Today in class Dr. Jerz cited someone who said something about how the Internet doesn't promote critical thinking skills (clearly, I took inadequate lecture notes). I'm beginning to agree with this nameless critic.
I am addicted to the Internet. I like to blog and I like to read random news articles online. Heck, I even read spoilers for TV shows that I don't watch. To me, this is normal. I'm sure that I critically analyze what I read, partially because that is part of my personality. However, I feel like my writing is going nowhere, partially because of the Internet.
I'm going to be honest -- I post something to this blog every day, not because I'm a huge geek, but because I'm afraid of what will really happen if I don't write anything. It's a senseless fear, but what I think nonetheless. For 4 semesters and two summers, I've been churning out 5-6 articles a month, taken full course loads during the school year, written for the Setonian and kept up with blogging and emailing. I'm pretty much spent. I've got nothing left. I feel like I haven't written anything I've actually liked since sophomore year.
Yet, I feel know my writing has improved since then. I can look back through my portfolio and see that I've developed. I think more critically, and I'm getting better at translating what I think into words for the masses. However, I don't think that I am doing as well as I think I can. In fact, I'm willing to wager that writing for an online medium is letting me take the easy way out.
It's too easy to link to something and let that do the talking for me. It's nice to know that I don't have to write verbose paragraphs. Bulleted lists! What a novelty! Instead of me thinking more, I feel like I just slap something on the blog that fits with the personality that people expect. However, by doing that I am just shortchanging myself and everyone who strolls on in to read.
Anyway, my point... I'm relatively certain that I am experiencing a very large writer's block -- yet, instead of not being able to write, I'm writing everything in order to keep from not writing anything. If I stop, then that must mean that I've turned into that girl who blames not turning in an assignment on a silly thing like writer's block! Ha! Not me!
Anyway, I guess that is my contradictory argument that supports the idea that the World Wide Web is bad for thinking.
Is it too late to be a math major?
Posted by Julie Young at November 10, 2003 11:49 PMJulie: Print this one out and include it in your campus portfolio. This is one of the most honest reflections I've seen you write. And even so, you've only barely scratched the surface of the psychodynamics of writing. More could be said about "critical thinking" or the role of "audience" here. But anyway, good post! (And I can't understand why you feel like you haven't written anything you've liked... I like what I've read very much. Heck, here I am reading your blog several times a week! You must be doing something right....