Rheingold, Distractions, and Learning From Google

This in an excerpt from a conversation about the first 2 chapters of Howard Rheingold's book Net Smart .

Chapter 1 Questions

1. "When online, how often do you control your own focus--and how frequently do you allow it to be captured by peripheral stimuli?" (42). And what is that stimuli?

This question is so broad and yet so important when discussing online activity. My attention is captivated almost perpetually by online stimuli that is unrelated to what I actually need to be focusing on. Facebook is a supreme example of this, as at any given point Facebook is notifying me of messages, updating my newsfeed, automatically playing videos, showing me ads, and countless other actions that the site seems to do on its own. On other sites the stimuli is diverse and constant, from messages to ads and other distractions brought up by other programs on my computer or phone. It’s almost impossible for me to keep my attention focused on one single task at any given point when online. I try to control my focus regularly, but it’s a constant battle.

2. How do distractions manifest themselves inside the writing technologies we use? Use a real life example to answer this question.

I primarily write using Google Docs because it is one of the simplest programs I have ever used when trying to focus on writing. This means, however, that I must go online to write and be connected to the internet at all times during the writing process. Writing using an online tool is fraught with distractions and potential issues. I’m always tempted to have Facebook or email open in another tab when I’m writing in Google Docs, so the distractions from those additional applications are numerous. Writing on my phone is also difficult because the distractions from always being connected to the network, incoming calls, messages, Facebook, and so many other apps always fighting for my attention. Sometimes it's better to turn my phone on to do not disturb mode, but I don't like to do this for too long. Unless I sit myself down in an empty room with a pen and paper, it's almost impossible to write without distractions.

Chapter 2 Questions

1. What is "triangulating" and why is it important? Use a real life example to answer this question.

Triangulating is the process journalists use to verify something by checking three credible sources. For example, if I wanted to find out if Donald Trump started out with a “small” loan of one million dollars to build his real estate empire or not, I would need to find three credible news sources in order to be more certain of the validity of that claim. One news source might by CNN confirming the claim, another might be a clip of Trump talking about his loan in an interview, and the third might be the testimony of another person or business that could confirm Trump had a million dollars, or even a public document showing evidence of that money being used.   

2. "What steps must be taken to turn searching and finding into learning and knowing?" (86). Use a real life example to answer this question.

Searching online using the right terms and words is an essential step to learning what you really need to learn about. Writing the answer you want to get in as fully formed a way as possible helps the search engine know which site to take you to. A real life example of this is trying to discover if the microprocessor is the widely held as the most important invention in human history. While I can type that into Google, learning about whether or not this idea has merit is not done for me automatically by Google. Rather, when looking for answers about a concept like this, Google points me in the right direction (websites listing the top 10 most important inventions ever, ect.) so that I can then learn for myself where I need to go, what other questions to ask, and where the answers might be, so that I can learn more about what I need to know.