating to gender outside the context of our familiar historical and cultural set of experiences.” Which mean that us as humans have a set of values and history ingrained into our brains that we as humans are not able to change the way we view what either gender should be. She uses examples of all the advertisements that show that women are supposed to be beautiful all the time, either be a sex symbol, mother, or assistant to a man. Men in advertisement seem to be the boss, the leader.
Also a claim is on page 308, and Selfe says “The results are evident in the numerous advertisement about computers the women that use a retro look to link women’s roles in the 50’s to those in the 90’s-which each gender assumes their appropriate role in connection with technology.” Meaning the 50’s in short was the generation that more than ever represented men and women’s place in the world. But try to relate the 50’s to the 90’s, Selfe explained it by saying “Men use technology to accomplish things; women benefit from technology to enhance the ease of their lives or to benefit their families.” She also brings up as explanation to support her claims that “where images of the television-era of the fifties are overlaid by those of the computer-era of the nineties.” Even though they are completely different eras the same gender roles are still being preached except in a different way.

Selfe's Essay Summary

Cynthia Selfe's 1999 Essay "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution: Images of Technology and the Nature of Change" is directed toward her fellow English teachers addressing the subject of new technology leading to social progress. Selfe points out the inconsistancies between the romanticized myths of progress and reality. With the information presented she challenges other English teachers to be "educating students to be critically informed technology scholars rather than simply expert technology users" (322). She breaks down the commonly misinformed ideas of technology and progress into three stories (narratives), and they are as followed.

Narrative 1: The Global Village--The Electronic Colony
The first is what she calls the "Global Village". This story claims that all people of the world are connected and cooperating:

[T]he computer network that spans the globe will serve to erase meaningless geopolitical borders, eliminating racial and ethnic differences, re-establish a historical familial relationship which binds together the peoples of the world regardless of race, ethnicity, or location (294).

However, Selfe believes if you look at real world advertisements you see that this idea is not true, you actually see a colony. She presents five ads, looking at the people displayed in the posters; they are dressed in traditional garb and seem to be helpless and we as the advanced Americans need to help them. We are supposed to be connected to them through our technologies but they are a world away the strange and different people are a spectacle like tourist destinations to be ooed and awed at by us sophisticated Americans.

Narrative 2 : Land of Equal Oppertunity--Land of Difference
In this story oppertunity and accessability is open to everyone, but,

[Our] cultrtal experience, indeed, thells us something very dierent--that america is the land of oppertuity only for some people. The history of slavery in this country, the history of deaf education, women's sufferage, immigratiion, and labor unions remind us of this fact; as do our current experiences with povery, the differential school graduation rate for blacks and whites and Hispanics, [and] the fact that we have never had a woman President...oppertunity is a commodity generally limited to privileged groups within this country (304).

Narrative 3: The Un-gendered Utopia--The Same Old Gendered Stuff Selfe describes how Americans wish to have this ramantic (idealistic) ideal about the internet being cross-genderal. The idea goes that computers are new and non gender specific therefore there should be an equal opertunity for both geders to use it and be represented. However this idea is untrue, Selfe points out that computers are used by and directed twords primarily males. Also she presents that even when we try to spread out of our historical gender specific roles we can't help but fall back into them becaouse they are so deeply ingrained into thaoughs and ways we cannot escape them. She states, "we find ourselves, as a culture, ill equipped to cope with the canges that this Un-gendered Utopia narrative necessitates" (306). By this she means that thoughout our history we difine our genders not only physically but by the roles that they play in society, by changing up the historical roles we lose what it means to be male or female therefore to preserve our gender identities we uncounciously fall back into the traditional roles

Summary of Cynthia L. Selfe

Cynthia L. Selfe's essay "lest we think the revolution is a revolution Images of technology and the nature of change." In the secomd half of narrative #3 "The un-Gendered utopia" and 'The same old stuff"(305-309) Selfe states "a good portion of collective imagination is constructed by history and sedimented in the past experiance and habit". As she speaks of the "un-gendered utopia". According to Selfe the re-vising of the utopia is set back in the 50's when woman were no longer encouraged to maintain a presence in the workplace. "woman faced with this eventuality, became the savvy managers of the private sphere". The woman of this time were expected to heed the advice of DR.Spock, take advantage of the salk vaccine for polio, become effective health advisors, and they were expected to use the newely developed and improved technologies of electric vaccume cleaners,dishwashers,washing machines,TV's,cleaning products and station wagons to be increasingly effective housekeepers. Today advertisements show that "men use tech to accomplish things and woman benifit from tech to enhance the ease of their lives or to benifit their families". My view of this portion of Selfe's text is that even though women have came along way with their rights it's still not equal to men's rights. We do alot more today than in the 50's but i think that in the backs of our minds we are still somewhat holding onto those old steriotypes.

Selfe, first section

Technology is advancing quickly, doubling its storage capacity and microprocessors every year and half. Technology has been incorporated into school studies as its own force. It’s just as important as science, math and english. Society believes in the power of the computer has over us and because of that we fear the effects of what technology can do to society. Everyone has their strong points in technology and with are cooperation we can advance further using each other’s strengths. We believe that technological change leads to productive social behavior change. We have embraced computer technology so enthusiastically over the past decade; teaching now involves computers no matter what subject. Computers have supported us with communication through government agencies, corporations or political groups. Technology is often viewed with optimism but has extremely potent fears. Advertisements can portray are collective American imagination about technology. They tell a rich and powerful narrative that shows values Americans can appreciate. Technology reveals the complications of our feelings and how they affect our lives and our surroundings.

