ESSAY PORTFOLIO
Is the Internet making us less intelligent?

Essay Plan

In my essay I wish to argue that the Internet is not making us less intelligent, but that it has provided a whole new dimension to the way we interact, communicate, think, create, share and exist.

The accessibility of the Internet provides a magnitude of knowledge and information in real time that could have never have been accessed before. Due to this, we have as a society become hungrier for information. Thanks to the sheer volume of data that is readily available on the Internet, people now have the ability to absorb numerous sources thereby creating better analytical and …show more content…

The discussion following the experiment provides two major, trustworthy, claims that help support my argument in relation to education. It claims that through using the Internet students, “active and autonomous behavior is enhanced, and the free self expression is encouraged” (Papanis, Glavrmis, Papani, 2010, Pg 58) by “permitting multiple analyses and representations” (Papanis, Glavrmis, Papani, 2010, Pg 58) on a single subject. The journal also states that the “informal learning accomplished through the Internet appears to compliment both the formal learning and previous experience of an individual” (Papanis, Glavrmis, Papani, 2010, Pg 58)

Source 3, Internet - Mind Over Mass Media, Steven Pinker, New York Times Online, 2010

Steven Pinker’s opinion piece outlines the fact that new forms of media have always caused some sort of moral panic throughout history. He believes that the Internet, like other media technologies has been unfairly criticised, and will be the next form of media that in fact result in increases in I.Q. and decreases in crime. Pinker discusses examples of past criticised media such as comic books in the 1950’s and video games in