I engaged in active reading while reading Sam Anderson’s essay, “In Defense of Distraction.” I found that earlier in the semester, I would start very strong in my annotations, but then lose stamina very quickly, and my annotations would get worse as the essay went on. For this essay, I made sure that when I felt myself start to get distracted or when I would start to feel myself start to blankly stare at the paper instead of actually comprehending it, I would take a break and do something to reset my brain, and then I would be able to fully comprehend and think critically about the words I was reading. I made sure to have goals in mind while I was reading so that I would have something to “hunt” for in order to keep me engaged. Some of my goals were to look for places where Anderson was making similar/opposing points to other texts we read, like Turkle or Carr, and I also looked for places where I agreed or disagreed with Anderson, and I would add a little blurb about why I felt the way I felt. I was also on the lookout for good-length passages that could potentially be good quotes, so that when it was time to write my essay, I didn’t have to waste time trying to pick out good passages, as I already had some marked up. Being distracted by my phone was something that I really struggled with when working with past essays, so for this essay, I made sure I put my phone across the room from me while I read this essay, so that when I did feel the urge to check my phone, it would be easier to ignore it. In the corresponding journal to this essay, journal 15, I chose a passage that I agreed with in order to help me develop a potential thesis. This passage helped me find where I placed myself into this conversation about technology and helped me in the future when I was adding my personal experience into project 2. The second passage I chose was something that I had some disagreement with, and I ended up using it as a quote in project 2. This passage opened the avenue of adding a “naysayer” or counterargument perspective, and when it was time to write my essay, it added a lot of depth into my project 2.
