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.
The claim provided states that the overall effect of mass media and the internet on people has been positive. Athough, mass media and the internet have caused attention spans to get shorter, they have enhanced people's ability to sort through large quantities of information and find what's important. The impact of mass media and internet on people has been analysed only through two lens, the impact on attention spans and processing abilities of people. While there are a number of other psychological and emotional areas that get impact, just based on the two factors considered in the claim, I disagree that the overall effect has been positive.
Mass media and the internet provide a plethora of information on an ongoing basis to the viewers. Most of these media agencies benefit based on the viewership that they garner. Hence, they make sure to share information as soon as they can, before any other agency or channel covers it. In this process, most of the information is headlined or structured in a way that it entices the audience. Many a times they overlook the process of validating the information to make sure that the information shared is accurate or not.
There are various sources of obtaining this information such as television and endless number of social media sites. The cost of accessing these social media websites is almost nil, most social media websites just need you to have an internet connect, login via the internet connection and pay no additional charges. This makes access to all the information extremely simple for anyone and everyone. Most of these sites have interfaces that ensure that the users are hooked to the website. Example, Facebook the concept of like and share makes sure that your mind is constantly caught up in the site even when you are off it. Also, the information can be easily circulated given the nature of the apps or websites, making more and more people a part of this chain. For example, it is extremely easy to share a Whatsapp message from one group to another, without really validating it.
As people are constantly a part of this reading and sharing process and due to the vast amounts of information that is being made available to them every second, their mind is constantly cluttered. They cannot focus at the task at hand, they do not have the time or the capacity to interpret the information they just accesses. Their mind keeps jumping from one piece of information to another. The reduction is attention spans of people is an issue that is being discussed on an ongoing basis. Reduced attention spans have affected personal and professional lives of people in deleterious ways. Various methods and means to cope up with this issue are being discussed and implemented such as phones now have detox mode that helps people switch off for a set period of time, use of pomodoro techniques to improve focus etc.
I do not agree that the ability of people to sort through large quantities of information and find out what is more important has improved to an extent that we may consider the overall effects of the internet positive. People can classify information as important based on the frequency of them seeing a piece of information, based on the extent to which a particular issue is being discussed or highlighted, based on what is easily accessible and so on. The recommendation features of websites are built in a way that people can be forced to believe that a certain piece of information is important, even though that may not be true. Hence, these methods of sorting information may be incorrect and may contribute to enhancing the ability of sorting and processing information for humans.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 284, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: what's
...arge quantities of information and find whats important. The impact of mass media and...
^^^^^
Line 1, column 384, Rule ID: CD_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun 'lens' seems to be countable, so consider using: 'lenses'.
Suggestion: lenses
...ople has been analysed only through two lens, the impact on attention spans and proc...
^^^^
Line 1, column 584, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...t based on the two factors considered in the claim, I disagree that the overall e...
^^
Line 3, column 400, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a time' or simply 'times'?
Suggestion: a time; times
... way that it entices the audience. Many a times they overlook the process of validating...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 167, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...of accessing these social media websites is almost nil, most social media website...
^^
Line 7, column 761, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
... that helps people switch off for a set period of time, use of pomodoro techniques to improve ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 696, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... of sorting information may be incorrect and may contribute to enhancing the abil...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, hence, if, look, may, really, second, so, while, for example, such as, what is more
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.5258426966 164% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.4196629213 81% => OK
Conjunction : 27.0 14.8657303371 182% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 11.3162921348 168% => OK
Pronoun: 50.0 33.0505617978 151% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 86.0 58.6224719101 147% => OK
Nominalization: 26.0 12.9106741573 201% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3062.0 2235.4752809 137% => OK
No of words: 625.0 442.535393258 141% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.8992 5.05705443957 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.0 4.55969084622 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6572209242 2.79657885939 95% => OK
Unique words: 270.0 215.323595506 125% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.432 0.4932671777 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 986.4 704.065955056 140% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 6.24550561798 176% => OK
Article: 7.0 4.99550561798 140% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.77640449438 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.38483146067 68% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 20.2370786517 128% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 23.0359550562 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.6777229342 60.3974514979 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.769230769 118.986275619 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.0384615385 23.4991977007 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.61538461538 5.21951772744 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 7.80617977528 90% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 18.0 10.2758426966 175% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 5.13820224719 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.355021430359 0.243740707755 146% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.102919263934 0.0831039109588 124% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0938233892246 0.0758088955206 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.205778961741 0.150359130593 137% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.118124421607 0.0667264976115 177% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.7 14.1392134831 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.8420337079 96% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.1743820225 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.44 12.1639044944 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.29 8.38706741573 99% => OK
difficult_words: 137.0 100.480337079 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 11.8971910112 122% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.2143820225 103% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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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.