Computer technology is here to stay and will be our driving force into the coming years. We revolve around the fact that technology is the greatest accomplishment in humanities lifetime. That may be true but can anything else trump computer technology. I believe the field of medicine of the best chance of triumphing over computer technology. Medicine does indeed incorporate computer but so does everything else; medicine, in my opinion, can explore new avenues of science for human benefit. Improving upon common medicines, creating a new variety of medicine altogether. Human enhancements like pace makers, steel fame bones, hearing aids, artificial lungs, hearts, livers all are minor advancements in medicine. Overall computers dominate our society and with this powerful tool, certain agendas are being devised to manipulate the public. Advertisements are there to entice us and show an alternate world where everything goes your way. A single picture is capable of doing anything; a picture is worth a thousand words. Technology will not always be used for the best intentions but I believe, despite certain claims, will improve our society immensely. How we use our new found discoveries will determine our progress.

Group summary

Our groups section was "The Global Village And The Electronic Colony." It was about the online social network that has bin created. It is talking about myths, the most popular myth is that technology is bringing all people together and in a sence creating a eutopia warew everyone is equal. Cynthia L. Selfe says that americans liketo believe that myth. It is the moste popular myth. The less popular ,myth is that by joining all nations as one in cyberspace and becomeing equals that americans will be looseing some privaleges because we are more powerefull than moste and by joining together and equalling poweres than we will be resigneing som of our power and the benifits that come with it. Salfe says that Americans think that they are leaders in the world, we see ourselves as a higher powere because of our culteral expieriences throughout history. We see ourselves as founders therefore we dont think we are really equals but we are, It is just in our owm mindes that we are above all other countries.

In Sules essay she says "Inhabitance of this electronic global village, in turn, become,forigners, exotics, savages, object to study" ( paragraph 16.) In this quote i think what sulfe is tryuing to say is that everyone in the world who is a part of the cyber networking world is a forigner. Because weare all from diffrrent places we all see eachother as forigners. However at the same time noone is a foriner because we all belong to the cyber network, therefore we all fit in. However we are infact foroigners because of the way we see eachother and how people see us.

Lest we think the revolution is a revolution

The group I was in read the last parts of this paper from page 315 to 322. This section starts out on describing how the 90's gave Americans the role of seductress in advertising, like the view of a naked womans back as she lovingly holds a tv. But it goes on to say that technology can change roles that are usually determined by ones gender. Stereotypically men would be portrayed as the sex maniacs or bikers or nerds, while women would be the mother or wife or seductress. Later on the paper tells us how nobody truly lives up to their own stereotypes and how they can help be fabricated by the education system and advertisements.

A certain quote had a profound affect on my thinking on page 321 "Our work as teachers, the curricula we fashion, the corporate and public environments our students enter as professionals, the schools that make up the educational system-these social formations are also shaped by the same sets of culturally determined values, the same complexities, the same ambiguities, the same contexts for our imaginations." This is very interesting to me because as children are we being conditioned on how we act without knowing it?

"The Global Village"

My group covered from narrative #1 to narrative #2 in Cynthia L. Selfe’s essay, “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution –Images of the Technology and the Nature of Change”. I think we found some very interesting points that Cynthia is saying, and really tried to get in depth and figure out exactly what she is saying. She raises some very important ideas and opinions about how we socially are affected by this onslaught of technology and how we are effected emotionally, and culturally. She refers to the internet as a “melting pot”. Bringing people together throughout the world no matter of race or ethnicity. Cynthia talks a lot about how we Americans view the internet. How we think we are the founders of the “Global Village” and the internet, therefore we are superior. Americans fear that now since we have created this global village, we will all become equal and will eventually become the foreigners and savages that we think of other countries around the world.
Cynthia says on page 295, “This revision is a familiar imaginative context for us – we have, after all, a history of experiencing the world as missionaries, as colonists, as tourists, as representatives, of multinational companies.” By this she means that Americans have a perspective of themselves that throughout history we have always been the hero’s and the leaders of all other countries. But I think that with the internet that many countries will become equal and eventually there won’t be any superiority.

Land of equal opprotunity

In this article “lest we think the revolution is a revolution images of technology and the nature of change” by Cynthia L. Selfe, Self telling us how we tell our selves computers change our focuses on all characteristics ascribed to the electronic land scape. The electronic land scape recreates the american dream focused on equal opportunity. Advertisements use the electronic landscape to emphasize the traditional american values. The Advertisements use old traditional values that were in the 1950's are showing up today. The technological process characteristics what americans accomplish in the land of equal opportunity. (pages 301-305)

Selfe states in this article “ we are not alone in these stories that we tell ourselves-indeed, they are echoed for us constantly and in a variety of versions”(page293, par. 7). This coment to me is saying not only one person dreams of the american dream. Lots of people talk about this american dream every day. I think that this is true, but the dream is different for everyone. Some people dream to just be rich. Others dream to have money, but they want to spend it on stuff to bring there family together and to help everyone else too.

