Is Google Making Us Stupid?

The article argues that the quick and easy access to information on the Internet has decayed our ability to think deeply. It describes the Internet as another technological advancement that has been criticized as the ones before it such as writing, the printing press, and the typewriter. All of these technologies were criticized by philosophers of  their respected times. Also, the ability to read lenghy articles or written works is slowly being lost as a result of the Internet. The writer says he has lost the ability to dive into a long work of prose because of the immediacy of other articles and blogs. His mind wanders and drifts off from what he is reading after so long. Literacy is described in this article very similarily to the definition given in "Socrates Nightmare." That is, the ability to deeply think and analyze is being lost because of how our brains are reprogramming themselves to read like the Internet- short articles and skimming long ones. The author uses the example of Google and their strive for effieciency as one piece of evidence of this loss of literacy. Another piece of evidence he uses is the study done by the University College London which gave the results that people "bounced" from page to page instead of completely reading the articles. One more piece of evidence he uses is the New York Times. He tells how their articles are shorter so the reader gets the daily information they are seeking faster. The reason all of this is relevant is because everyone will need to be literate if they are to live in today's world and the Internet is changing the meaning of the word itself through its programming. Our brains are reprogramming themselves to read how the Internet tells us to read which is slowly decaying our analyzation and deep thinking abilities.

Topic proposal

I am going to analyze Drew Brees's account and how he interacts with his fans. He has a Foundation in his name, The Brees Dream Foundation, which is advertised on his Twitter account with the mission statement, "Advancing research in the fight against cancer and providing care, education, and opportunities for children in need. This is very significant because of what city he plays football for, New Orleans. This is an area that can relate to the support the foundation gives. The star quarterback upholds this image of a generous person to those in need. He also tweets to his fans, community and sponsors. He keeps an updated and positive image in the community when he tweets things like, "Beautiful day in Nola today. Park with the boys, date night w Brit, then watched Steve Sabol: A Football Life recorded. Great day!" In summary, Drew Brees keeps his image positive in the community, with his fans, and with his foundation and tweets associated with it.

Online "Tattoo"

The representation I have given myself on Twitter, I would say, is close to accurate. I don't post anything too inappropriate but by some of my tweets you could tell that I'm a college student who parties which, on Twitter, is mainly viewed by my peers who are close to the same demographic. One example of this representation is in my tweet, "Leaving from senior trip and I feel like I'm about to die #GreatTrip." You also could tell by my account that I am a sports fan with tweets such as, "Ready to watch this #Heat game at BWW," and, "The SEC played pretty pitiful yesterday I have to say." Also, I voice my opinion a little more freely with tweets such as, "@SEC_Logo Brando has got to be the dumbest sportscaster I've ever seen," and politically, "Today 52 years ago was the worst day in history. The beginning of the end... #ObamasBirthday." I voiced my opinion on the latter tweet more openly than I probably would have on Facebook as I am friends with more Obama supporters, and future bosses, possible Obama supporters, will check primarily Facebook. I do feel like I have a great responsibility to uphold a good image in social media especially since I'll be applying for the student firefighter position next year. I feel like I do censor myself for the most part. I feel like the responsibility to censor yourself is one everyone should have, but unfortunately more and more people ignore this responsiblity.