Thompson Final Paper

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Jill Finney

RWS 100

Mr. Werry

26 September 2014

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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.