Selfe - Ungendered Utopia

Selfe – Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution
Mikhaila Baker, Section L
There is no doubt in my mind that the great majority of Americans view technology as an asset that improves their daily lives. However, whether this improvement in our daily lives can really be debated as gender biased remains debatable. Some could say technology is technology and who it helps is whoever it helps. Although others would argue that technology may be technology, but who it helps is a specific group that it is aimed at, more specifically a gender that it is aimed at. Cynthia L. Selfe (a Humanities Distinguished Professor in the English Department at Ohio State University) broached this sensitive subject in her 1999 book, “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution”. Through her clever use of comparing commercials from the 1990’s to the 1950’s, she shows a clear connection between the two very different time periods. In the 1950’s it was common knowledge that women we’re meant to stay at home and be the “homemakers” while caring for the family’s overall wellness. So it is no wonder why in commercials from that era we see the technology that is meant to help with around the house chores and certain aspects of health (like well balanced meals, and medical shots, ect.) are shown with a woman figure taking advantage of these opportunities. But then we look at commercials from the 1990’s and we see the exact same pattern, despite that we “know” our culture to be lacking in gender roles. Selfe perfectly points out that, “despite the fact that families must maintain a duel presence in the work force, despite the fact that the rising incidence of divorce at the end of this century makes single-parent families the norm rather than the exception, despite the fact that the optimism of the fifties and sixties was articulated by John Kennedy has given way to the paranoia of the nineties as expressed by Pat Buchanan – the images of gender…remain relatively stable…” (par 10 Nar 3). In other words, us Americans know that “the norm” is definitely not this picture perfect family we enjoy seeing on TV. And although we know it to be a blatant fact, we choose to look past that and go on our cultural instincts to picture this perfect family, with the perfect housewife/mom, and the working husband, alongside the children.
It’s true that we are odd animals for loving one picture so much, and then fighting so hard against its restrictions. But, honestly, what are you supposed to think when the picture of happiness is shoved in your face every day by the ads we can’t ignore. Americans want to believe in being able to move around, be who you are, go for the dream you’ve always had. But when our culture only allows us one real picture of common happiness (so, not the rock-star-dream come true happiness), we are forced to think we can only have happiness in one way. Personally, I know that happiness comes in all shapes and sizes and colors; but I also know how hard it is to picture myself being happy in any other way than that picture image. In the future I picture myself being a mom with several kids and a nice, hard working husband. And if I don’t get that picture who is to say I can’t be happy. I can’t know myself at all, but I hope. Just like the great great majority of Americans.

Lest We Think The Revolution is a Revolution

My group had pages 305-309 and we summarized most of it but missed some. In this essay “Lest We Think The Revolution is a Revolution” by Cynthia L. Selfe my groupmates and I came up with opportunities regarding gender. In the first couple paragraphs we read was the idea that technology is ungendered and that it aims at both men and women. Then we read further and read that men and womens roles are so tightly engraved into our heads that we don’t know any different from how we are “supposed” to act. It also states that humans are ill equipped to adapt to the idea of an uncultured society which I also think is true. Then at almost the end of our reading it says that men and women use technology different in the way that men use it to be the boss and the women use it to be the bosses secretary. I think that she is extremely one sided against it not being fair against the traditions of the roles for men and women and I think it can change easy if everyone wanted it to.

Summary: Cynthia L. Selfe (Pages 303-309)

In my group, we were given pages 303-309. In our group we split into 2 sub-groups of 3 people. My other two group members and I did our last 6 paragraphs. We stated on the second to last paragraph of page 307, and we ended on the second to last paragraph of page 309. In our section we went over the Un-gendered Utopia narrative. “A good portion of our collective imagination,” of this Utopia, “has been constructed by history and sedimented in past experiences and habit.” (307, par 3) After World War II women were no longer needed in the work place, and because of the advanced technology for housekeeping they were expected to become better housekeepers. It has been said that “men use technology to accomplish things; women benefit from technology to enhance the ease of their lives or to benefit their family.” (308, par 1) Selfe then brings in the 90’s women against the 50’s women. She doesn’t contrast these 2 women, I believe that she is comparing them and showing how much they have in common. As a 50’s women you were expected to be the house keeper. Selfe brings a commercial into her paper about a 90’s woman. She is able to be the housekeeper, and because of technology she is able to go to college and get an education. The woman, Celeste Craig, said she is achieving her dreams of “going to college by staying home.” (308,par 3) These 2 women she is comparing have a lot in common, but the 90’s women have a lot more opportunities to achieve their dreams.

In Cynthia Selfe’s essay, Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution: Images of Technology and the Nature of Change, we learn about our misconceptions of our cultural narratives. According to Selfe, “A good portion of our collective imagination is constructed by history and sedimented in past experience and habit.” In other works, Selfe believes, as do I, that because of our past experiences that is what affects our views of our culture and world.

Pages 301-305
Cynthia Self talks about the electronic landscape, kind of like the culture of the internet. Self says the electronic landscape is reflective of the American landscape which represents equality to all. Self then goes on to describe some advertisements that use traditional American values to sell technology. But the truth about these values aren't always true because they aren't available to all groups in America.

Self talks about Americans thought on technology, she claims "As much as Americans might like to think it; technology is not the solution for all of the worlds problem-and, indeed, it might well be a contributing cause to many of them." Self is saying that technology is not as helpful as many Americans think but rather it causes problems of its own. Self's idea is similar to that of Michael Wesch's in the video "A Vision of Students Today". Michael Wesch showed that his students were using technology more frequently than they were studying and demonstrated the negative affects that came from it. I think that technology is troublesome at times, but the benefits do outweigh the problems it creates. The convenience of internet for example helps us share and utilize information with ease even from across the world.

Land of Equal Opportunity, and Land of Difference...

Narrative #2
pages 301-305

In this part of Cynthia Selfes essay, she talks about how, as a culture, we believe that technology changes our focuses on all characteristics ascribed to the electronic landscape we have contracted. The electronic landspace recreates the American dream, focused on equal oppertunity. Meaning that everyone is to recieve equal opportunity and there is no discriminating between gender, class, or race. Advertisements use the electronic landscape to emphasize the traditional American values. The values that were prominent during the 1950's are showing up today. We like to tell ourselves that the land of equal opportunity is the American tale, though our cultural experience tells us something different. It tells us that American is the land of opportunity, but only for some people. The ads fail to include the underprivileged groups who dont have the opportunity that the other groups have.

Cynthia Selfe states, "If citizens of all kinds are to have access to technology and the opportunieties it provides, we do not see such a narrative imagined in the Land of Difference narrative; if technology is to improve the lives of all Americans regardless of race and class and other differences, our collective ability to envision such a world is not to evident in these images"(page 304-305). Selfe is basically implying that the images from the ads fail to show us that technology is improving everyones lives.

