LitCircle: Final Blog

I've read Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age and I am comparing my book to what Kyle discussed about The Shallows from his blog. 

Both of our books usually got paired up during our LitCircle discussion days so I was able to draw information out and be able to derive a clear picture of what his book is talking about: what I got from it seemed completely different of what my book was all about. The Shallows made it seem as the Internet is a disadvantage to our brains while Cognitive Surplus made it sound like it is an advantage. However, while reading Kyle's blog, he pointed out that there is an advantage of the usage of the Internet. 


Shirky states that because the human species has evolved into complex cognitive form, we have been able to invent and think of original ideas to accomplish tasks more easily and efficiently. As a result, we have more time on our hands. And what do we do with that time? We watch TV. Instead, Shirky claims, we should be able to take that surplus of time and put it into more useful hands. The book talks about how the Internet and the media helps us thinking outside the box and being able to derive information from professionals as well as amateurs. He's saying that we are more connected through the media and able to spread news in seconds.


On the other hand, Carr explains that because of technology, we have developed a shorter attention span. But, this shorter attention span put us in good use with the Internet and multitasking. "Hyper texts, along with other internet sources, have been proven to increase cognitive loads and increase the ability to retain, as well as use new information." (Kyle). This is a great advantage as we continue to develop and evolve into more complex cognitive species.


All in all, because our cognitive thinking is expanding, so is the media. And as we keep on inventing more efficient ways of doing things, we have more time on our hands and in the end, we should incorporate that time into even more efficient technology to make our lives easier.

 

LitCircle Book Response

Agnes Gul
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age
Meeting Number Three
Pages 97-159

Opportunity and Culture

            These next two chapters mainly discussed about how groups can be an organizing principle of something that wants and/or needs to be done. In the Opportunity Chapter, Shirky claims that something can be done more efficiently and more rapidly if done in a group, rather than done by one person; this is because groups tend to spread among people that are not directly related to the group. In the Culture chapter, Shirky states that “The more people in a community who can understand a particular fact, method, or story, the likelier it is that those people will be able to work together to make use of those bits of knowledge.” (Shirky, 140) In other words, as mentioned in the Culture chapter, knowledge can spread among a particular group, and spread into “peripheral” groups as well.

            “…much twentieth –century economics mistakenly assumed that market transactions are an ideal and even default model for human interactions. But some kids of value can’t be created by markets, only by a set shared and mutually coordinating assumptions, which is to say by culture.” (Shirky, 136) We can see that the organizing principle of most inventions, ideas, and creations are based upon groups. Just how an infectious disease can transmit from one person to another in a fraction of days, so can ideas within groups. Some people see a group challenging the status quo or trying to break the Philistine way of thinking, they’re most likely to join that group if it personally relates to them, and then others will join, and so and so on; as a result, it creates a chain reaction. The Internet plays a key role in the spreading of ideas since the Internet is global and ideas can be shared across the world. Thanks to modern technology, we are able to globally share our ways of thinking and collaborate with one another.

Captured Thought: Connections to Humanities

Throughout these last two weeks, I've been reading "Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age" by Clay Shirky as a LitCircle book. As a group we have to read and have to turn in a writing response. Looking back at my previous two writing responses, I realize a strange connection between the novel and Humanities.

So far in Humanities we have been discussing as a class about organizing principle, adjacent possible and challenging the status quo. And of course we read other books, short stories, and poems about all these elements but they still aren't enough to fully understand what they mean. However, my LitCircle books provides an excellent source of really capturing the the true meaning of these themes. The author provides clear, straightforward, current examples of what is going on in the world and connecting it to either organizing principle, adjacent possible, or challenging the status quo.

And not only does Shirky connect his book to Humanities, but he also connects it to current events (that aren't mentioned in his book). For example, in Chapter 2, he talks about Korea and importing American beef and how the Korean citizens were protesting against it with the means of blogging, websites, violent demonstrations. As I was reading this chapter, it kept reminding me of Egypt and what is current going on in that country.

As a result, I think that choosing this novel is very beneficial when it comes to clearly understanding and applying topics that are discussed during class.