The Automatic Muse
the Automatic Muse Nicholas Carr: 2021 blog post, now inlcude and updated in chapter 8, “Machines Who Speak,” of Carr’s 2025 book Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart. In the fall of 1917, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, now in middle age and having twice had marriage proposals turned down, first by […]
In Defense of Literacy
Wendell Berry In a country in which everybody goes to school, it may seem absurd to offer a defense of literacy, and yet I believe that such a defense is in order, and that the absurdity lies not in the defense, but in the necessity for it. The published illiteracies of the certified educated are […]
ChatGPT is Dumber Than You Think
“ChatGPT is Dumber Than You Think: Treat it like a toy, not a tool” Ian Bogost The Atlantic. December 7, 2022. As a critic of technology, I must say that the enthusiasm for ChatGPT, a large-language model trained by OpenAI, is misplaced. Although it may be impressive from a technical standpoint, the idea of relying […]
Hypertext Literature
Caitrin Doyle Final Writing Project May 8th, 2014 Part I: Hypertext Literature’s Influence on the Modern World Technology has been causing a shift in the way that people process information and deduce meaning from everything, especially when it comes to literature. Many, like outraged author Sven Birkerts of “The Gutenberg Elegies”, are concerned that the […]
The Trouble with Wilderness
The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature by William Cronon (William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90; links to printer-friendly texts available at bottom of this page) http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html The time has come to rethink wilderness. This will seem […]
Self-Reliance
“Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841) “Ne te quaesiveris extra.” “Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate; Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that […]
Quotation and Originality
“Quotation and Originality” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1876) WHOEVER looks at the insect world, at flies, aphides, gnats, and innumerable parasites, and even at the infant mammals, must have remarked the extreme content they take in suction, which constitutes the main business of their life. If we go into a library or news-room, we see […]
Essay as Hack
Ander Monson, “Essay as Hack” http://otherelectricities.com/swarm/essayashack.html I fear for the essay, friends, and its bad reputation. It feels white and dull, dusty, old. Encased in tombs like the Oxford Book of the Essay.Each year’s Best American is not a yawn, exactly, since some of the individual essays are good enough when read and thought about, but […]
Is Google Making us Stupid?
“Is Google Making us Stupid?: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” [this is the link to the original publication. Nicholas Carr [Originally published in The Atlantic Monthly, July 2008] “Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous […]
Hidden Intellectualism
Hidden Intellectualism Pedagogy 1.1 (2001) 21-36 Gerald Graff In an arresting memoir “of a Pentecostal boyhood” that appeared in 1993 in the Voice Literary Supplement, Michael Warner describes his improbable journey from an upbringing in a Christian Pentecostal family and graduation from Oral Roberts University to his current identity as a “queer atheist intellectual.” It is […]
Recent Comments in this Document
April 3, 2025 at 10:11 am
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April 1, 2025 at 12:39 pm
“Socrates wasn’t wrong — the new technology did often have the effects he feared — but he was short sighted.” —>
He brings up a good point here. The biggest fear when it comes to technology is that it masks ignorance, making one seem much more knowledgeable than they truly are. But technology also provides users with the ability to expand their knowledge and promote their ideas/writing to a wider array of individuals. Socrates worries were understandable, but also minuscule in comparison to the benefits technology provides.
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April 1, 2025 at 12:36 pm
This paragraph stuck out to me as I do relate to having trouble focusing on long pieces of text. The idea of convenience is very relevant, as I find myself more motivated to read shorter texts than longer texts. Knowing that someone like Scott Karp, who majored in lit and read books often, now does not read feels like a complete flip. Knowing how the web has shown texts to us and comparing it to physical books can be bchallengingrd for our minds to comprehend, which he states in earlier paragraphs. The media has completely rewired our minds, which may come at some cost.
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April 1, 2025 at 4:43 am
Similar to Carr, I have struggled to sharpen my attention when completing reading assignments. Oftentimes, the availability of other consumable media becomes a distraction. The immediacy that online platforms provide can make tackling such a large quantity of data intimidating. For me, skimming becomes a preliminary tool used to scope the most relevant information before dedicating more time to an article. In this way, I connect with a desire for expediency and efficiency. I am compelled by Carr’s argument that the modes for garnering texts have a lasting, biological imprint, molding the way we access, perceive, extract meaning, and respond to the written word. However, I also believe the shift is more nuanced. For instance, I generally do not have difficulty engaging myself deeply in texts that are of special interest or are selected for leisure. For accounts that are tasked, the fleeting motivation to read often begins before my eyes cross the page, as I am juggling a sizable volume of work with competing deadlines and themes that cater to another’s professional focus. I am curious how the Internet has shaped how and to what extent assignments are drafted for students, and how this change has forced individuals’ studying habits to adapt.
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April 1, 2025 at 12:09 am
I completely agree with this. I have attention issues, as do many other people. It seems that the modern day of technology is changing the way we operate as humans.
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March 2, 2025 at 1:14 pm
You actually stated that wonderfully.
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January 23, 2025 at 1:15 pm
Here Graff writes about the source of ones culture shifting away from the family and being instead formed by the wider society due to advances in technology and store practices. In my experience this has only been enhanced by the advent of newer and better technology. Today, televisions are much cheaper, vehicles are almost a requirement, advertising in everywhere, and websites like amazon make it immensely easier to participate in consumerism. I also heavily related to the feeling of wanting to fit in rather than stand out; a younger me was very interested in what other people thought of me and how I could avoid looking like myself.
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January 23, 2025 at 4:04 am
I found the final line of this paragraph to be especially poignant. It reads, “By their ignorance, people enfranchise their exploiters.” Immediacy, convenience, and media overconsumption are often highly valued. It may invite individuals to (willfully or unconsciously) negotiate between their agency and time-saving efforts. This feeds the work of those preparing marketable content. However, I believe this quote neglects the institutionalized obstacles and circumstances that may make literacy development more challenging. Word recognition, inferencing, pattern identification, and productive research are all literacy skills. Success in these areas requires nurturing and mindfulness. Systemic hurdles such as disproportionate resource allocation, low funding, standardized testing pressure, poor curriculum design, teacher shortages, limited support for educators, and discriminatory policies can hinder progress toward a more literate society.
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January 23, 2025 at 3:32 am
I keep getting held up on the phrase “mediocre writing skills.” I understand the point Berry is trying to get across but I just can’t help but disagree with this. I don’t think a persons ability to write in astonishing ways like the classical writers of the past dictates if they will be a good employee or not. It is important to not forget that the very premise of going to school is to acquire the skills needed to get a job and preform it well. Just because you do not have above average writing skills does not mean you have no other great qualities. He went on to discuss that schools have changed their ways to benefit cooperations, but, I would once again like to point out that the purpose of school is to get a job at these cooperations. Consumerism is a fact of life at this point and we live in a world that heavily relies on commodity culture. If everyone devoted their time towards being an English scholar, the world would certainly not run as smoothly.
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