Selfe Essay

In Cynthia L. Selfe essay “Lest We Think the Revolution” she is expressing the idea that technology is un gendered is untrue because from many examples and advertisement she added in her text that technology is based around men. We do not notice this because it is so ingrained into our heads, the role for both men and women. That we humans are ill equipped to adapt to un cultured society. Men control technology and how both men and women use it, and traditionally men use it to be a leader and women use it to be followers. Pages 305-309.
In Cynthia L. Selfe essay “Lest We Think the Revolution” “Computers, in other words, are complexly socially determined artifacts that interact with existing social formation and tendencies- including sexism, classism, and racism- to contribute to the shaping of a gendered society.” What Selfe is explaining here is technology is slyly advertising to us the traditional roles men and women are supposed to have .Ingrained into all of our heads from past history that we are not aware of the ideas technology is secretly sharing with us.

Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution

Pages 292-294
The first eleven paragraphs of the article "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution Images of Technology and the Nature of Change" by Cynthia L. Selfe, introduces how when the typical English teachers get together they talk about change in subjects such as technology including computers. They suggest that technology is slowly becoming its own subject along with all the other regulars rather than a separate useful tool. Americans notice how beneficial this technology can be but at the same time they fear its rapid change. This 'change' could be good however; if it is used to blend together everyone's ideas it could become very educational and lead to productive social change. Teachers could use it to their advantage when teaching because electronics such as computers could help make a better place and environment.

Cynthia L. Selfe's article "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution Images of Technology and the Nature of Change" was written in 1999. Selfe's writing introduces many different topics involving technology and imaged advertisements that could be helping make awareness to society. In one part of her essay she talks about the difference in gender roles and how they relate to technology, Selfe says that it could help with the gender role issue so that it would make it so that both men and women are equal. Selfe states, "It is clear, for instance, that fewer girls use computer in public secondary schools than do boys, especially in the upper grades, fewer women enter the advanced fields of computer science than to males that the computer industry continues to be a space inhabited by and controlled primarily by males. Computer games are still designed for boys; computer commercials are still aimed mainly at males; computing environments are still constructed by and for males" (page 306. par 1). This quote is a good example of how much society has changed in eleven years when it comes to who is allowed for what and who is not. Women were limited to technology in Selfe's opinion, but clearly now in days all genders use the computer equally and all technology is based around both genders, not just one.

Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution

Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution: Images of Technology and the Nature of Change By: Cynthia L. Selfe

Section 1: pages 292-294

Paragraph 1: These days all English teachers really want to talk about are the change that is happening with technology.

Paragraph 2: It is thought that technology has become its own type of subject, and just as important as science, math or English.

Paragraph 3: Technology has its benefits when it comes to different things, but the fear that people have changes the technological change that is happening right before our eyes.

Paragraph 4: Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to technology, but we still have a lot to learn about technology.

Paragraph 5: It is said to believe that the technological change that is happening leads to a productive social change.

Paragraph 6: Technological change is such a big part in social change that they want to embrace the use of technology.

Paragraph 7: Americans believe that computers/technology can make the world a better place to live in.

Paragraph 8: Computer networks can support more citizens in their efforts to communicate with the government, technology will establish new kinds of electronic forums that will support women and other groups that are now often left out.

Paragraph 9: The exclusive focus on the positive change with technology that often distracts educators from recognizing how existing social forces that actually work, technology is often viewed as optimism but it has potent fears.

Paragraph 10: Technology is seen to have created a cultural belief

Paragraph 11: Our feelings are being played with by different Ads and the technology that we
use.

Confronting Revised Narratives: 321-322

Paragraph 1: Technology is taught by teachers to ensure their students understand the world and can enter a profession with strong values.

Paragraph 2: Everyone says that technology comes’ social progress but that’s not necessarily true, because technology does not necessarily bring social progress.

Paragraph 3: Technology will recognize that the importance of educating students to be critically informed technology scholars rather than simply expert technology users.

Paragraph 4: Even though it’s hard to make change we have to work for that change.

Quote:
In Virgin Sound and Records view “Americans use technology to become world travelers, to learn about/and acquire knowledge of other cultures, while remaining comfortably situated within their own living rooms…” (296,297/par. 3) I believe that Virgin Sound and Records have an interesting stand point to this statement. I agree with their statement, I have experiences being a world traveler through technology. I love being able to research everything about that one place I am not able to visit.

Essay Summary : Cynthia L Selfe

Pages 309-322

My groups portion of the essay touched on the stereotypes regarding gender roles. Selfe starts this paragraph off by describing an advertisement with a beautiful woman in front of a monitor, comparing the beauty of a woman with the beauty of this monitor. She then moves on to another advertisement where they have gone a little further and used a woman in a "seductress" role to sell the monitor. Both ways show the traditional "roles" of women in the media. Men are portrayed in suits with ties, this has been the norm since the 50's. Men have always been the workers and outside of work they are portrayed as "bikers," "nerds" and "sex machines."

Advertising and media influence our gender roles. Outside influences such as jobs and education also stereotype gender roles. We seem to be so advanced in technology yet our attitudes towards diversity and stereotypes are still stuck in the 50's. We need to move forward culturally rather than just technological.

When describing the ads and reasoning behind the gender roles, Selfe says this, "In these ads, we see reflected the roles that our culture can imagine women playing in relation to technology." We hear the same old stories of men and women, that we are used to seeing the woman play the part of the mother or seductress and the man as the bread winner, biker, and nerd. This is then moved to the media where it is continuously reminding us of gender roles.

I believe it is each person's responsibility to break out of molds we have been placed in years ago and move ahead in a new cultural direction.

