Week 6: Impacts of Digital Writing
This week, we will focus our attention on the impact of digital technology in human thinking processes. We will study articles and watch videos that discuss both constructive and disturbing possibilities brought about by digital revolution.
The digital technology has ushered in a debate whether it is a force for good or a source of intellectual decline. Those who have touted the digital technology have emphasized on the explosion of knowledge on the web. Now, people with an access to the Internet can not only learn about almost anything, they can also produce knowledge and disseminate it. Since access to knowledge and information is fundamental to progress, democracy and justice, proponents of the digital technology see it as a harbinger of a revolutionary transformation of the world in positive terms.
But commentators have also found the digital technology addictive and harmful to the depth of human intellect. All scientific, artistic and cultural progress—they argue—is the product of deep thinking, and the deep thinking itself is the product of alphabetic literacy. They argue that the human mind can be deep, but the mental depth is not natural—it rather is the product of training. The ability for deep and concentrated thinking—they argue—has come from the habits of reading long books for an extended period of time.
View this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
In the following video, Professor Sherry Turkle highlights the psychological toll of being constantly connected to the digital world.
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