During our audio discussion (me, Omar, Ashley and, Anaya) we used source C:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/skim-reading-new-normal-maryanne-wolf?fbclid=IwAR0otQQba2_3GcuyLTIqMDE8UUwOJ1DCv2ANc2Je_cdq68nOisE0ey0BWTw

which is titled “Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound”, talking about people skim reading books nowadays because of the introduction of technology. This article is very convincing and persuasive supported by various evidence.

Response to “How is digital technology changing the way we think”:

I think that digital technology nowadays is definitely affecting the way people think, with the rising of searching engines such as Google, people don’t remember nondeclarative memories such as when a king had died. People will most likely be able to memorize where to find that information (possibly online). We can only retain the information we believe we can’t find quickly online. And the consequence sometimes can be severe. A plane crashed because the pilot forgot how to control the plane during that crucial/life-changing situations. We also developed something called transactive memory, which is actually not ourselves, we tend to memorize who (for example my parents) has expertise in some areas, and when we need to get that information, we will just go to them and ask them, instead of learning them ourselves. We have short term memory which can only store a few things but we also have long term memory which is really huge, when we obtain those short term memory for some time, they will be able to pass into our long term memory. The problem is that nowadays we can now find more and more information online, so we are constantly switching those events and facts in our short term memory, so less information can be sent to our long term memory, which is also a reason for that plane crash. During our discussion, we learned that people now tend to skim read through books because they want to be on their digital devices as soon as possible, and the source also said that college students try to “avoid reading the classic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries because they no longer have the patience to read longer, denser, more difficult texts” also because of their tendency to use their smart devices. I can’t say if the introduction of digital technology is good or bad for our lives because that depends on each individual, but I can definitely say that it is changing our ways of thinking.

Link to our audio discussion on the article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vwHv0cm9xWnan0Qdfch2MYbuvY3Dq6se/view