Narrative #2: “Land of Equal Opportunity” And “Land of Difference”

Pgs (301-305)

Summary: As a culture we believe that technology creates change. This change is established using “the electronic landscape.” The electronic landscape recreates the American dream, focused on equal opportunity. Advertisements use this “electronic landscape” to emphasize traditional American values. These traditional values date back to the 1950s. These values are used as a collective cultural memory to indicate a bright future, a future of change. The land of equal opportunity is a landscape based off the Americans traditional values, this landscape is told through many different versions. Technological process is dependent on what Americans accomplish in the land of Opportunity. Advertisements suggest American citizens can achieve the same security and traditional values that existed in the 1950s by purchasing software. In reality, our cultural experience tells us the land of opportunity is limiting. The opportunity is only available to certain groups in this country. This narrative fails to show the underprivileged groups that don’t have the opportunity. This limits our country to the group of people who already have the opportunity, thus change is not occurring.

Quote: Cynthia L. Selfe speaks of our technology advances, as a culture, are connected to social progress. “Because our culture subscribes to several powerful narratives that link technological process closely with social progress, it is easy for us-for Americans, in particular-to believe that technological change leads to productive social change. By believing in these continuously told narratives that place achievement on technological process, we are subject to ignorance. As a culture, we begin to rely on technological change to better our social environment.

Technology Revolution

Pg. 309-322

Paragraph 1:There is a strength with using women with technology because they both represent beauty.

Paragraph 2: The American society sees women as mothers, seductresses, and beautiful but it is hard to change the thinking of those that use woman on ads as the beautiful and sophisticated one, when in fact they could be a construction worker.

Paragraph 3: The stereotypical men are suppose to run companies or be manual labors and dress the part, too.

Paragraph 4: It is hard for Americans to get outside the box of stereotyping each other. The advertisers feed on these stereotypes that society throws them. Americans need to discover new opportunities of designing new ads to go towards all jobs for men and women. Our culture would rather sit back in comfort and the past then moving towards the future of a new way of advertising.

Paragraph 5: Americans needs to confront these issues immediately. The social or the education that is taught to the generation of children will then reflect later and will show what will happen later on. If teachers educate the children the right way then our culture will come together.

Paragraph 6: It is not the teachers but the students will give the final results. They need to understand the effects of stereotyping on advertisements and the flip side of the coin of what will happen if we stay stuck in the past.

Paragraph 7: Educators or teachers will become great if they teach both sides of the story not just parts or their opinion.

Paragraph 8: Changing the education system will be hard, not knowing whether or not to keep the sacred technology. Teachers must be optimistic about their subjects of teaching. The American educators must teach the effects of racism, classism and sexism and what this countries history is. Change…

Cynthia Self author of this chapter, Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution Images of Technology and the Nature of Change. Self claims, “Like Americans, we hope computers can help us make the world a better place in which to live.” Self suggests that our hope is in technology to make the world a better place.

I would disagree because our hope should not be in technology but in God!

America Breast feeding the world "Global Village"

Cynthia Selfe is an English studies teacher who finds the technological revolution not only interesting but important to help guide its users to better tomorrow. In her article titled “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution” Selfe reveals how Americans view the development of technology by using advertisements as hard evidence. She states that there are three myths that are very popular and told throughout the history of technology; “The Global Village”, “Land of Equal Opportunity” and lastly “The Un-Gendered Utopia”. The global village is the idea that because of technological advances we have created a virtual social community on the internet. It is open to anyone and everyone who has access to a computer. So the idea of bringing the people of the World together in a place where there is no race or classes cause both good and bad thoughts in Americans. The good or romantic level is that as leaders of the technological expansion we (Americans) are helping to connect people from around the World. The bad or feared level is that since we have created this global village, we may become foreigners and objects of study to the rest of the village. The advertisements that Selfe uses to represent this myth proves not that Americans think we are the ones using technology to help others, but in fact using it to boost our own market and cultural profits.
Selfe describes the third photo by saying it “shows an Indian woman, bone picks through her nose with large feathers attached to her ear, beads around her neck, nursing a baby on one breast and a monkey on the other.” She uses this image because it is the perfect advertisement to prove that there is a global village but that Americans only want to use it the benefit ourselves by selling a color scanner. I look at the image and think that we are the mother breast feeding the other people of the World (the monkey) but of course the baby always feeds first( Americas market).

Pages: 315-322
My group read 315-322, which were the last pages of the article. What stood out to me was that our genders have different stereotypical viewpoints. Stereotypes are in the work place, in schools, and even in your own house, but are used in ads also. The man being considered the “nerd, sex addicts & bikers”, and women being more of the “seductive” type. Another part while reading was talking about how a simple English study can help you socially in the long run. “Graduates of English studies programs face an increasingly complex set of issues in the workplace and in the public sphere.” This rant also goes on to say that this helps us act as professionals and citizens.

While reading on page 317,
“These roles exist and are reproduced, within a set of over determined social formations that makes radical change hard to image and ever harder to enact—especially when technology is involved,” really jumped out to me. Roles in this paragraph refer to women as a seductress, the beauty and the mother. And these cannot be changed through technology is what is getting out out here.

Selfe's Essay Summary

Pages: 315-322
The group I was in had the privilege of reading the last few pages of the essay. What really stood out about it was that our genders have different stereotypical viewpoints when it comes to how people are looked at in the workplace as well as in the real world. The man being the “nerd, sex addicts & bikers”, and women being “seductive”. Another part while reading was talking about how a simple English you take in a curriculum can help you really help you in the long run! “Graduates of English studies programs face an increasingly complex set of issues in the workplace and in the public sphere.” This rant also goes on to say that this helps us act as professionals and citizens.

While reading on page 317, a certain saying leaped out at me.
“These roles exist and are reproduced, within a set of over determined social formations that makes radical change hard to image and ever harder to enact—especially when technology is involved.” Roles in this paragraph refer to women as a seductress, the beauty and the mother. And these cannot be changed through technology is what being said here.

