Your Brain on Media: Steven Pinker's "Mind Over Mass Media"

Steven Pinker, distinguished Harvard University professor, is one of very few linguists known outside of the discipline, and his five books written for a general audience have all been big hits. How the mind works was a New York Times bestseller in 1998 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, as was his 2003 book, Blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. If anyone is qualified to speculate about the cognitive consequences of 21^st century technologies, he is. This article was published in the Opinion pages of The New York Times on November 6, 2010.

Read it here: Pinker, "Mind over mass media"

 

1. Pinker begins by summarizing centuries of “they say” statements and providing counter arguments in the form of verifiable historical evidence. How effective is this rhetorical strategy? Why? Support your conclusion.

2. What does the title of Pinker’s essay mean? To what is it an allusion? (Use a Google search on parts of the title if you’re not already familiar with the phrase.)

3. In countering the possibility that electronic media are harming science, Pinker asserts that scientific discoveries are “multiplying like fruit flies.” One might argue that scientific discoveries are proliferating because there are more practicing scientists than ever before. Is it possible to measure the quality of scientific production? Explore the question with two or three classmates, and then write a short essay in response, supporting your position with examples and/or evidence.

4. Pinker comments that “the constant arrival of information packets can be distracting or addictive.” What has been your own experience in this area? Write a personal reflection that supports or refutes Pinker’s claim.

 

Comments

[CraigESasser]

Thanks for the blog. What is the plan for frequency of posts?

[Michal Brody]

Hi, thanks for your comment. We're planning to put up a couple of readings per month, with a possibility of more. New posts coming soon.

[Jodi (Scheli) Martin]

I do not see the internet, computers, Google, a smartphone as a way of making us dumb, I see it as a quick source to access information on the fly. In the era of now, the quicker you can access information, the more you excel in this world. People claim that we have become lazy, maybe... I still use an encyclopedia, ( yes, a hard bound book ) I use the library, I call my grandmother and ask her. I do rely on various electronics to get me through my day.

[Chase Harrington]

Technology is helping us and since this is the 21st Century we need to use the technology to our advantage. I do believe that people may over use technology and I am not one of those people. Just like Ms. Martin,I still use libraries and dictionaries and more to help out. If your on the go and don't want to carry a huge book with you then and a question pops up you can bring up your phone and look it up on google right then. Technology is a way to make us smarter if it is used correctly.

[Shannon]

I really enjoyed reading this article. I think that the way he laid it out was very intelligent. I do not believe that that the internet, power-point... has taken any of our mind power away. I believe it has given us the tools to utilize information in a quick and convenient way. Technology has strengthened my own personal confidence when it comes to getting the information that I need and the knowledge that I want. I don't take every thing I get from the internet and stand firm on that information but, what I do, is I take what I need and disregard the rest. Have you ever heard the saying, if it doesn't apply then let it fly? I am able to strain substance from the many different articles that I read and I use critical thinking to conclude what is useful and what is not. I Love having the opportunity to get what I want at the touch of my finger tips. Power-point has made learning fun giving options for visual effect to go along with special points of interest which enhances the learning experience. Sometimes with visual aid I am able to understand some thing that with just plain text alone would have me stumped. I say hooray for technology and to all those people who put it down, I would like to ask them how much do they actually depend on technology while at the same time they are criticizing it.

[T Dunmore]

“The new media have caught on for a reason. Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.”
When I read the last paragraph of Mr. Pinker’s article, I finally found the words to express how I felt about technology. Technology does not make us less intelligent, it allows us to access all of the information that is out there in the world. We still have to use our common sense to make sure that we filter through all of the information that is out there, but it is all at our fingertips.
Mr. Pinker called his article ‘Mind Over Mass media’ because he asserts that our brain has not been changed by the technology but that we still have some control over deciphering what we read and to limiting how much technology interferes with our life. Technology can be very distracting, it can interrupt every part of our lives if we let it.

[Haley Gordon]

I agree that we have control over how our brain deciphers what we read. I have to have times that I put away my phone, my computer and everything else so that I can have some down time.

[Haley Gordon]

Some of the people that Steven Pinker discussed used "he said, she said" comments to say that our brains are being changed. When Mr. Pinker talked about how our scientific discoveries are multiplying like fruit flies, I realized how fast technologies are changing. The technology must be helping us if we are creating more things and making more discoveries.

