The reason it’s a bad day for news rooms isn’t because of the illiterate America that Hedge so solemnly swore existed. And truthfully I believe there is a big separation in the literacy of Americans as Hedge did describe. The bad news for news rooms is in the fact that people are skimming the surface of knowledge as Carr described in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” People are no longer reading for in depth analysis on recent news topics in order to understand the ways that other nations and cultures think, but rather look at the minimum knowledge of a topic just to see what major occurrences are affecting the world. In relation to Clive Thompson’s article on the new literacy, the new literacy isn’t about reading, rather about writing and who to. The new generation that is being spoiled by social networking and texting is setting up a new time where the main purpose of writing is speaking to an audience. They can develop tone and ethos to appeal to any audience depending on the views of the personnel. Truly I don’t see any relation between the two articles. Carr and Hedge’s articles are more closely related because they talk about reading and writing. Thompson’s article strictly focuses on the writing skills of the new generation and its ability to adapt. This new generation unlike the past generations will continue to write structured paragraphs and sentences in order to communicate with each other. The writings may be simple short hands or be structured like old writings, but they will be there and will be representing the new language that this generation has created and its ingenuity.

Either Hedge is really angry with the American people or he is right. I don’t know if enough people are paying attention to him but we should all read his article “America the Illiterate.” Let’s face it we as a population are just about retarded. There are people out there that can’t do simple math to balance their checkbook, with a calculator I might add. I’ve seen it! There are also people that at a grocery store try to use a coupon on the wrong bottle of detergent. They’re excuse is that it looks like the one in the picture. That may be true but there is always a size or special scent that people can’t see in the picture. I worked as a cashier for a small chain of grocery stores in my home area and I can’t tell you how dumb the average population is. This grocery store that I worked in wasn’t in the best neighborhood, but I’m not saying these people were the scum of the earth either. These people were average middle class Americans. They all probably had a TV in their family room and a car in their garage. As Hedge defined the illiterates, these people probably couldn’t understand a loan contract from their bank but surely enough voted for Obama because they fell for simple mind games in his campaign. These illiterates are the mindless zombies that do the same thing every day following the time constraints put on themselves because they want to watch CSI at 9:00. I’m not the best reader in the world and admit that some things in hedge’s article I didn’t understand. This includes many of the complex words. However, I do have the mental capacity to understand what he was saying by trying to understand the words using in text clues, and thus I was able to read the article and find his message in it. Unlike Carr who thinks we as a people are being made stupid by Google, Hedge turns and says that we are stupid because we are entertained at a middle school level and choose not to challenge our minds so that we think at a higher level. We prefer pictures because it’s easier to understand the picture than read the words under it. Next thing we know we’ll be ordering our food from pop-up menus, far out dude.

Ya'll lazy

“Is Google making us stupid?” NO. Google isn’t making us stupid but is rather rewiring out thinking process. Our brains are no longer absorbing material in a form that contains an in depth knowledge of a particular subject but rather are absorbing only pieces of multiple subjects. As seen by the a study of the internet sites the class visited we skip from site to site in search of little bits of information that is contained on multiple websites. We may search the internet for information pertaining to our homework assignments, our leisure, our social networking, or for news and media. Stupid we is not as a class though. We think different than how people may have thought years ago. Our minds travel from place to place with our browsing and we absorb information. However when it comes time to restate what we have read and learned, we can do it. We have no problem. Our minds do think differently but I don’t think it makes us stupid. Thinking differently isn’t really what we do either. I don’t think we think at all. Our brain wants to be entertained and at the same time expel the least amount of effort to do so. How many people rather watch CSI on Thursday nights than open a book or magazine and read it. As an example of just how lazy we have gotten, turn and look at the T.V. and how we watch it and how we know what’s on it. To see what was on T.V. we used to have to read the TV Guide. Now we have a tivo or DVR that displays what’s on the T.V. on the T.V. Less effort for more knowledge describes our thinking process now. It’s not really a process but is an example of technology making us lazy.

