Steven Pinker Mind Over Mass Media Summary

Daijie Qi
Nov 16

1. Steven, P. (2010). Mind over mass media. (2nd ed., pp. 199-200). New York: The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html The article “Mass over Mass Media”, written by Steven Pinker for the New York Times in 2010, shows that the new technology are “the only things that will keep us smart” instead of making us stupid (p 200). Even though many media critics argue that Power Point, Google, Twitter and other technologies are turning our brains to mush, Steven Pinker firstly puts forwards the arguments of the opponents and then proposed his own arguments and refutations by using logic, popular culture, and historical and academic examples. In the end, Steven Pinker came to a conclusion that the Internet and technologies are “helping us manage, search, and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales” (p 200). This article teaches me how to form a strong argument style by separately pointing out the opponent opinions firstly and then giving his own arguments to make the organization of an article very clearly. Additionally, in my paper, I will make a response to one of his statement, “the solution is not to bemoan technology is to develop strategies of self-control, as we do with every other temptation in life”(p 199).

2.
Nicholas , C. (2010). Does the internet make you dumber?. (2nd ed., pp. 196-197). Wall Street Journal. Nicholas Carr’s article, “Does the Internet Make You Dumber”, suggests that the Internet is “turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers”.
In other words, Nicholas Carr believes that people can be easily distracted and interrupted by the Internet. In his article, Nicholas proves this opinion by including information, popular examples, famous experiments and famed authors’ statements. This article will help me to provide a point of view for the disadvantages of the Internet. Additionally, it provides quotes from examples and officials that could be used in my essay to proof that we can easily be attracted and distracted by the
Internet.

3. April Frawley, B. (2007). Addicted to phones? (2nd ed., pp. 195-196). University of Florida News: Health, Research, Technology. Retrieved from http://news.ufl.edu/2007/01/18/cell-addiction

In the article, “ Addicted to Phones?” written by April Frewley Birdwell in 2007, it claims that we are leading a very convenient modern life because of using smart phones and many other digital assistants; however, they are actually “ beginning to interfere in the lives of users” (p 195). Different from addictions to alcohol, drugs or even gambling, cell phones are widely used by almost everyone and become a problematic social usage. Some researches have shown that frequent cell phone users become addicted and even feel anxious when they are away from their phones or digital technologies. Furthermore, many children only make friends with “ their tech-savvy peers” and “view cell phones as a modern necessity”（p 195）. Finally, the author quotes that we can use cell phones that are certainly very useful in our daily life in our free time to give one possible solution to the addiction to cell phones. This article will provide me with the cons of the new technology that is the problematic addictions to them. And these credible researches and quotes will also help to give credits to my own paper.

4. David, B. (2006). Humanoid robotics: Ethical consideration. (2nd ed., pp. 200-203). The Idaho National Laboratory. Retrieved from http://inl.gov/adaptiverobotics/humanoidrobitcs/ethicalconsiderations.shtml The article, “ Humanoid robotics: Ethical consideration”, written by David Bruemmer in 2006, points out that humans can not and will never be replaced by humanoids although they make our life easier and better. In order to make these robots useful and serve more like human beings, we will “ give them some motivational system” which is called emotion (P 201). Some ethicists claim that it is difficult to distinct humanoid with emotions or not; however, others believe ethical concerns about the emotional robots are unnecessary. The author states that the issue is not “whether a robot’s emotion or intelligence can be considered real, but rather the fact that, real or not, it will have effect on us” (p 201). In other words, the author claims that it is the most important and concerned the robots can be useful to our development. Moreover, we shouldn’t fear to develop the technique of humanoids since we have designed them and they are actually controlled and used to facilitate our society.