[A. Youngberg]

I enjoyed reading this article and I respect the author's point of view on technology however, I do not agree that the internet has taken our brain power and our ability to go more in depth in research away. I think the internet is used to further that research in the sense that it can help us understand what other people think about the topic, and to get more information in addition to other resources. Technology allows us to access all the information out there rather than only the information found in the local library. However, I do believe that technology is commonly overused by many people. Some people base their lives around Facebook, Twitter and other social networks rather than being in the here and now. Technology is rapidly increasing, and if people use it in the wrong way, it can be a bad thing for society.

[Joan Jarrett]

So now that some of you are facing writing a research paper where you must use sources that you can fine ONLINE through the library databases, it will be interesting to see what you end of saying about our technological world. You can see by the posts on these articles that technology is a highly debatable issue nowadays with many, many different facets that you can look into.

[Joan Jarrett]

Yikes! That should be "end up saying" not "end of saying"!

[Robert Ellis]

I think that sometimes little electronic gadgets get in the way of simply socializing with individuals. My daughter and her boyfriend came to my house from out of town recently. They live about a hundred miles away and could only stay maybe three hours. It was a nice day and I noticed that he was playing with some gadget. He was playing a motorcycle game. I have been wanting to get to know my daughters boyfriend and there he was playing. I think that we lost time together that will never be able to be made up.

[mxie]

1. It can counter others statement strongly by using this strategy, because when we quote others’ opinions, express their shortcomings, and then come up with our idea, the readers will easily agree with us. They may think the author is right because the reason he use to counter arguments seems adequate.
2. It means our mind can control things. Whether the mass media is good depends on our mind not the media itself. It suggests that the critics are wrong, because the only thing matters is our mind, our mind can decide the we use mass media and how much profit can we get.
3. I think it’s hard to measure the quality of scientific production. I agree that minds over media. The quality of scientific production depends on our minds. The mass media can be harming science when a person doesn’t have self-control. If the person is addicted to the mass media and use them just for fun, the mass media may show bad effect. If a person makes a good use of mass media, for example as a student we use them to get information quickly, study online, and so on, it will help us do better in our study. Of course, there are so many products that it will take us lots of times to measure them all.
4. When there is lots of information, I am confused. If the information is in different views, I sometimes can’t focus on one thing. I want to remember all the things, but it usually turn out to be failure. It really can be distracting.

[Kelly Moreno]

When I read the beginning of this article, I thought Steven Pinker was going to argue how the Internet is ruining lives or making people less intelligent by using it, but it was quite the contrary. As Pinker said, any new media form that has come out, there is always going to be some type of negative backlash or connotation that comes along with it. I agree that if the Internet was as bad as institutions make it out to be, technology and knowledge would not be progressing like it has been, there would be some kind of stand still in thinking. I believe that the Internet has the great potential to discover ideas that people would have otherwise not have come across reading books.
I do not see the emergence of PowerPoints used in higher authority's briefing as a negative, as the hyperlink of an article argues. I agree with Pinker and the bloggers above, PowerPoints as another medium to display otherwise bland information into a more stimulating way of presenting information. If PowerPoints were not effective, it would not be used to teach students or give presentations. I believe students learn better when there are visuals used along with lectures, instead of solely listening to the professor talk.
I agree with the article, distractions are not being created by the Internet as if it were a new occurrence. People will always be distracted from doing the work that is suppose to be done, but it is simply another outlet to use as a distraction. As with any type of "addicting" media, one needs self control, "Mind Over Mass Media" as the title of the article suggests. Internet is good in moderation, as long as it does not become a compulsion and affect the daily life of someone, it can be perfectly healthy to use the Internet.

[Nazli Islam]

I completely agree with the points made in this article by Steven Pinker. Many people these days are afraid of modern technology and believe that it is destroying the current generation. While it is true that modern technology should be used in moderation, it is not something to fear. Instead of cowering before modern technology, we should take advantage of the innumerable benefits it provides. Having tools like power point or google simply enhance the efficiency of our lives, and Pinker specifically mentions that encyclopedias do not have far greater impact over simply researching through the Internet. Like many other things in life, the Internet is useful in moderation. Drinking too much water can be harmful, but it is a necessity to consume at least some water. Similarly, the Internet speeds up and simplifies many processes, but it should never be overused, a distraction, or an obsession. Modern technology, like the progressions of technology from the past, should be harnessed and used to its full extent.

[hi]

i need as many quotes from steven pinker as possible for my English assignment