Narritive 1: Pages 294-301

A popular American belief is that the inhternet is bringing everyone in the world together, casting aside racism, classism, and creating a virtual eutopia. Their are contrasting views on this "global village" that is said to have been created, there is the Romantic side, which belives that people aroud the world will be brought together, and will live in harmony. The realist on the other hand see the global village in a less appealing manner, the realist sees Americans losing their status as the most powerful country in the world, because, in a global village all are equal, no one is above another. Due to our ignorance as Americans, we have revised the idea of a global village to fit our desires more, keeping us comfortable, and in power. The first image reaveals how we, Americans, feel that we founded the global village, giving us a sense of superiority. Americans feel that if we become part of the global village, we will become foriengers, losing our identety and superiority, becoming equals with the rest of the world.

Cynthia Selfe, author of the book "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution", claims that "becoming just another member of the tribe, just another citizen of the global village, suggests the possibiy that Americans could be asked to relinquish their current privileged status in the world where, as Negropnte also reminds us, twenty percent of the population currently consumes eighty percent of the resources."(pg. 294) impying that Americans are not ready to accept the idea of a global village, fearing that it will create equality, stripping them of their privilages and sense of superiority. I think that Selfe is generalizing all Americans as selfish and ignorant people. In fact, Selfe only mentions America in this entire book, and she makes it seem as if America is the only advanced country in the world, than making America appear as the enemy, when, there are, in fact, plenty of other 1st world countries that Selfe could have included in her book, but their absence makes it difficult to take her seriously. Yes, some Americans may be scared of losing power, but it does not appear that the global village Selfe speaks of will have any effect on these power mongers.

Group section sum of Selfe

Narative # 3: "The un-gendered Utopia" and "The same old gendered stuff"
Pages 305-307

In This section of Cynthia Selfe's essay "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution: Immages of Technology and the Nature of Change," written in 1999, Selfe describes how Americans wish to have this ramantic (idealistic) ideal about the internet being cross-genderal. The idea goes that computers are new and non gender specific therefore there should be an equal opertunity for both geders to use it and be represented. However this idea is untrue, Selfe points out that computers are used by and directed twords primarily males. Also she presents that even when we try to spread out of our historical gender specific roles we can't help but fall back into them becaouse they are so deeply ingrained into thaoughs and ways we cannot escape them.

In Cynthia Selfe's 1999 Essay "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution: Immages of Technology and the Nature of Change" she states, "we find ourselves, as a culture, ill equipped to cope with the canges that this Un-gendered Utopia narrative necessitates" (306). By this she means that thoughout our history we difine our genders not only physically but by the roles that they play in society, by changing up the historical roles we lose what it means to be male or female therefore to preserve our gender identities we uncounciously fall back into the traditional roles.

Summary of Selfe's Essay

Pages: 292-294
When teachers meet to discuss education the conversation always tilt to technology and the change it might cause. Technology has become its own subject and is integrated into life and education. People are indecisive because on one hand technological change can bring benefits but there is also fear of its change for the negative. Everyone has their strong points with technology. Some people believe that technological change leads to social change, causes some to support the change. Since some believe this claim, educators embrace new technologies. Some foresee computers making the world a better place and creating better communications worldwide. However, there are some fears. There is a group of people who claim that positive changes in technology are distracting teachers from recognizing how social forces work to resist change. When views perceive images, they create or illustrate established cultural beliefs in our minds. When we watch these ads certain feelings are revealed relevant to the images and technology found in ads.

Pg:293 Par:5
"This optimism about technology often masks in a peculiar way, however, a contrasting set of extremely potent fears."

section summarry for selfe's article.

Page 301: Narrative #2
Group summary
We tell ourselves computers change our focuses on all characteristics ascribed to the electronic landscape. The electronic landscape recreates the American dream focused on equal opportunity. Advertisements use the electronic landscape to emphasize the traditional American values. The values that were prominant during the 1950s are showing up today. Land of the equal opportunity is told in different ways. The technological process characterizes what Americans accomplish in the land of the equal opportunity.
Quote from Selfe: "...citizens of the twenty-first century can achieve the same kind of happy security and personal well being that was enjoyed bu citizens of the fifties-by purchasing a software package rather than a new home."

"Is Gogle Makeing us Stupid?"

In the article “Is Google Making US Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr suggests that the internet today is making our brains change. Google is changing the way we think. It is changing the way our minds learn and process things. In a way Carr is basically saying that the internet is causing us, in a way, to have ADD (attention defecate disorder.) He talks about how the internet not only allows us to jump from one thing to the other but that it encourages such behavior. When we are online there are so many pop ups and distractions we are never settled on one thing for more than a few minutes. For example on face book you are constantly getting little “notifications” saying who commented on what etc. When I am on face book I will be doing one thing or IM-ing one person for only a short period of time before there is a pop up or something else going on to distract me from my task at hand and encourage me to multi task which in Carr’s claims is the reason why we are becoming so ADD, we are no longer accustomed to focusing on just one thing for a long period of time. In Carr’s article “Is Google making us stupid?” He goes back as far as to when clocks were made to explain technology’s effect on people. In a way he states that when (time) the clock was introduced to society, people started revolving around it. Knowing about time made us want to be efficient. The object of time gave us a desire to use it wisely and figure out ways to make products the most efficient way possible. And we did. Carr also talks about how when machines and technology first started advancing that we were using it to replace manual labor that was our goal. However our goals for technology has advanced throughout the years from having technology replace manual labor to having it think for us and be able to do our brains work of thinking and processing things. I do not think a computer will never be able to actually replace thinking for ourselves; the computer will never have the ability to be our brains. The more we let the computer think for us the less we actually know. I believe there will come a point where the computer will be doing so much of what our brains originally were created to do that we will only know what are in the computer and nothing else. If we let the internet advance to the point of doing all of our thinking for us (and I believe we will) then we will have no true knowledge accept to what is online.

