Mass media and the internet have caused people’s attention spans to get shorter. However, the overall effect has been positive: while people are less able to focus on one thing, they more than make up for it with an enhanced ability to sort through large quantities of information and find what’s important.
As mass media and the internet becomes more pervasive in people's daily lives, they have become indispensable tools for learning new things and finding information. On the other hand, due to the variety of entertainment they can offer, they are also criticized for creating distractions which make people's attention spans shorter. The pros and cons of mass media and the internet are not unrecognizable, but the excessive reliance on these tools in today's world is leaning more towards being harmful rather than beneficial.
Admittedly, the media and the internet offer a limitless amount of information, and people today are developing skills to find the most essential information among a pile of unnecessary data. People no longer have to read through encyclopedias to find the information they want; with a click of a finger they are given access to all sorts of data from around the world. Teaching young children how to utilize the internet and various types of mass media has become an essential course in school curricula. It has obviated the need for people to concentrate on huge text books to find information, once they master the skill of sifting through information vigilantly. In this way, it can be said that mass media and the internet have been advantageous for people.
However, as much as these tools offer countless useful information for people, it also offers excessive amounts of distractions, which has caused people's attention spans to get shorter. Many parents of young kids today claim that their children suffer from ADHD, an illness which causes a lack of concentration. Since there are so many fun things to do and see on TV and the internet, children tend to refrain from studying and do not focus in school. For parents it is difficult for them to obstinately maintain their position against their own children, so the vicious circle keeps continuing. This example shows that mass media and the internet have been harmful rather than beneficial overall.
Also, the value of retaining a sufficient amount of attention span should be valued over the ability to sort through large quantities of information. The latter cannot make up for the lack of ability in the former, because the former is precedes in its importance for people when they are studying or working. It is quite often the case that the information people want do not necessarily pop up on the first page of the search results they get. They find themselves looking at numerous pages of web sources, which means that if they are not concentrating on what they are doing, they could wind up looking at redundant pages of information. Without acknowledging that they are reading the same information twice, it could take them double or triple the time that they would have originally spent if they were focused in what they're doing. For studying or working, it usually takes a lot of time for people to find the most adequate information, so having a long attention span is crucial.
In conclusion, even though mass media and the internet have led people to build their competitiveness in sorting through enormous amounts of information, they have caused a shorter attention span in people, making them more disadvantageous than advantageous. Maintaining a longer attention span should be valued over the ability to search for more information.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
flaws:
this topic is not about the advantages or disadvantages of Mass media and the internet, but about:
whether shorter attention spans have positive effects or not.
see a sample essay:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-issue-task-essays/mass-media-and-intern…
---------------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 554 350
No. of Characters: 2741 1500
No. of Different Words: 256 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.852 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.948 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.718 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 186 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 136 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.381 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.769 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.524 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.531 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.097 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... being harmful rather than beneficial. Admittedly, the media and the internet o...
^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...net have been advantageous for people. However, as much as these tools offer co...
^^
Line 3, column 210, Rule ID: AGREEMENT_SENT_START[3]
Message: You should probably use 'kid'.
Suggestion: kid
...s to get shorter. Many parents of young kids today claim that their children suffer ...
^^^^
Line 4, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...armful rather than beneficial overall. Also, the value of retaining a sufficien...
^^
Line 4, column 828, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: they're
...ally spent if they were focused in what theyre doing. For studying or working, it usua...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ving a long attention span is crucial. In conclusion, even though mass media an...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, look, so, as to, in conclusion, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.5258426966 108% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.4196629213 72% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 14.8657303371 114% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 11.3162921348 106% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 33.0505617978 130% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 73.0 58.6224719101 125% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 12.9106741573 194% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2790.0 2235.4752809 125% => OK
No of words: 553.0 442.535393258 125% => OK
Chars per words: 5.0452079566 5.05705443957 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84932490483 4.55969084622 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.81062225515 2.79657885939 101% => OK
Unique words: 266.0 215.323595506 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.481012658228 0.4932671777 98% => OK
syllable_count: 851.4 704.065955056 121% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59117977528 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 6.24550561798 192% => OK
Article: 5.0 4.99550561798 100% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 3.10617977528 161% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.77640449438 113% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.38483146067 137% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 20.2370786517 104% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 23.0359550562 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.5849755286 60.3974514979 62% => OK
Chars per sentence: 132.857142857 118.986275619 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.3333333333 23.4991977007 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.80952380952 5.21951772744 73% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 7.80617977528 77% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 10.2758426966 127% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 5.13820224719 78% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.83258426966 83% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.410803824366 0.243740707755 169% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.129889699126 0.0831039109588 156% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0657747161933 0.0758088955206 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.257305435682 0.150359130593 171% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0478428488404 0.0667264976115 72% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.5 14.1392134831 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.55 48.8420337079 110% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.1743820225 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.31 12.1639044944 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.15 8.38706741573 97% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 100.480337079 112% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 11.8971910112 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.2143820225 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.7820224719 110% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.