The Yellow Wallpaper, by Gilman

    In this short story, the narrator is a woman who's husband is very cruel to her and manages everything that she does. He does not allow her to do most anything. He locks the woman in a room, and in that room there is nothing other than the yellow wallpaper on the walls. As the story goes on, the woman seems to become more and more insane. She talks of the yellow wallpaper in ways that show her fascination with it. In the end of the story she imagines that there are other women like her crawling around in the wallpaper, and she even comes to the conclusion that she is one of them. At the end, she will not leave the room when she is supposed to leave.

    This story shows how the women of this time period were treated. The husband believes that his wife is going through a sort of temporary depression, so he doesn't allow her to do anything. He puts her in this room and she even has to hide her journal from him. She descends into insanity, due to the lack of things to do or even think about. It shows that the men of this era were cruel to the woman and caused more harm than they did help. 

    Why would the husband think that things like not seeing her child would help her with her depression?

"Criticism and Fiction" by Howells

     In this excerpt from "Criticism and Fiction", Howells talks about the writing of realists, and also about Jane Austen. He talks of some of the criticism her writing and writings like it have taken, but he says that realistic writings of nature are beautiful, and that fictional writings should be criticized instead. He talks about how the writers thought that they were better than the realist writings for using the characters in certain ways to do certain things, but he believes that it is harder to write a realistic story, and if it is done, then the story will be much better. He says that he has started to see a recovery in England from all the fictional writing that has happened.
     One thing he says is that the men have been trained to think that whatever they like is good, and no longer to think in the opposite order (in that we no longer like what is good, we say it is good because we like it). This relates to us still today. People will be offended, shocked, and etc if you don't appreciate what they like. People expect other people to like what they like and dislike what they dislike, not to like what is good and dislike what is bad.
   Why is fictional writing "bad"?

"Liking is for Cowards, Go for What Hurts." Jon Franzen

    This essay is about the possible threat that technology poses on true love. Franzen seems to believe that technology is changing our view of, thoughts about, and even love itself. He talks about how technology is so fast now-a-days and how people can get what they want immediately. He brings up the idea of "the next big thing", meaning that even if one piece of technology is sufficient , if another comes out that seems more advanced, many people will buy it because it is more appealing. This goes against love, because it shows people trying to find the perfect match, but there truly is no such thing as a perfect match. If people begin to treat love the same as technology, then love will be in danger at all times.
   I do not believe that what Franzen is arguing is correct. Things that come from technology may be harmful to love, but not the technology itself. However, people do not treat their loved ones the way he describes in this article. He talks about how we just toss aside old phones in this day for a newer and better one. However, people now-a-days do that no more than they did many years ago, if not less. People may find someone better, and go with them, but it is not as common as with phones.
   How exactly does the title relate to his argument?

"Get Smarter", Jamais Cascio

   In this article, Jamais Cascio is arguing his belief that people are actually getting smarter due to modern technology, as opposed to Carr's belief that technology is making us stupid. Cascio talks about the process of intelligence augmentation, which is the adaptation of people to modern technology as it gets faster and more advanced. He describes this process as almost a form of evolution. He also believes that the media is making us smarter, because it is giving us the ability to think quickly enough to suddenly change topics and stay highly focused on each topic.
   Jamais Cascio's belief that technology is making us smarter instead of less intelligent seems more plausible than the idea that it is making us stupid. Being able to change topics rapidly shows the speed of the mind, and that we are able to think through things quickly. If you look at people today, the people who have the most trouble with technology are older people. A child learns quickly, while an old man may never understand how to check a computer. This is because the child's brain is less developed and can "adapt" to the use of a computer, while an old person cannot easily adapt.
  Is this essay a direct response to "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"?