In your third essay, you will be required to address the benefits and drawbacks of emerging technologies. As in essays #1 and #2, you will craft an argument, and your argument MUST be debatable. Two sources have been chosen for you (Digital Nation and Gopnik’s “How the Internet Gets Inside Us”)…but you will also incorporate at LEAST two more sources which you find on your own using the library databases. Please read the following carefully!
We can all agree that technology has impacted our lives in one way or another. As Sherry Turkle states in the film Digital Nation, “Technology is not good or bad. It is powerful and complicated.†While it is important to note that this view is extremely broad, it is an umbrella idea under which your much more specific thesis might fall.
You have the option to discuss various types of technology (social networks, e-readers, and even—gasp!—Wikipedia, for example) which have had an impact on us. You might parse and ponder the effects these technologies have on human psychology, biology, society, relationships and/ or culture.
Once again, you’ll frame your essay around a specific argument which is appropriate to the length of your essay (see “Guidelines,†below). This argument will be supported by credible, meaty, and highly specific evidence which will come from multiple sources, including, if necessary, your personal experience.
As you begin brainstorming, two words that will come in exceptionally handy are “HOW?†and “WHY?†One way to go about choosing your argument—or thesis—is to ask these questions.
How, for example, has your Kindle changed your relationship to reading? Why do you feel the pressure to log on to Facebook thirty-seven-thousand times a day? How has internet privacy—or lack thereof—affected us?
In your essay you must address the benefits and drawbacks of one type of technology: choose wisely and answer the following: What is lost? What is gained? What does our relationship to this type of technology tell us about our values? How has the technology changed our relationships with/ to others (friends, family, society on the whole), and ourselves? Think critically about the answers. It’s hard work, but it will pay off.
Guidelines:
Your third essay should be 3-5 pages long, double-spaced. Use standard 1†margins and a standard font (i.e., Times, Times New Roman). Please include page numbers, a title, and a complete Works Cited page, formatted according to MLA standards (see Course Content). There is no need to include a separate title page. You MUST use 4 credible, college-level sources, including Gopnik’s essay, “How the Internet Gets Inside Us†and Digital Nation. Your sources should be the MOST trustworthy you can find; this will require extensive research. Do NOT merely choose the first sources you come across, as these are unlikely to be the MOST trustworthy. Each of your sources will be subject to approval; the same goes for your thesis. I recommend you read and research and brainstorm and free-write and pre-write before determining what your thesis will be.
We will be using the RUBRIC we’ve used for each of our essays
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