Week 3 Example Reading Response
The response starts on the next page.
Model
Reading Response
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Sample Student
ENG/100
6/26/2020
Instructor Smith
Reading Response
Now even the sounds are gone. No more clicking of computer keys, or the whirl of an old dial up modem, surfing the net has gone silent. Our minds might just be next! Author Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid” reflected on these notions when he discussed reading online, and how the internet is impacting the way people think and process details. Alarmingly, it might even bleed into the kind of information we may be able to read in the future. The author is right, the internet and mindlessness are connected, and have been confirmed by recent brain research.
Primarily, the issue is not whether or not the internet is making people stupid, but that neurological study is showing that human beings are changing. Research from the University College London found that how the brain reads has been altered, “It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense” (as cited in Carr, 2014, p. 729). Think of all the cascading impacts of this. Our collective attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and meanwhile life in general is getting faster and faster. What a recipe for disaster in moments of snap judgment, or when critical thinking, or better yet— deep thinking, are required to solve problems. Is cell phone or internet addiction becoming the new smoking? The results on the lasting damage of too much technology are not all in, but it might behoove us to slow down and think about how much time we spend online, or to actively disengage during crucial moments. We might benefit from turning up the noise, and skip the sound of clicks or keys altogether, exchanging that for something better— like the peals children laughing, or the sweet hum of conversation over a dinner table.
Reference
Carr, N. (2019). Is Google making us stupider? In J. Langan & Z. Albright (Eds.) College Writing Skills with Readings. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.