Essay 4 Outline

Brett Stinson
Professor Werry
RWS 100
11/20/14
Essay 4 Outline

Claim 1:

“As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles”(Carr 2)

Subclaim 1:

Nicholas Carr addresses how even in the 1960s before the internet was in existence, media had the same effect as it does today in spite of the major evolution of media. He states that it deteriorates your concentration and contemplation which is one of the worst side effects of prolonged Internet use.

Sources:

Harris, Sarah. "Too Much Internet Use 'can Damage Teenagers' Brains'" Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2015196/Too-internet-use-damage-teenagers-brains.html

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 July 2008. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

How Sources Support:

Using these sources would help support my argument by providing several cases to support the argument that the Internet is deteriorating the brain and its cognitive functions. The article from Daily Mail, which is a United Kingdom online newspaper, provides a medical study showing that patients that use the internet for long periods of time begin to grow more grey matter in the brain. This matter is shown to cause damage to many cognitive functions. Along with the use of Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” where he argues various aspects of how the Internet has many negative effects on the brain.



Claim 2:

“Early evidence came in 1978, when two psychologists tested people to see how well they remembered words that they’d written down compared to words they’d merely read. Writing won out. The people who wrote words remembered them better than those who’d only read them- probably because generating text yourself “requires more cognitive effort than does reading and effort increases memorability.”(Thompson 57)

Subclaim:

Clive Thompson uses this study to support his statement that the internet has allowed people to write on the internet where people are subject to what is known as the “Audience Effect”. This brings appeal to all who have access to the internet and aspire to get their ideas out where they could potentially viewed by millions.

Sources:

Thompson, Clive. "Public Thinking." Smarter than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better. N.p.: Penguin Group, 2013. 45-69. Print.

Rheingold, Howard. "Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu." Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies. Educause Review Online, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/attention-and-other-21st-century-social-media-literacies&gt

How Sources Support:

The source of Clive Thomson provides the main claim that the internet improves cognitive functions as you write more than you would if you had not had access to an audience such as the one the Internet provides. The article written by Rheingold will be able to complicate the main claim that Thompson produces. He does this by stating how the Internet is full of positives but we must be able to resist the strong force of distraction, and if we overcome this then we can harness all of the positives of the Internet while escaping the reach of the negatives.