Assignment #3

There are so many aspects to research and many more opinions as to how to attain the research needed.In Carr's piece, his concerns were that when people are researching on the Internet, they are jumping around from site to site, reading just bits of information here and there, and not focusing long enough on anything, thus lacking engagement in long pieces of writing. His belief is that because of this, what the net seems to be doing is chipping away at our concentration and contemplation. I like how Carr describes his style of research, "Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski."

On our discussion board, one of our classmates stated, "Research can be as simple as a quick "Google search", or it can be as complex as looking at numerous credible web sites, looking at books, encyclopedias, even magazines." Right there this student admits to the fact that Google has become a household name when needing a quick answer, or for doing fast research on a subject. Another student in our discussion stated, "There's a common saying," (when wanting to find an answer), "Google it." I too wonder if this "fast track" to the information we are seeking, is doing us more harm than good, when it comes to our concentration and critical thinking.

I believe that Carr's audience in this piece is anyone who uses the Internet for doing research. Analyzing Carr's belief that research is not really research if you can click a button and have all of your information instantly available, coincides with all of our definitions of research, because we also included that research was not only limited to the Internet, but many other sources as well. Carr's belief about how the Internet is affecting people does coincide with our goals for this class. We are required to read lengthy texts multiple times, and to "re-search" texts to develop our thinking. We won't be able to just "Google It" every time we need to do research on a subject. His theory is that when people don't read books, and for the most part exclusively use the Internet for retrieving information, it inhibits us from becoming critical thinkers.

I believe that Carr met several goals from our Student's Guide. There are a couple of them that stand out the most to me. Goal #4 states: Articulate and maintain a controlling purpose that reflects not only what matters to the writer, but also what matters to those who are addressed of affected by the research project being undertaken. Carr maintains a controlling purpose throughout his piece when stating his concern that computers are inhibiting our critical thought process. He also made us as an audience aware of this phenomenon, and how it may be affecting us. He also meets goal #7. It states to integrate the ideas of others accurately and fairly through summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation. Carr uses several quotes from different individuals such as Clive Thompson, Bruce Friedman, Maryanne Wolf, Friedrich Nietzche, Windlow Taylor, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Socrates, and others. However, he failed to meet goal #8. Carr failed to include a works-sited page.

The Internet is here to stay. The conveniences of doing research via the Internet by far out way the negative aspects of the net. I just think it is important for us to be aware of the affects that it can have on our critical thinking process. Carr states at the end of his piece, "As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence." Using "all" resources, not only the internet, will aid us in maintaining a mind healthy balance when doing our research.