This week’s articles were very interesting to read because they discuss a change in focus that I have experienced first hand. I am not used to assigned readings being that relatable. However, I think the topic of evolving technology is one that anyone could find a connection to. In the Reading in Slow Motion article, the writer mentions the differences between when she was in college writing a paper and when her daughter was writing a paper in school. I thought it was interesting that she think it’s easier for people to write now because the internet is there and so they have all of the information they could ever want at their fingertips. However, I have to say I think it would maybe be harder now. Or at least, harder to write a good essay now. With so much technology available we are flooded with non-scholarly resources, and too much information. We struggle when writing to stay on topic within the paper because we have read too much; we have too much information floating around our heads. We use too many secondary sources and so not much of our paper is valid.

I say “we” and “our” because I know that me and people I went to high school with struggled with all of these things, so I’m sure people both older and younger than me struggled as well. For example, I know tons of people who use Wikipedia as a source. I was told in seventh grade that Wikipedia was, “the devil.” My seventh grade history teacher told my class that before explaining how people can alter what it says and telling us that if anyone used it on their papers they would fail. To this day I tell people that Wikipedia is evil and they shouldn’t use it, even though it’s my dad’s number one source of information.

I guess my question is: do people think that the internet has also presented its challenges to the academic world?