Reading Response #3

1. In “the Watchdog and the Thief,” Nicolas Carr thoroughly discusses Marshall McLuhan, an author who first came into relevance 50 years prior, because McLuhan’s arguments about technology’s effect on the human condition have proved to be true time and again ever since. “When people start debating (as they always do) whether the medium’s effects are good or bad,” Carr writes, the base of their argument is the medium’s larger impact on their lives, just as McLuhan argues is true in his saying: “the medium is the message” (Carr 2). As Carr’s book is about the internet, this argument is ever relevant as the internet is currently taking up a large part of its users’ lives.

2. Sherry Turkle’s “the Flight From Conversation” explicitly argues that the constant connection of internet communication we are becoming accustomed to is destroying the fabric of conversation itself. In real conversation, she argues, we “tend to one another,” or that is, we learn to truly understand one another for more than surface qualities in a slow burning way (Turkle 1). Through things like Facebook or texting, we speed that process up to the bare minimum and thus, eliminate the deep understanding we can gain from real conversation. We become more concerned with keeping people at the perfect distance, “not too close, not too far, just right” as well as perfecting and presenting the self we want to be (Turkle 1). I find this argument to be extremely accurate. For me, it’s as simple as Turkle’s argument about posting statuses on Facebook; if you refrain from posting something on there that you might have come to reveal in a private conversation, then you’ve lost out on connection. 

Carr, meanwhile, focuses on the effect this new media is having on our minds and the way we think in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He argues that the instant gratification of the internet is causing our minds to work in a way almost akin to those with ADHD. He states, “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles,” and it is hard to argue with him on that, as I have experienced this as well. As a journalism major, I am constantly surfing the web for stories ideas and writing inspiration in addition to the huge amount of junk I mindlessly scan through in my spare time. Though it is not instantaneous, I too have experienced a slow decreasing in my ability to concentrate. Sitting still and just relaxing has become more difficult; I have a constant urge to take out my phone and surf. Whether or not this is damaging remains to be seen, but the correlation is there, nonetheless. 

3. While the possibilities of Shelley Jackson’s “My Body: a Wunderkammer” are not infinite, they are certainly vast. In this way, Lev Manovich’s variability principle functions in the project. As Manovich defines it, variability means media can exist and be experienced in numerous different versions as a result of coding (Manovich 56). This can be seen in Jackson’s project as through clicking different parts of the body and different hypertext within that, each user can have a different, unique experience of it. Through its hypertext, the reader is able to experience themes of the piece in a more abstract and experimental way. “My Body: a Wunderkammer” certainly can be classified as literature because it features extensive content through writing; it may just be the literature of the future.