According to Susan Jacoby (2009), we have become less discriminating and rational as the range of media expands. The society and culture we live in now have become dependent on technology. People consume media and use the Internet every day. Watching television, playing video games or browsing the Internet, all these activities have become necessary for many people. Moreover, using media and the Internet is a part of people’s daily routines. Consequently, people prefer to use new media instead of old media. Everything is digital and interactive. In a book The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby describes it as “the culture of distraction.” Susan explains that people spend more time in front of their computer screens. Therefore, “the less time and desire they have for two human activities critical to a fruitful and demanding intellectual life: reading and conversation.” (Jacoby, 2009, p247)
It is important to note that technology is getting smarter each year. But people are becoming more dependent on their gadgets. On the one hand, it makes people’s lives easier. On the other hand, people have stopped remembering things such as birthdays, numbers etc. because they have their smart phones. People do not need to be smart to use an iPhone. And that is the issue with using devices and search engines. People “google” everything. The point is that they do not have the knowledge, but they know where to find it. Smart phones and technology enable people to find any sort of information in seconds. But do people improve their memory skills as well as their research skills?
Obviously, the technology and its gadgets make our lives easier in many ways. The multi-channel TV, 24-hour news, the Internet and media as a whole produce a vast amount of information. We might consume all these information every day, but certainly it is not that easy to remember it all. Why would we, if we can access this information later on via the Internet search engines? As Susan Jacoby argues that people have stopped reading and rather watching videos, we have become less critical and rational. We just consume whatever media produces, which is why so many people have fallen into FAKE NEWS’ traps. The only way to stay well informed and not to be deceived is to consume more traditional news or old news, rather than reading anything we find randomly online considering that everything we read is nothing but the truth.
Bibliography
Jacoby, S. (2009). The age of American Unreason. New York : Vintage Books
Nikola Do Anh 