Read the article "Texting Makes You Stupid" in the Daily Beast. Note three facts that you found astonishing and comment on them. Include in your discussion whether you agree or disagree with the author. Is his final suggestion a solution to the problem?
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ReplyDeleteI agreed with a lot of the article, reading nowadays takes back seat to the texting. But his references to inane texts sent before disasters is a little over the top. Finally he gives a solution, but it just comes off as weird. He makes good points for most of the article and then makes you lose interest and disagree with him, it just alienates many of the people who agreed with hin in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Diego said, and part of the article. I don't think anyone I know would say: "C u later NOT :(" before the world ends. That's just over the top. But I do think that teens are losing interest in reading. Furguson made a good point about losing connections with ancestors without reading, and I agree. Most teens would rather sit around and text each other other than sit around and read a book nowadays. I'm disappointed in that. I love to read and I've heard the excuse, "Oh I don't have time I can read when I'm older or something." That is just stupid because although you say you are going to read think about the diferences in books will come to. We now have books on little pads what could be next?
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ReplyDeleter u jking me? I thk that we r smrter thn eva. ths guy is sooo wrong.
ReplyDeleteNow that this wonderful section is over, I think that this guy has a point, but is more or less trying to scare people. As Diego so beautifully said, he goes WAY OVER THE TOP. "Gues wat guyz? We r all bout 2 dy!!" Yeah, right. I found that he was way too negative. We read a lot more due to the internet. I am sure that a vast majority of people are more up to date because in current events. I know that I am.
I still agree with him on some points, though. For example, when I am with some friends, a few are texting people non-stop. Please, stop talking with these insignificant people and focus on the ones that you are with. "But these people are important", they say. I would then reply, no, they are not. Not right now at least.
As for the final solution, I am sincerely hoping that this is merely a FAILED attempt to be funny.
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ReplyDeleten this article, I disagree with the author when he wrote, "Half of today's teenagers don't read books." because even though some percentages say that they do, it is not entirely true. Many people that I know don't read books because they simply don't have enough time. Between sports, school and homework, there isn't as much downtime. I was also surprised that only 50.7% Americans read for pleasure. I know that reading for pleasure is not as popular as it used to be; however, I would never have expected that barely half of the population does. The author made one point that I disagree with completely. I think that lying to your children and taking them somewhere where reading is the only option, is not the best solution to the texting problem. Personally if my parents did that to me I would be angry and refuse to read. Overall i disagree with his final solution, because making reading the only option is not making teenagers want to.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the guy in some places like when he says when need to read more and i found it interesting when he says that the "gap" is closing between us and other rising literate nations. One thing that really irked me about this article is when he says "Take a group of teenagers to see the seven wonders of the world. They’ll be texting all the way." i didnt like this statement because it sound like he's talking about all teens and i know i myself don't text often so when he said this i found it irritating. Also i agree with Maggie and Diego that the end of this article and the part where he talks about the world ending came off to be a little awkward.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree that our society has moved away from books and other things that challenge the mind, and gravitated more towards electronics and texting, I found many points in this article to be overstatements--at least when pertaining to me. I can't argue with the indisputable facts listed; however I really enjoy reading good books and do my best to read for pleasure. I'll admit that I don't have time for this every day, especially during the school year, but I love to sit down and read a good book when I have the opportunity. Also, I don't have any of the undergraduate core books that the writer listed, but I think that's okay, as I don't exactly consider myself an undergraduate yet. Lastly, I know that if someone took me to the seven wonders of the world, my phone would certainly not come out of my pocket, and I'm sure this would be true for most students at NCCS. Although I disagreed with multiple points in the article, I can't dispute his staggering facts. I was especially surprised to hear that teens send an average of over 3,000 texts per month. I also think that in order for America to maintain its power and economic prosperity, our generation needs to read and begin to care a bit more about education.
ReplyDeleteThus article is just asking for me to poke holes in it. First of all, I know many teenagers, and only a small fraction of them are actually that obsessed with texting. At least in our area, texting is not as severe a problem as Ferguson pretends it is. Even so, the raw facts that he uses to support his argument cannot be desputed. Over 4,000 texts is just completely outrageous. Also, the fact that only 50% of teenagers read for pleasure is very hard for me to believe. Even college freshmen only read for less than an hour. Since I normally read for an excess of 13 hours a week, I simply refuse to believe this. I feel this problem could be easily remedied by some action on the parent's part.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some points that the author stated in this article, but I think he went over the top in places. I do agree that some teenagers text way too much(4000 is ridicules). I also agree that people should read for pleasure more often. On the other hand, I think the author goes over the top; especially at the end. One other criticism I have is that I do not think he should be throwing around literacy rates like they are some big competition.
ReplyDeleteI personally thought this article was very silly. when the author stated that kids were being cut off from their ancestors civilization, that is because THIS IS 2011. We have computers, cell phones, internet, the world is entirely different than it was 50-70 years ago. But people still have history class like they did years back. I think that a part of the reason kids are being detached from things like reading is because technology has given people opportunities to do things that are just as fun or more fun than reading. When the author stated that before the world ends, people will be texting, "C U later not :(" I think thats a rediculous thing to say, it sounds like the author is assuming that people care more about texting than they do about anything else, which is definitely not true. I also think the author is assuming that people would be texting as they see the seven wonders of the world. i completely disagree it seems that he thinks all people care about now is texting and i think that is just pure absurdity.
ReplyDeleteand when he says our parents should take us to book camp? thats insane, if he was being serious, i don't know what to say.
I agreed with the author for the most part. I don't think teens don't want to read just because they don't want to. If a book is good and interesting, I'll definitely read it. I personally like reading, but don't necessarily have the time for it. I also think most teenagers would read more if they weren't required to in school, and they didn't have guidelines. I was surprised that only 50% of teenagers read for pleasure and only 1/3 of college students. I do think our societie is branching out more to technology and don't think this will change in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this article in the sense that Americans text a lot, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that we would still be texting when the world is crumbling around us. Personally, I do not own a phone and therefore never text, and read more than the average human, I can not relate to these statistics. But seeing people around me and thinking of if I owned a phone I believe that teenage girls send and receive over 4000 texts a month. I disagree though because everyone I know reads at one point or another and most of the time the reason they are not reading is because they have other activities in their free time. I know that I am so busy that I hardly have any time for reading for pleasure no matter how much I want to. In conclusion I think that this article made some good points but was really extreme at times.
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