Is Google making us Stupid? Ian Wells

In the Article “ Is Google Making Us Stupid” Nickolas Carr discusses the effects of advancing technology in today’s society. Carr describes himself as an enthusiast of the Internet and uses Google and other search engines for research data for his books. The Internet gives us access to material quickly and has become a universal medium. Reading is not an instinctive skill that we can pick up easily, we have to constantly practice to keep are reading attention sharp. Carr says that technology has huge influences on our conscious mind. When the mechanical clock came into existence, people focused their lives around that time schedule to determine what to do throughout the day. Technological tools we invent tend to take over our perception of life; humanity almost tries to copy the aspects of the tools we use. The brain is extremely malleable and can be rewired to perform differently under unique circumstances. The Internet can access mass amounts of information within a short amount of time, so humanity tries to do the same by skimming through large articles reading the important parts the text to gain knowledge. Carr mentions that the inventors of Google want to create an A.I that can help the world; of course this would be one the hardest challenges of mankind, creating an evolving machine capable of pursuing impossible tasks no mere human could perform.

I believe Google is a fascinating device that can help many individuals find relevant information concerning their own agendas. Is Google making us stupid? Depends on who uses the Internet; Google definitely sidetracks us when we’re looking for information. I believe Google has the power to sway us from important issues, but is a huge information hub that can find relevant information concerning our interest with the world. With advancing technology it’s hard to understand the core functions of the Internet, computers, or cell phones. We tend to find alternate ways of achieving our goals. Communication is one of are ways of staying connected to the world without having to talk face to face. I think creating an A.I is somewhat inhuman. Creating an intelligent life form capable of learning from its mistake and learning from its guardian is inhuman because we’re forcing this A.I to become our slave and only do things relevant to the success of humanity. It seems Google believes creating an A.I is the hardest challenge because they don’t want to create a slave but a helpful life form that wants to assist humanity. An A.I is a difficult problem to solve; it would seem creating an A.I is not in the best interest of humanity. I know Google has the best interest for us, but they’re a business with that needs to think progressively in order to expand.

Is Google

Nicholas Carr questions in his recent “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” essay if Google is hindering humans ability to learn and understand information. Carr uses various examples of historic technological changes to dig deeper into his original question “Is Google making us stupid?”, siting the typewriter as a similar technological change that humans have experienced and adapted too. Carr claims that the way people read has changed, long books used to be simple to read, but now concentration is an issue, it is a struggle to read more than a few paragraphs without skimming. Portraying the change in his own personal reading style Carr says “I used to dive deep in the sea of words like a scuba diver, now I’m like a jet skier riding across the water looking for information!” implying that he now skims through articles and books, rather than reading deep into the texts. Carr claims that this mindset has taken over all Americans; Carr does not end his essay by concluding whether this mindset is good, bad, or irrelevant, but rather he leaves it up to the reader to decide.

Carr claims in his essay that the internet is predominantly where Americans do their reading, saying “the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for the most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and dully applauded.” (pg. 2) implying that fewer books are being read due to the convenience of the internet. I agree with Carr’s claim, I think that most of the literature intake Americans experience is through the internet, it is faster, more convenient, and more efficient, so why would internet not become so popular among casual readers? The advantages of the internet are many; I do not see the regression in ones ability to concentrate on long articles evolving into a significant issue, though Carr proposes a relevant question to our modern-day society.

Is Google making us stupid?

Is Google making us stupid? That is the title and main object of debate in the essay that Nicholas Carr wrote. While not staying on one side of the fence and voicing his opinions Carr would prefer to sit on it and throw the pros and cons back and forth. Carr mentions early on in this essay that his mind is changing, the way he thinks is changing. He states that his concentration would drift when trying to read a lengthy piece of writing, that he would lose focus after only a few pages of what he used to read for hours. “I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” He later indicates that he is spending a lot of time online, the internet is a godsend to him as a writer, and that Google helps him find a quick fact or quote. The Internet is changing society itself, not just the way we read or find information, but how we are able to purchase things, contribute our thoughts, opinions, and feelings. He connects his activity on the internet to his change in reading. Later on in his essay Carr uses Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University. She claims that “We are not only what we read, we are how we read.” She also makes another statement that gave me a good shock and a look into how the mind works. As stated in his essay “Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched into our genes the way speech is. We have to teach our minds to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand.” So, in other words, reading and writing is something that can change easily and frequently. While Google may not be making us stupid it is making us efficient in finding facts that we need quickly.

" is google making us stupid"

In this article “is google making us stupid” Nicholas Carr is talking about how google is helping and not helping us at the same time. The whole article is not all about google it is about technology in general. How it is effecting how we act. He talks about how our behavior reacts to all of the new things and how our learning stratagies are changing. He is basically trying to say when the technology changes we change too. Carr makes the claim “we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” (par. 26). This claim by Carr is stating how we start to process things through like the machines and other tools we use. We no longer do anything old school we have new ways of doing things just like how we have newest and lasted technology. He says the clocks methodical ticking helped bring into being the scientific mind and the scientific man. Also he says people start to act like the machines, we don’t read everything we just point out the important facts. We can no longer pay attention to one thing the internet scatters our attention and diffuse our concentration.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Do you think that Google is making us stupid? I think the opposite, I believe that Google (as well as other search engines) has given us many opportunities to learn things we would have never found the answers too. If Google wasn’t around then there would be many things I would have never bothered to look up. But now, if I’m curious about something I can simply just Google it, and usually get a pretty good answer to what I am looking for. In Nicholas Carr’s essay titled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he has many valid points from both ends of the argument. He states, “For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for the most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and dully applauded.” (pg. 2). I think he has a good way of illustrating that people today don’t want to spend hours finding something in a book if they can find it on the web in 5 seconds. People today are about being efficient, and accurate. There just simply isn’t enough time in a day for a lot of people to do the things they want to do, especially not always enough time to read half of a book to find the answers your looking for when somebody has already written it on the web for you and all you have to do is, “Google it”.
Many people have admitted that they have almost completely stopped reading books. The internet makes it so there is almost no point to going out and buying a book. We can buy things like the Amazon Kindle and read on that if we really want to read a book. Kids today will never read unless they have too, and even when they have to they can find all the answers they are looking for in the novel on the internet. I think that within the next 15 years book sales will be slim to none and newspaper companies will by falling right and left.
Carr goes on to say “It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstract going for quick wins.” The internet is just easier and more efficient. In my opinion the most interesting thing that Wolf says is, “Reading is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched into our genes the way speech is. We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand.” I think that is a very good point. Reading isn’t natural to us, its not one of our senses but its still such a huge part of our life.

