Comparison of Carr and Henry Jerks

Computer-Mediated Communication: Convenience to Education

With the rise of new media technology the whole world has changed for better, and for worse. In today’s world there is a major clash of the old generation into the new generation. While there has always been the existence of generation gaps, the generation gap that exists in today’s world has caused the older generation to learn a completely new way of life. In Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he points at the fact that in today’s world people have the conveniences of an infinite amount of information available to them at the touch of a start button. In support to Carr’s claim, Henry Jenkins’ essay “Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars,” addresses the idea that new media has in fact even caused old media (and the older generation) to converge with it in order to insure old media’s survival. As a whole, the computer-mediated culture has bridged the generation gaps and offered the new and old generations a type of convenience, especially in terms of communication and learning.

To start, the new media has offered a new kind convenience to the way people are able to find helpful information and resources. The Internet displays itself as a source of infinite amount of information, unlike what old media can offer to a person in research. In a sense “… the net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind” (Carr 68). Carr explains, by pertaining information through the Internet, people have more of an opportunity to gain an abundance of information in one sitting. The idea of an abundant amount of information in one place appeals to a person a great deal more than reading twenty different books to gain information on one topic they are looking into. The Internet not only offers convenience of having information at hand, but also resources to help people improve themselves through communication....