Summary Of Does The Internet Make You Smarter

The issue of whether Internet imposes a positive or a negative impact on out personalities and intellectual skills is one of the most often discussed issues in the modern society. Both the supporters and the opponents of the activities in the Internet provide rather well developed and foundational arguments supporting their positions. The examples of such writings are the articles written by Clay Shirky and Nicholas Carr published. The article by Clay Shirky under the title Does the Internet Make You Smarter? claims and proves that the Internet is positively influencing the development of intellectual skills of modern people. In contrast to it, the opposing point of view is presented in the article Does the Internet Make You Dumber? in which
However, in contrast to the other piece of writing, the main idea of the article Does the Internet Make You Dumber? includes numerous research results and might seem to be more credible. The author points out the division of attention and the inability to focus on one thing as the negative outcome of the Internet usage. The article provides the readers the information about the so called “visual literacy skills” and their negative side, which is lack of ability to concentrate on a single problem and the constant influence of distractions. Thus, the author leads the reader to an idea that the Internet activities of people should be reduced, and that the Internet has become a threat to further intellectual development of all
To achieve this task, the authors choose respective strategies for delivering their information to the addressee. For example, Clay Shirky uses the historical approach in order to support the idea that any development is first considered inappropriate, but later it appears to be a successful innovation that has completely changed ad improved our life and world perception. In doing so, the author does not refuse from the idea that in some regards, the influence of new technology might have its drawbacks. However, the benefits, as the historical experience shows, are larger. Thus, people just need to know about them instead of rejecting the whole idea of an innovation. This claim would appeal to the readers who believe in the history and in the power of