Essay 2 - Sources Homework

Source 1: Writing, Technology and Teens (http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED524313.pdf)
Claim: Even though teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world, they do not believe that communication over the internet or text messaging is writing
Evidence: „
- 85% of teens ages 12-17 engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites.
„- 60% of teens do not think of these electronic texts as “writing.” Teens generally do not believe that technology negatively influences the quality of their writing, but they do acknowledge that the informal styles of writing that mark the use of these text-based technologies for many teens do occasionally filter into their school work.
- Overall, nearly two-thirds of teens (64%) say they incorporate some informal styles from their text-based communications into their writing at school. 50% of teens say they sometimes use informal writing styles instead of proper capitalization and punctuation in their school assignments;
„- 38% say they have used text shortcuts in school work such as “LOL” (which stands for
“laugh out loud”);
-„ 25% have used emoticons (symbols like smiley faces ☺) in school work.
Analysis: The main reason teens use the internet and cell phones is to exploit their communication
features.Yet despite the nearly ubiquitous use of these tools by teens, they see an
important distinction between the “writing” they do for school and outside of school for
personal reasons, and the “communication” they enjoy via instant messaging, phone text
messaging, email and social networking sites.

Source 2: Internet Use and Reading Habits of Higher Institution Students (http://jeteraps.scholarlinkresearch.org/articles/Internet%20Use%20and%20Reading%20Habits%20of%20Higher%20Institution%20Students.pdf)

Claim: On close enquiry, one usually finds out that they are networking socially with friends, Reading dailies and rarely getting information in their various school courses. This seems to have reduced interest in reading of printed materials, vocabulary development, and general knowledge, broadmindedness which an individual gets from having a good reading habit.
Evidence: These evidence are base upon actual survey so the number are quite statistics.

Analysis: Behind each table, the author give out his own opinion on the table very precisely and professional. He also compares between tables of statistic to shown the reader the differences and simmilarities. 

Essay 2 - Brainstorm

1. What kinds of technologies are specifically the most beneficial to college writers? What kinds of technologies are the most harmful? Why?

- There are alot of technology out there that are benificial to college writers, but the most benificial one must be the laptop or desktop. These item are now one of the most important thing that a college writer have to have. These things help speed up the process of writing, help fixing any grammar or vocabulary mistake, or even revise it a bit roughly. The kind of techonology that is the most harmfulfor college writer in my opinion is the Internet. Although, the Internet is now a very valuable sources of information, but it also have a really large amount of false informations and article that was written just for fun and for credit. Those kind of articles or informations will really make a piece of writing crumble when the reader find out that the information is not true.


2. In what specific ways is technology a benefit or a hindrance to college-level, deep reading?

- Technology effect our "deep-reading" skill alot. A very simple example is my own experience. Eversince I came to America and try to adapt to the study style of this country, my reading skill have been deducted. Because in America, we always write and do our homework assignment on our computer, spending countless hours to looks for articles, sources that fits the topic the most and type about it. Being said, by having time to read so many article, I usually just skim and scan read to understand the whole concept of that article first and then read carefully later if it fits my essay's topic. From that personal experience, I think that technology is having a really big bad effect on your reading skill.

Critical Thinking and Technology

Critical thinking is a very key factor of education. It is so important in the process of studying, that every high school and college promote critical thinking and encourage the students to use critical thinking as much as possible in studying. Combine with the technology nowaday, critical thinking is becoming a very crucial aspect of life. Critical thinking is like a two headed-knife, it could damage the ability to do critical thinking but it also could make our critical thinking ability sharper. 

According to a research paper written by Tim van Gelder, a philosopher of the University of Melbourne, Australia (http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne01/pdf/papers/vangeldert.pdf), technology can have a possitive effect on the ability to think critically. To start the paper, Tim opens up with the a problem argument. He also stated that "Critical thinking is one of education’s most central goals and one of its most valued outcomes" and then, he talks about the cautions of being unable to think critically and why critical thinking is so important. In the main term, the author demonstrate out with numbers, datas, and through research that technology can somewhat improve and promote a person to think critical more, consider every possibility and option before making a decision. 

Exploring Key Terms

1. Neural circuitry: Is like a web or system of neurons inside human brains.

Meaning in the passage: After a long time of using the techonology and Internet, the brain strating to adapt and fix the original structure of the brain (Carr feels like it).

2. Staccato quality: Staccato is a "note" in Music that skip through or move through some other notes.

Meaning in Passage: After a long period of time, he strated to lose the ability to concentrate and started to skim read more than read fullly. He even give an example that he can't even reads "Peace and War".

3. Power browse: Is almost like a new concept or genre of reading in which people just skim and scan through everything they see, from the title, to the context and picture.

Meaning in Passage: This phrase in the passage meaing just like the meaning I stated. It is like people are trying to go online to read in a "power browse"way, it's like people are strating to move away from the traditional deep read from the old time.

4. “Efficiency” and “immediacy”: Through Dictionary, "Efficiency" is the effect, the after results and the "Immediacy" is right away, instantly.

Meaning in passage: These two phrase purpose that the way people read have change.people are not aiming to understand the reading inside and out anymore. When people read, they just want to know the overall story, meaning of that article or piece of writing to make time quick and effective.

5. Nietzsche: Friedrich Nietzsche started as a philologist, his writing is very deep and thoughtful, more than the usual writing.

Meaning in passage: In the passage stated that he was saved by a type-writer. He was having headache and all sort of pain and difficulties when he was writing. The show that the technology have save effort, time and energy to write more with less skills.

6. Malleable: This words mean that "a thing is easy to change or to break through"

Meaning in passage: The passage said that the brain is a very easy to change obstacles that will get tolerance if you use to much of anything. Techonology is not an exception.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid"

"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. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. 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." 

Explanation: In this example, Nicholas Carr had have trouble concentrated on reading books that he didn't used to have. He now can hardly concentrate in "a book or a lengthy article". He just felt like doing something esle after reading a page or two. 

"For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets’reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link."

Explanation: After the Internet was born, Carr have utilize the Internet everyday. He described it as "a godsend to me as a writer". Now, he doesn't have to go to the library and spend a few hours there per day to read and take notes of books. He could just click a few click and there we go. The Internet have effected the thinking aspect of human. We are starting to grow lazier, we are starting to think that the Internet is way better than books because it doesn't consume as much time and doesn't consume as much money. 

"Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?” He speculates on the answer: “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?”

Explanation: This explain more specificaly about how the technology and Internet change a man. This also show how convinience the Internet is. 

"Literacy Practices" Survey

1. How many books do you read in a year? What kind of books are they?

- I read approximately about 1.5 books per year. I mostly read articles, not books.

2. What’s the last book you read?

- The last book that I read was "The 3 Little Piggy"

3. What is the longest essay you have ever written?

- The longest essay I have ever wrote is the "Essay 1" from my ENGL100 class that I just handed in 3 days ago.

4. What do you tend to read on the internet? What are your online reading habits?

- I like to read articles that is about young teenagers these days, about technology, about some interesting films that I like to see. I read about 3-4 articles per day

5. How many texts / Facebook posts / emails do you send in a day? How many words do you think you write in a day or a week?
- I write about 3-4 posts, comments, email per day. It is about 100 words.

6. When you text / make a Facebook post, how much time do you take? How much do you proofread what you wrote?
- It only takes about 2-3 minutes for each post in general.

7. Overall, how much time a week do you spend using technology?
- About HALF of the whole week.