[Melanie Weissman]

Chrome extensions make life ten times easier. I think my favorite is the Recently Closed Tabs extension, which is super helpful if you’re like me and constantly close tabs you wanted to keep open by accident.

[Melanie Weissman]

Unfortunately, most of the literature studied in American schools is written by white men with conservative views, and this emphasis of such texts as “important” is a way oppression manages to thrive in our society. Paratext (or, if there is no paratext, outside research) can help a reader acknowledge potential biases in writing by allowing them to consider exactly who is speaking. For example, if I know that I am reading a text relating to race issues, knowing that it is written by a white person makes me more likely to look out for possible racial prejudice in the text. This is essential for not falling into the traps set by rhetoric and forming informed opinions on what one reads.

[Melanie Weissman]

The problem with relying only on published works for information is that it is often difficult for people with controversial ideas to get published. Our literary canon is predominantly comprised of writings from white, male authors, and obviously it is important for everyone to hear the voices of minority groups, who are often unable to properly speak their minds simply because publishers don’t want to touch literature promoting unpopular opinions. The fact that anyone can post their opinion on the internet can be beneficial in that regard.

[Melanie Weissman]

I think technology is a double-edged sword when it comes to educating oneself on major issues. On the one hand, the internet provides us with the ability to learn about current events from all different points of view. The way we have been able to use Twitter to see things about Ferguson that TV news did not cover is a prime example of this. However, the internet also makes it easy for one to deliberately hole oneself up in circles of like-minded people. For instance, a person in an online community comprised entirely of a certain political party is likely to see the same opinions reiterated over and over again without any counterarguments to the point where they accept them as fact. It is a lot harder to isolate oneself in this way in face-to-face conversation.

[Melanie Weissman]

I’ve taken some education classes, and one thing that was emphasized in them is that individuals can generally be placed into three different categories: visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. A good teacher must accommodate all three of these learning styles in lessons. Simply spending every class reading about nature, or any topic, will not accomplish that, whereas giving students the opportunity to spend time in nature provides sights for the visual learners, sounds for the auditory learners, and things to touch and feel for the kinesthetic learners, making it a much more effective teaching method.

[Melanie Weissman]

I agree with you, William. Additionally, taking the time to look up unfamiliar words in a physical dictionary can grow so tiring that it can negatively affect a reader’s attitude towards a text or towards the act of reading in general. Not needing to obsess over the meanings of words gives a person more of an opportunity to think critically about the deeper meanings of a text.

[Melanie Weissman]

As much as it pains me to admit it, Nicholas Carr’s worries that “hyperreading leads to changes in brain function that make sustained concentration more difficult,cleaving us in a constant state of distraction in which no problem can be explored for very long before our need for constant stimulation kicks in and we check email, scan blogs, message someone, or check our RSS feeds” (Hayles 497) do seem to be grounded in reality. The advent of the internet and similar technology has made multitasking a necessity in our daily lives – communication is always readily available, so we are expected to check our phones, emails, Facebook accounts, etc. in order to not be ‘left out of the loop’ and/or seen as antisocial – and this may very well affect our ability to concentrate on a single task such as analytic reading for an extended period of time.

[Melanie Weissman]

What if an author deliberately writes a work that makes it very easy for readers to interpret them as encouraging violence, racism, sexism, etc? I believe in freedom of the press, but that’s dangerous territory. Of course, it’s definitely a reader’s fault if they allow themselves to be so influenced by an author’s words that they do something terrible because of them, but I feel like the author who writes something like “Men are objectively superior to women,” shouldn’t be completely absolved of responsibility, since there is no way they don’t realize how readers are going to interpret that.

[Melanie Weissman]

“For example, the covers of penguin classics do not do a great job of informing me of their content nor of their quality, but when I pick when up I understand I am reading a text that requires careful reading and analyzation to fully understand, and will read it as such.”

I feel the same way, and I find it interesting that we are conditioned to think of books with covers like that as “deep,” even though their original audiences might not have felt that way. For example, Shakespeare’s plays are currently regarded as classics that should be analyzed on several different levels, whereas back when Shakespeare himself was actually alive, his shows were considered trash for the lower class, since they contained a lot of sex and violence. I wonder how much marketing has to do with the shift in society’s perception of these works. Is it possible that a few centuries from now scholars will be doing in-depth studies of the books we consider brainless garbage today?

[Author]

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