My Book

I read the Yankee Years this summer by Tom Verducci and Joe Torre. It was about Joe Torre's years managing the Yankees, hence the name. This book was probably one of the most interesting book I have ever read, probably because it was about baseball.

This book went over many different things. Joe Torre talked about how the Yankees had to deal with Alex Rodruguez admitting to using steroids to the four world series rings they won. It went into how the game of baseball is managed and how George Steinbrenner kicked him out after missing the playoffs in a couple of years ago.

It also talks about star shortstop Derek Jeter and how he had to deal with A-Rod's stardom and how he became the captain silently.

I recommned this book to anyone who knows something about baseball. If you don't, there's no point of reading it.

Is Google Making us Stupid?

This essay basically attacks the internet and Google, giving reasons why it is making us stupid. Nicholas Carr is trying to push his readers away from the internet throughout this essay. He gives examples of friends who have stopped reading books altogether because reading is much more accesbile on the internet.

Carr says that although the average citizen is reading more than we did in the 70's and 80's but it's not the same type of reading. You know what I say to that? Who cares? Reading is reading and no matter what you reading it will make you smarter. It doesn't matter where you are reading the material. Reading it on the internet does not make it less knowledgeable.

This essay, at some points, were extremely confusing to me. The paragraph where he talked about the Chinese and ideograms, I was just totally lost. I honestly only understood like three words in that entire paragraph on the third page. If someone could explain it to me, I would appreciate it.

What I don't understand is why Carr is so against media and the internet? I do understand that technology is almost controlling everyday lives but we choose to do it that way. Computers and the internet are probably the greatest inventions ever invented. Like Carr explained, instead of going to a library and shuffling through thousands of loose papers, one can just go on the internet to research. It saves a lot of hassle and is so much more proficient.

Google is not making us stupid. Neither is the internet. If anything, it is making us smarter because there is so much information available to us.