Is google making us stupid??

In Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making us stupid?” he implies that the use of technology such as the internet has changed our perspective of thinking; he implies that we have become a world of multitaskers that are at a fast pace all the time now.  Carr talks about how he has been using the internet more and more over the years, and how focusing on simple task such as reading a book has become more difficult for him due to the constant use of the internet and its fast paced virtual world.  When compared to the PBS Frontline documentary, “Growing up Online”, this can easily be seen s a connection with students not being able to focus in class.  The internet is an enhancing tool when it comes to becoming more social online, but all this social behavior can take away from actual focus on what’s really important for students to be learning.  Children have grown up in an era of technology taking over most of our lives; and they are growing up with completely different perspectives on what childhood really is.  When I was around 8 or 9, social networking was unheard of.  The constant use of social networking has made me feel like people (including students) have become lazy and don’t have the drive to actually interact with one another in person.  When we go onto the internet, the are constant bombardments of advertising and things that take away our focus from what we really want to be doing.  Students deal with this “silent” problem every time they go onto the internet; they go from one thing to another at a rapid pace that when they sit in a classroom, there’s not that fast paced world.  From what Carr says, I can connect the two and say that because of what Carr says about how he has lost focus, we can only imagine what students are dealing with when they walk into a classroom without the use of technology.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Nicholas Carr wrote an online article called "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" While reading this very placed out document, its is clearly pointed out that google is having a major influence on our life's. Being the top user friendly search engine in the world some say that it might even reach the point where its quicker than the human mind. Not only that he goes off about how we inventing a new beneficial way to read. Skim reading if you will finding the major points and clicking the next page. throughout this big sequence of pages on things for sure, google is changing the way we think.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

When it comes to Carr’s essay, “Is google making us stupid?” it seems to be that everyone thinks that the internet is bad. The summary of this essay is that Carr explains to his readers that people don’t read as much anymore as they used to and that they are turning to the net and the web to find what they want. I compare this to growing up online when the boy talks about doing spark notes and hardly ever reads anymore. Carr states that he used to be a big reader and now all he does is surf the internet for information he needs cause he and many other people just don’t have the time to read anymore. Like he said previously in his essay, “ I used to dive deep in the sea of words like a scuba diver, now I’m like a jet skier riding across the water looking for information!” meaning that he doesn’t get lost in books like he used to he just skims the surface for info he needs. I think that google isn’t necessarily making us stupid. In the new age of today we just found a quicker more efficient way of finding what we want instead of having to read for three hours. I also don’t think its making us stupid because we find information that is true, it would be different if what we are looking for was false but it rarely ever is. So to wrap this up I think google is not making us stupid it’s just a different way of finding information and not everybody is used to it.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

In his essay "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Nicholas Carr talks about the effects that reading online and technology have on us. One issue that he talks about is the fact that some of us are not able to read or stay focused on long pieces of writing, and is a struggle for us to do so. he uses himself, Scott Karp, and Bruce Friedman as examples. All three used to be able to read long books and not have a problem, now they find it hard to read just a couple paragraphs. For Carr the deep reading that used to come easy to him, he now finds a struggle. Carr isn't saying that Google is making us stupid, he's just simply saying that the internet is where we spend most of our time these days and where we get most of our information, shortened down to something nice and easy for us to read quickly. He also talks about by searching the web it gives companies more oppertunities to sell us things. Carr says,that, "the more links we click and pages we view, the more oppertunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements." basically the more we surf the web, we will get advertisements that apply to us, and things that we would want.

Is Google Making us Stupid?

In the recent work of Nicholas Carr, he writes an article called "Is Google Making us Stupid?" In this piece of wrting he brings up how spending time online and surfing the web may be the cause of a lack of concentration and ability to deep thinking. Carr says that he use to read books more than anything and that olden day work would reward him with a better intelect when it comes to concentrating. Carr was able to read slowly so that he could understand each and every term and concept introduced. When the Internet became big and Nicholas Carr begain to use it more and more he noticed himself skimming the pages of the Web and scanning headlines. The more he began to notice this, the more he reliezed that the Internet may be causing the people who use it to concentrate less and develop a decrease in deep intelctual thinking. Carr says, "It is clear that users are not reading oline in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of "reading" are emerging as users "power browse" horizontaly through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense." (Par 8). This says that when users are using the Internet for their reasources instead of books that they are skimming and using the eaiser way to get their work done and over with quicker rather than conducting their work the "traditional" way where it helps to read each and every word slowly without skimming through the pages.

When reading Carr's work i could find myself agreeing with what he was saying about how people who use the Internet are more likely to skim through their work and get it done as fast as possible. Technology is being made with shortcuts, such as a phone for example, it is so much faster to text someone than it is to write a hand written letter. However, through this quick passed electronic age, I do notice that it has made it so much eaiser to do things fast and get it over with. This is why I agree that in school, it has gotten more fast pace and when students read they skim to get it over with as quick as possible.