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McNeely 1

David McNeely WR121/MacLennan 1/26/18 Question at Issue Essay Does Easy Internet Access Enhance Everyday Problem-solving Skills? My question at issue was developed over a relatively short time period. After lightly analyzing the Carr and Thompson articles, I attempted to take a shared aspect from each writing and personalize it. Since computers and the internet are closely related to one another, and discussed in both articles, I decided to derive a more individual topic for myself based on these sectors. In general, I believe I am somewhat proficient at problem solving; therefore, I thought it would be interesting to create a question at issue that directly addresses this idea. Similarly, I greatly appreciate self-awareness and self-improvement, so I developed my question at issue into one that would allow me to analyze myself and apply my findings to my own life, after the fact. I believe this particular question is relevant to any person who uses the internet on a regular basis. If one’s own problem-solving skills were to deteriorate due to a single, definite factor, it would seem wise to attempt to mitigate this issue through the subtraction or alteration of the identified factor. In this case, I will explore the idea that using the internet to find quick and easy solutions to problems that might otherwise be solved through a little critical thinking might be a direct contributor to a lack of mental acuity. While it is not likely that someone would entirely eliminate the internet from their lives because he or she can no longer problem solve as efficiently as he or she was once able to do so, I hope that my discussions will have the potential to sway one to attempt to rely less on the internet for easy answers.

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Since my question at issue is a yes or no question, there are only two ways that it can be answered. I will discuss the affirmative response to the question first. If one were to agree that easy internet access enhances everyday problem-solving skills, he or she may defend this assertion with anecdotal evidence that general populations of people are smarter, on average, than they were fifty years ago. He or she could then conceivably attribute the impetus of this trend as the internet. Similarly, one might defend this statement with the logical reasoning that an exposure to mass amounts of information (as found on the internet) over time gives a person many different avenues of approach for problem solving. This viewpoint has several potential counter arguments, however. If one were to take the stance that easy internet access does not enhance everyday problem-solving skills, he or she may take several different argumentative standpoints against the question at issue. For example, one might argue that when a person knows they have the ability to search the answer for or advice on just about any obstacle they may face in their daily lives, they will take the easy route and find a good answer on the internet in just a few seconds, as compared to taking more of their time to think out the problem for themselves and personally experiment with a solution. Initially, I see this viewpoint as lacking the logical standing that the affirmative stance on the question maintains; however, my view may change during further analysis of the topic. In their essential natures, I believe that the Carr article implies that internet/computer use inhibits critical thinking, and the Thompson article implies that internet/computer use enhances critical thinking. Therefore, if Carr were to answer this question at issue, he would likely say that easy internet access does not enhance everyday problem-solving skills, justifying this answer with anecdotal evidence from his contemporaries as well as quantitative data from his cited

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university studies on focus and the amount of time people spend reading. However, if Thompson were to answer this question, he would likely say that easy internet access does enhance everyday problem-solving skills, using the implementation of computers into international chess tournaments as justification. To conclude, I think I am going to pursue the stance that easy internet access does enhance everyday problem-solving skills because I feel it has the stronger logical and evidencebased bearing. However, this stance may change after more in-depth thought. This stance’s strongest evidence seems to be the chess tournament example from Thompson’s article and anecdotal evidence from my own life. On the other hand, this stance’s greatest counterargument seems to be the decreased attention span discussed in Carr’s article and the fact that focus is a major component of effective and efficient problem solving....