ENG287H1 Lecture Notes - The Digital Age, Sven Birkerts, Clay Shirky
Document Summary
Is google making us stupid: article argues that because of the internet we do not read like we used to. Reading is a window into our culture: demands a kind of attention. The internet is chipping away at capacity for concentration and contemplation . We are not only what we read, we are how we read . Reading online we are mere decoders of information: we become disengaged. The reader created by long, complex, continuous printed books: The reader created by short, simple online texts delivered in the discontinuous , instantly-accessible online environment: The experience of losing our internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend . People are freaking out about the advent of the digital age. But people have been freaking our in precisely this way literally since the invention of literature. Literature is dying, yes, but it deserves to die, because it is elitist and snobby, and normal people don"t care about it anymore.
