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Jill
Finney
RWS
100
Mr.
Werry
26
September 2014
Updates, Tweets, Emails, and Blogs…
Clive Thompson, a writer, blogger, and
journalist that has works in the New York Times Magazine and Wired, is an
accomplished individual. In his book Smarter
Than You Think, specifically his chapter titled “Public Thinking”, he argues
that the Internet has contributed to a generation that is smarter and can write
more complexly than any other before. This amplified writing is due to
increases in social media usage. Through many sub claims that include kids writing
to audiences, changed cognitive behaviors, and the law of multiples he weighs
the advantages of technology rather than seeing the typical view: that it’s
destroying our brains. Thompson persuades us to believe that the vast increase
in public writing through the inspiration of the Internet is causing a
beneficial change for individuals and society as a whole by use of different
strategies, and examples. In this paper, by analyzing Thompson’s claims and
evidence I will be able to break down his arguments.
In order to support his overall argument,
that “the Internet has produced a Niagara of writing” (Thompson 43) and created
“a global culture of writers”(Thompson 50). Thompson first claims that Internet
writings can “clarify our thinking” (Thompson 51) and modify cognitive skills. In
a interview Thompson did with bloggers they say, “they’ll
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get
an idea for a blog post and sit down at the keyboard in a state of excitement…soon
thinking that someone will read this as
soon as its posted” (Thompson 52) thus causing
the
blogger to reanalyze their writings several times over. This emphasizes that our
cognition has been altered due to the fact that this writing is going to be
public. Founder of DuckDuckGo Gabriel Weinburg connects the idea of an
alternative cognition to “hand-waveyness” (Thompson 53), essentially no one
wants to crash and burn. Therefore, writers want to justify their claims even
if they are criticized. Gabriel Weinburg
defines the concept, “Even if I was publishing it [a blog, article] to no one, it’s
just the threat of an audience…if someone could come across it [the paper] in
my name, I have to take it more seriously” (Thompson 54). This evidence
outlines the claim that writing publically insists a change in typical
thinking. Through presenting these evidences Thompson supports the idea that by
making writings public we can stretch ourselves past our limits as writers.
Clive Thompsons second claim is that
new forms of digital writings significantly improve writing and thinking
through the audience affect. The audience effect is represented by social
scientists as, “the shift in performance when we know people are watching”
(Thompson 54) and can cause writers to either perform better or to choke.
To
illustrate this, Thompson includes a study done by Brenna Clark Clay, an
English professor from Douglas College of British Columbia. By assigning her
students to create a wiki page for all of their class documents they transformed
their writing, “it was like night and day”(Thompson 56). Despite the audience size
being small, the theory still takes place. Thompson further supports his claim by
stating that, “going from an
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audience
of zero (talking to yourself) to an audience of ten people (a few friends or
random strangers checking out your online post) is so big that it’s actually
huger than going from ten people to a million people” (Thompson 56). This quote
acknowledges and supports the idea that audiences have a great influence on writers
no matter the size of them. Expanding on the idea of the audience affect,
Thompson introduces his article with a short story of a young writer as a tool
to connect the audience emotionally.
Okolloh is a young Kenyan writer that
centered most of her writings on the corrupt society of her home country. Like
anyone else, she thought she had “zero ideas to say” (Thompson 45). However
seven years of blogging lead to “a witty, passionate voice, keyed perfectly to
online conversation” (Thompson 45) as well as “two telephone sized books”
(Thompson 46) with millions of ideas. This piece builds an emotional connection
with readers due to the similarities they share with Okolloh, its inspirational
and a good use of pathos. This strategy of intriguing the reader and connecting
on a personal level is very effective.
The third claim is the theory of
multiples and making connections. The theory of multiples was introduced by
sociologists William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas, to show the world that, “our
ideas are, in a crucial way, partly products of our environment” (Thompson 59).
Our ideas occur simultaneously, without technology, many people that have the
same ideas would never make connection due to lack of publicity. To clarify and
support this claim, Thompson emphasizes that, “making connections is a big deal
in the history of thought- and it’s the future” (Thompson 58). This is
supportive because it implies and predicts information based on current times. Due
to the evolution of society,
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multiples
can be resolved, “the Internet, which encourages public thinking and resolves
multiples on a much larger scale…. its now the worlds most powerful engine for
heads
together”
(Thompson 61). Through Thompson’s
strategy in presenting this quote, the audience forms a mindset that parallels
Thompsons thinking, which is essentially his whole point of writing the
article.
As a result of multiple claims,
evidence and strategies that Thompson utilizes, “Public Thinking” is a very
strong paper. He outlines and convinces the reader/audience that technology is
good for all of us through ethos, pathos, and logos. Through repetition and
elaboration of all his claims Thompson weighs the advantages and little
disadvantages to the current technological age of writing. Not only are we
developing better cognition skills, improving memories, making connections
among ideas, but also creating a generation of avid writers that blow away past
writers. Technology is a relatively young idea and it has brought so many
benefits for our society. With time it will grow stronger and be able to create
many more generations of writers that can write complexly and strongly about
any topic. Thompson’s persuasion abilities in his writing send the clear message
that with the advancement of technologies and many social medias, the world can
see better writers.