Let’s face it; Harris is describing a completely different form of writing than what Sullivan had described. Harris is talking about rewriting, or other words the act of “striv[ing] to represent the work of another, to translate the language and ideas of a text into words of your own, coming to terms.” Harris is a man writing formal, nonfictional papers focused ideas that have been developed over time. The writing is set out to use the ideas of others in your own paper to strengthen your own ideas without plagiarizing the ideas of others. The biggest thing to do is to read the ideas and works of others and translate them. To understand them. Reading is understanding a text that we need. “Texts don’t simply reveal their meanings to us; we need to make sense of the texts we encounter.” The combination of reading texts and ideas to understand them gives us a greater ability to use them in our own writing. We may just simply be reusing a text in our own writing, but we interpret it differently and thus may present our meaning of the text. Multiple people could see it different ways and thus have different opinions of it. Now, to compare the ideas of writing between Sullivan and Harris, I can’t. Sullivan is an on the spot writer that portrays his immediate ideas onto the paper. He doesn’t need the ideas of others to strengthen his own or to develop any. Harris uses the ideas of others to build his writing into what it is. Without the ideas of others, he has no paper. There is no comparison between the two ideas of writing other than the fact that they put their ideas onto paper. They develop their ideas differently, but do it different ways in order to develop to different types of writings. I don’t find if fair to compare the two author’s ideas of writing because they do describe the writing processes of two different forms of texts.

The internet

Reading the habits of my other classmates as they spend their time on-line, I found that I didn’t put nearly as much effort into what I do on the internet as they did. However, I don’t do nearly as much on the internet. I get on the internet for mainly two things I noticed. E-mail and shopping. I need e-mail for school and am told to check in everyday so that I don’t miss anything. I really don’t like doing that but it’s not that big of a hassle so I don’t care. Now when I say shopping I mean for man stuff. Sorry ladies no clothes. I’ve been looking for motorcycles on line. I’ve been riding my dad’s ancient BMW R90S. It’s a 76’ that’s in really good shape but I’d prefer to have my own so I could ride with him and take it to school. I need a vehicle with good gas mileage to get home on weekends. So I’ve been a smart shopper and have been comparing prices using Kelly blue book and checking insurance rates on progressive cause they are the only people that will give me (18years old) an online quote without talking to someone. Unlike most of my classmates who are on the social networks a lot, I check in and leave the site most the time. It’s not really my thing and never got one until my girlfriend made me get one before I left for college so she could keep in touch. (I’m texting her as I write this.) Granted I wasn’t on the internet to much this weekend cause it was Labor Day and I was hunting, but still. I’m not on too much. I get on pogo.com occasionally for games and check sports on sites but I really am not on the internet unless I need to find out a piece on information. My social networking is through texting and actual interaction. I find out my news via the tube. The internet is awesome, but I don’t depend on it.

Sunday
gwwebic.louiville.edu
Ulink
craigslist.org
Monday
Facebook
Blackboard
Craigs list
Facebook
gwwebic.louisville.edu
Kbb.com
live.xbox.com
louisville.edu
ulink
progressive
xbox.com
youtube.com

“Their lack of finish is what makes them so compelling.” Why does he blog? This is exactly why in my eyes. He loves to write but without the time or the need to read, read, and proofread a piece he has the challenge of putting together a good piece without the crutches. It is a challenge. Just like the dare devil going for the next great stunt or athlete going for a record. He states in his article that the deadlines for his blogs were in the now. This is just another challenge that he has to overcome as he writes his posts. Most everyone faces deadlines as they write a paper or novel but when the topic of what you are writing about is changing as you write, the challenge increases. Andrew Sullivan is an adrenaline junky and just doesn’t put his life on the line. He puts himself out there for the world to see so that the world can see how good of a writer he is. He reaches out to everyone in order to please them as his ultimate editors. When he does reach a conflict with one of his editors per say, it provides another opportunity for him to express himself. Blogs are in real time and show different events in time. One person may dislike his blog but with the living and changing writing that is the blog he has the chance for discussion. Why blog? Blog because it is a challenge everyday for every word over any topic. It expresses ideas and gives every writer new or wise a challenge every time he or she posts.