Reading Response # 3 In-Class Writing

     My family is very intertwined with technology.  My father is an electronics engineer and his business deals with technology all day long.  At home, we all have laptops, cell phones, and various different other types of technology.  Recently when we went to the Dominican Republic, we couldn't use our phones due to our plans, however we brought our iPods and iPads and still spent some evenings playing on them when we should have been out enjoying the resort.  My mother struggles a little more with technology than the rest of my family but my two siblings and I are constantly using our phones, iPods or laptops from social to school related activities.

SWA # 2

1.       This means that because our brains are constantly changing and making new connections, our brain is adapting to try and work better with technology and multitasking.  The adaptation in itself is extremely useful and has helped humans evolve to what we are today, we have just not evolved enough to be able to analyze and sort out such vast amounts of information in my opinion.  According to some studies done at Stanford, multitaskers have more difficultly straining out irrelevant information and often had trouble focusing (17-18).  However, according to Adam Gazzaley “We are exposing our brains to an environment and asking them to do things we weren’t necessarily evolved to do” (16).

2.       Richtel uses the Campbell family as an everyday example of a typical American family.  Most people would agree at some point or other they have dealt with the same issues to varying degrees.  Even in college I can see that many people have technology intertwined into their lives and find it hard to get away with being completely turned off for more than a couple hours.  We have to constantly keep checking our emails, blackboard accounts and other various web pages just to stay on top of homework assignments and organizations.  In my family I have noticed we find it hard to “unplug” ourselves from the electronics centered world. 

3.       The “myth of multitasking” is that only 3 percent of the population is actually capable of easily juggling multiple streams of information.  People who generally say they are good multitaskers have trouble focusing and struggling filtering out irrelevant information (18).  People who were often interrupted by emails or text messages were prone to more stress and the stress hormone has been shown to reduce short term memory capacity.  This definitely changes my thinking about multitasking because I always used to think that when I was multitasking I was accomplishing so much more than I normally would if I focused on just one task.  However looking back now I realize that the quality of my work or interactions with people weren’t as high as they would have been had I focus on that task at the time.

Reading Response # 2

     I think the most interesting part about how he compared the artificial intelligence to the drugs used by athletes to improve performance.  It really made me think about how instead of altering the items we have to live a better or more productive lifestyle that we might begin to alter ourselves in order to gain a "better" life.  Also it was interesting how he believed that all the knowledge and information available is making us more intelligent but we just need better ways to organize and sort through all the data.  The views presented are almost polar opposite of the views presented in "Is Google Making Us Stupid".  In fact, the author states that Google is not a problem but the beginning of a solution.

SWA # 1

               Probably the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had writing was my junior year of high school in a mythology course I was taking.  We had a semester project to research and write a paper over a mythological topic of our choice.  I chose pyramids and I wrote about myths and legends related to pyramids throughout the world.  Also this assignment was very structured and had many guidelines.  I am not a very organized or creative writer so this was very helpful.

                There really isn’t a worst writing experience that just stands out to me because most writing assignments feel like a horrible experience.  I’m not exactly the strongest writer so I usually struggle to come up with things to write about especially after I’ve said everything I can and still have not met the minimum length requirement.

                My worst writing experiences have affected more. I would say that because now I absolutely loathe any writing assignment that comes my way, especially ones that have a length requirement and I know that I won’t be able to reach without a struggle.

Reading Response #1 In-Class Writing

     "Is Google Making Us Stupid" really had an impact on me because while reading I noticed that some of the things the author had mentioned applied to me and my habits.  After spending vast amounts of time of the web or computer for school, work or just out of sheer boredom, I too have lost much of my ability to focus on long amounts of text or just focus in general.  My mind begins to wander and I am soon sucked away from the task at hand.  I used to love to read for long time periods but now I can barely focus to read a few pages in a textbook.