Carr and Hedge

The writer mentions very early in his article that he feels as if his mind is changing in a particular way.  Noticing that he tends to dose off after several pages of a piece, Carr recalls being able to “immerse himself in a book or a lengthy article.”  Other writers stated having felt the same spectacle in the way that they read books, or in some cases stopped reading books altogether.  The simplicity of research brought on by the Internet, and the mass amount of information that has been posted on the Internet have ultimately outdated the use of books for people with the desire for instant information.  It seems as if there is a slight attention deficit disorder coming over the people that are most often on the Internet, which can be seen as a new form of reading (power browsing) where we gain a new sense of self where instead of being “What we read”, we become “How we read.”  It could be that Google is making us stupid, or our own thoughts are making us believe that we should limit ourselves to depending on a machine.  The thought of being “better off” with a piece of intelligence replacing our brains is simply sickening.

In a way, Hedges is ridiculing America for falling into the trap of the world of image based information, as he surely categorizes himself in the minority of people that are living in the literate world as he states.  I am starting to paint a mental picture in my head that the illiterate are faced with an endless ditch of suffering, filled with irresponsible presidential campaign votes, caused by multiple repeated lies set up by fake candidates.  This is consequently followed by a life of mal-education for children, and a lack of skills that are necessary for generic human self-sustainment.  Knowing that presidential candidates are now speaking at 6^th grade levels to accommodate the majority of citizens, and that entertainment providers are shifting their outputs to lower quality levels due to the desired quality by the illiterate public is surprising and at the same time, just plain sad.

The two writers, Carr and Hedge, have both realized a change in the way people are reading.  Carr simply and passively states that a new form of reading has emerged, while Hedge intensely critiques the way America has turned into a predominantly illiterate nation of adults with 6^th grade educations.