Reading Response #3: The Owl Has Flown.

Ever since the bad points of modern technology have started coming to the surface, people have begun to argue whether or not it has become more of a benefit or a hindrance to our culture and education. In my in-class essay regarding this argument about technology, I stated many different points in favor of technology and how it positively impacts us. Among these, I mentioned the fact that the internet has changed the way we find information and keep it, and the fact that in reality, good prose can happen anywhere if it’s practiced correctly. I also made the point that technology gives us access to everything worldwide, people, places, anything and gives us a knowledge base.

In his essay, “The Owl Has Flown, ” Birkerts maintains that we are “Inundated by perspectives, by lateral vistas of information that stretch endlessly in every direction, we no longer accept the possibility of assembling a complete picture” [Birkerts, p. 32].

The essence of Birkerts’ argument is that because of all the information we are in the midst of every day, we aren’t getting any the wiser or discovering new truths about the human existence, because of all of the information we are submerged in . In this way he is also saying that there is just too many things to take in horizontally. Before internet came around, knowledge was built vertically more often. Philosophers built upon one another’s works. They tried their hardest to build towards truth and wisdom. Nowadays, what with the internet [which is just a continuing stream of “lateral vistas”], we’re engulfed in a mess of facts, data, incomplete information, and our knowledge of truths has become tarnished by non-experts publishing opinions on random topics.

When he claims this, he definitely challenged my perspective and makes a good point about the depth of reception and comprehension that is involved in information that floods society. Although, we learn a lot through being worldly and using the internet, we seldom get the opportunity to study one topic in a less shallow way and end up retaining random facts that could be used in Jeopardy, rather than being learned thoroughly about an idea or topic or even getting the chance to create and change our perspective.