How to get where I’m going

As a Junior in college, I do not know for sure what I will be doing in two years, but as that deadline draws closer and closer, I’ve begun to prepare for it. This past summer, I interned for the Advocate, a monthly newspaper of the South Carolina Methodist Conference. If you’re interested, their website is advocatesc.org, and several of my published articles are available to read without a subscription. While this experience made for an absolutely wonderful summer and I learned an incredible amount about AP Style and newspaper writing as well as specifics to the office environment, it became clear to me that intending to begin a career in print newspaper was not really a viable option. Much as I hate to admit it, newspapers are on their way out. Even if I could get a job writing for one after graduation, it would be merely a matter of time before that job no longer existed.
While thinking about the inevitable disappearance of newspaper is really quite depressing, I strongly believe that my skills in that area are still valuable in the new job market. Learning to write clearly and concisely is still an important aspect of communication, no matter the format of the product. Thus, I hope that digital communications will help me add to my current skills to bring them up to date for the digital age. With knowledge of online formats of communication and experience with software, I will be better prepared to enter a world where these are the primary means by which messages are communicated, whether the audience is large or small.
In this class, there are two potential topics that I am considering working with. One involves student eating habits around campus, such as how often different dining establishments are used and how often students in apartments cook for themselves. Another idea is centered around religious groups on campus. Different faith-based organizations meet in different ways and have different purposes for meeting. I would examine these meetings and see how the nature of the meeting reflects the intention of the students and their belief systems.

Brain Function, Media Literacy, and the Future of the Information Age

Ulmer’s article on Electracy and the article by Nicholas Carr entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid” both introduce interesting points and complement each other with different but not contradictory approaches. Both pieces examine the impact of the internet on society, but Carr seems to be concerned about its potential implications, while Ulmer’s approach tends more toward fascination with a growing phenomenon. Ulmer compares the development of this phenomenon, which he dubbed “electracy”, to the development of other human communication skills, such as reading and writing. The idea of media literacy becoming as  innate as reading and writing is a little difficult to wrap my head around, but I can understand where Ulmer is coming from. Those informational mediums that prove to be effective are absorbed into society and thus gradually become more prevalent until they are essential parts of our everyday existence. Thousands of years may have passed since this last took place noticeably, but a change so gradual could easily be overlooked. Carr’s perspective focuses on the impact of the internet and information age on our brain and thought function. He cites some changes that he has noticed in his own cognitive function, and continues to provide anecdotes from friends and colleagues that give credence to his insistence that his is not an isolated situation. The reason behind this change, Carr explains, is due to the different way that information is presented online as opposed to in paper form. A faster ability to get through sources leads to a lack of focus on each source.
Despite Carr’s apparent distress over the discovery of this occurrence in his own life, he does not write off the issue as a negative impact on society, just as Ulmer does not write off electracy as a temporary function of modern culture. Instead, Carr examines the way in which the internet is changing primary brain function and questions its effectiveness for future use. His concern is with the absorption of information, which is also covered by Ulmer’s analysis. Ulmer explains how electracy is based largely around aesthetics, with images overshadowing the former prevalence of the written word. Corresponding nicely with Carr’s hypotheses, images are indeed a much faster and more superficial way to view information, as well as a medium that has become largely preferred.

Do you think that Ulmer’s ideas are accurate and relevant? What are ways that Carr’s hypotheses have been proven? How do you think that these theories will continue to manifest themselves?