Model Summary
Using your own words as far as possible, summarise how the Internet is affecting our cognitive abilities and how we can manage its effects. Use only information from Paragraphs 3 to 5 of Text 4.
Your summary must be in complete sentences (not note form). It must not be longer than 80 words (not counting the words given to help you begin).
The Internet has resulted in us (…)
Unfortunately, that boon comes at a price. A recently published study of online research habits suggests that we may indeed be in the midst of a seismic shift in the way we read and think. Researchers found that people who use the Internet for research exhibit “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited. Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University, worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net — a style that prioritises efficiency — may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, our ability to make rich mental connections remains largely disengaged.
Studies and personal anecdotes alike suggest that our brains are remarkably plastic,meaning they can be reshaped by our experiences. Extensive use of the Internet appears to be rewiring our brains and having far-reaching effects on cognition. The Internet has now become our map, our clock, our calculator, and our TV. As a result, our attention is scattered and our concentration diffused. For example, a new Instagram notification may pop up as we’re glancing at headlines on a newspaper’s site, causing us to immediately forget why we wanted to read in the first place.
How can we then reclaim our ability to think deeply? The solution: delay the instant gratification of online knowledge and first seek out the wisdom within ourselves. Let’s say you’re curious about where good ideas come from. Instead of jumping on Google right away, think about the question first on your own. Search inside your own mind, mine it for relevant ideas, and jot them down. After you’ve gone deeper on a question by thinking about it yourself, turn to reading what others have written about it. But don’t pause your own thinking. Underlining or highlighting passages in what you read isn’t enough. It’s also not enough to ask, “What does the author think?” You need to also ask, “What do I think? Where do I agree with what I’m reading? Where do I disagree?”
Original text source: “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicolas Carr and “How to reclaim deep thinking: Ditch Google, Trust Yourself” by Ozan Varol (provided by school)
The Internet has resulted in us jumping across multiple sources jumping across multiple sources with infrequent subsequent revisits, thus reducing deep-reading ability and the formation of deep mental links. Our cognition is changed by extensive internet usage, fragmenting our attention span. However, these effects can be managed by prolonging the immediate satisfaction of online information. We can ponder over related concepts internally before exploring the views of others. Yet, we should continue to explore. Beyond underlining or highlighting passages, we should also critically evaluate opinions presented.
(11 content points, 80 words)
Summary Points
| No. | From Passage | Rephrased |
| A: How the Internet is affecting our cognitive abilities | ||
| 1 | people who use the Internet for research exhibit “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited | Jumping across multiple sources with infrequent subsequent revisits, Start with the first point – describing the “skimming behaviour”. The rest of the point can be discarded.Hopping from one source to another >> jumping across multiple sourcesRarely returning to an already-visited source >> infrequent subsequent revisits/engagementNote about “rarely” >> I feel “without” is unlikely to be accepted. You need to convey the idea of “low frequency”, not “absolutely zero”. |
| 2 | The style of reading promoted by the Net — a style that prioritises efficiency — may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged (…) | Therefore/thus reducing deep-reading ability Keep this one simple. Weakening our capacity >> reducing (deep-reading) abilityIt pays to be very “situationally aware”. That is, rather than treat every point as a standalone monolith, understand how this point contributes to the whole paragraph.This is about the negative effects of Internet use. Now realise that the previous point shared the same subject. This means you can join them in the same sentence. |
| 3 | When we read online, our ability to make rich mental connections remains largely disengaged. | (and) the formation of deep mental linksThe subject here is about reading online – on the internet. We can join this to the previous point, which was also about reading online and its effects. Use the connector “and” to combine these two points about the effects of internet on cognition. In short, this sentence will say: The internet has resulted in us (1) skimming through multiple sources without revisiting them,therefore (2) reducing deep reading ability and (3) the formation of deep mental links. |
| 4 | Extensive use of the Internetappears to be rewiring our brains and having far-reaching effects on cognition. | Our cognition is changed by extensive Internet usage Make “cognition” the subject. Then explain the action/state with the verb and object “is changed” and explain the cause of the change (“extensive internet use”) |
| 5 | our attention is scattered and our concentration diffused. | Scattering/Diffusing/Fragmenting our attention spanWe continue this point right off the previous point. This part repeats the main idea that our attention and concentration are lessened/broken into small “pieces” by the Internet. We can therefore condense this.Change “scattered” or “diffused” to its gerund form >> verb used as noun. We will get “scattering” or “diffusing”. You can opt to use these words directly, or substitute with a totally new word. Here, I used “fragmenting”.The final full sentence will read, “Our cognition is changed by extensive internet usage, fragmenting our attention span.” |
| B: How we can manage the effects (of the Internet affecting cognitive abilities) Signpost/transition to next half of summary: However, these effects can be managed by (…) | ||
| 6 | delay the instant gratification of online knowledge | Prolonging the immediate satisfaction of online information.Swap relevant synonyms.Delay >> prolongInstant gratification >> immediate satisfaction |
| 7 | Search inside your own mind, mineit for relevant ideas, and jot them down | We can ponder over related concepts internallyA bit of a “freewheeling” summarisation; extract just the main idea of “search inside your own mind (for) relevant ideas” |
| 8 | After you’ve gone deeper on a question by thinking about it yourself, turn to reading what others have written about it. | Before exploring the views of others.The front part about “after thinking about a question yourself” is basically what one should do first. Only after this action is done do we see what others have written about the same thing. Use “before” to convey that this idea is related to the previous point.. |
| 9 | But don’t pause your own thinking | Yet, we should continue to reflect/ponder/explore.Make use of similar meanings to help you rephrase; i.e. “don’t pause” = “to continue” |
| 10 | Underlining or highlighting passages in what you read isn’t enough. | Beyond underlining or highlighting passages,Set up that we should go further than the stated actions with the conjunctive adverb “beyond”. |
| 11 | You need to also ask, “What do I think? Where do I agree with what I’m reading? Where do I disagree?” | We should also critically evaluate opinionspresented (to us).The dialogue needs to be melted down into its fundamental point – that we should consider as many possible views as we can about a given topic. |