Article Review of As the internet rewires our brains by Kurt Cagle
In the article of Kurt Cagle, “As the internet rewires our brains”, the author’s main argument is that the use of social media sites is heavily valued and can decline the critical skills that children own. In this article, he uses the term rewire to demonstrate the idea that the brain cannot be creative with the presence of social media. Social media, therefore, reduces that rate of creativity of the brain in children as the brain is always reshaping itself according to the current situation is the main argument in this article but children should not be denied the use such sites since the brain constantly keeps adapting to any new change.
According to Hurt, whether the skill is learning calculus or even writing a blog, the brain is always reshaping itself all the time in responding to any intellectual activity that is taking place. In order to support this, he gives several ideas to support his statement. For example, for the physical effects of social media, the author mentions that social media would improve different skills, including faster scanning process, keypad enter, and the use of context switching. The author, Kurt, uses the example of comparing himself with his daughter. His daughter has a faster typing speed than he does. This is mainly because typing has become a second mode of communication that her daughter uses on a daily basis.
Also, for a new generation, many teens are using social media sites to be their own unique communication channel. The author considers that, for such a situation, May relationships with the computer system are made stronger. Moreover, according to Kurt, instant messaging and short burst messaging (such as Twitter or SMS) are used as a service of reinforcing the friendships rather than the normal the physic exercise. For example, the author’s daughter moved to a new place, and she depends on using Twitter to communicate with her friend to maintain their friendship instead walking to her place and even tracing new areas and ideas that are present in the area.
At the end of his article, He mentions that; however, the situation; people should accept the new generation to use the new waves of media because it is the future trend. As children, with far more malleable brains, could effectively be developing their own mechanisms for learning new information that is of the present state.
In my opinion, children have the unlimited potential to develop their brain; they can learn a new technology faster than we can. For example, my five years old cousin already knows how to use Skype to chat with his older brother while according to my experience; Skype is a new technology and still giving me problems to use. Moreover, I think social media sites should be the future trend as most of the children are currently using social sites to communicate, talk and even exchange ideas. It also makes the relationship between humans closer as they keep talking to each other and communicating. As an international student, Social media is convenient to keep in touch with my friend who is in different countries. That is the way we maintain our friendship through communication.
Works cited
Jacobi, Peter. The Magazine Article: How to Think It, Plan It, Write It. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press, 2007. Print
Lodico, Marguerite G, Dean T. Spaulding, and Katherine H. Voegtle. Methods in Educational Research: From Theory to Practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Internet resource.
