Student

Student

Professor

English 100

15 August 2014

Got Internet?

Who doesn’t use the internet? According to my informal survey of Pasadena City

College students in my English 100 class, students are on the internet on average four hours

daily. They report using the internet for social networking, entertainment, and school. Like their

driver’s license, they wouldn’t dream of leaving home without their iPhones. Yet some critics

claim that constant internet use is transforming us into self-absorbed, easily distracted robots

who would rather tweet or update Facebook profiles than risk messy face to face social

interaction. Other critics claim that texting prevents students from spelling correctly, using

standard punctuation, or even writing academic essays of any extended length. Even worse,

Maryanne Wolf claims that “when we read online, we become mere decoders of information.

Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply

and without distraction, remains largely disengaged” (Carr 744-735). After comparing my

experience and that of my classmates with some of the criticism that I’ve read, I’m not

convinced that Google is making me stupid, as Nicolas Carr, a frequent writer on technology,

business, and culture, insists. The internet provides me with immediate access to any

information, whether academic or trivial, and to family and friends who are scattered around the

world.

Online learning is now making it possible for anyone to take college classes and to even

get college degrees. On a road trip last summer on Highway 395 to Reno, I drove through little

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towns like Olancha, Independence, Big Pine, Trona, California City, none of them had

community colleges, some didn’t even have high schools. With access to the internet, however,

anyone living in these towns can take online classes to learn a new skill, complete a degree, or

just learn something new. With access to the internet, I can earn a free online degree at the

University of the People or take free classes from Harvard University through its Harvard

Extension School. By the way, free classes at the University of the People are taught by real

professors who have donated their time and its “curriculum is shaped by unpaid deans with day

jobs at New York University and Columbia” (Pappano).

Facebook posting, texting, and tweeting actually strengthen college students’ writing

skills. Some professors and parents may complain that students’ writing skills are declining as

each year passes, yet students are writing far more than either their parents and grandparents.

As Clive Thompson points out in Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our

Minds for the Better, “before the internet came along, most people rarely wrote anything at all

for pleasure or intellectual satisfaction after graduating from high school or college” (Isaacson).

Whether I’m on the metro or sitting at Starbucks, anyone under 30, is either texting, reading their

email, or playing games on their smartphones. Richard Bullock, Ph.D., assistant chair of English

in the College of Liberal Arts and director of Wright State University’s writing programs points

out that college students have learned how to write for different audiences, a skill that is difficult

to acquire. “I think students are getting savvier as they do more writing online because they need

to understand that what you write will have consequences if you don’t write appropriately.” I

agree. I can make what seems to me a perfectly reasonable comment about almost anything

including food and get ten responses from friends that I’ve either offended or disappointed on

Facebook. Being forced to limit comments to 140 characters on Twitter, I’ve also learned to get

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to the point, a skill that may not be especially useful when assigned a ten page research paper.

Nor do I have trouble switching back and forth between academic and texting writing styles. I

haven’t turned in an essay since middle school using abbreviations like “u” or “wut” or “gr8.”

Students from my informal survey also report that they don’t confuse academic and digital

writing styles even when writing a research paper and posting on Facebook simultaneously.

Speaking of research, I couldn’t complete any college essay without the internet. How

did students locate information before the internet? I guess they had to go to a physical library

during its working hours. Shatford Library isn’t open on Sunday and my local library has a lot

of detective novels and health books but not any academic journals. Anyway, I do most of my

research, after work and late at night, long after most libraries are closed.

Looking up information isn’t the only thing that I use the internet for. When my brother

was deployed to Iraq, I could talk to him in real time on Skype for free. More than hearing his

voice, I could read his face and his gestures. My mother’s grandmother lives in a small town in

Columbia. I have never met her in person and probably never will but I talk to her on Skype.

Why? She’s got internet. My mother can tell me story after story about growing up with this

crazy lady and show me photographs, but with the internet I can experience what she is like for

myself without leaving my room.

So college students spend hours a day on the internet. Does this make them stupid?

Students can work on school projects or share ideas on Facebook, they can also talk about where

to buy the cheapest sunglasses. They can watch cute animal videos on YouTube, they can also

watch lectures by UC Berkeley or Harvard professors. And by the time I go to bed, those cute

animal videos can help me forget about all the money I’m going to owe on student loans when I

graduate.

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