Readind Response #3: The Owl Has Flown

In the passage “The Owl Has Flown” written by Sven Birkerts, he stresses how depth, wisdom and resonance are slipping into extinction as the proliferation of technology increases exponentially. In this generation, more and more people skim or glance through texts and readings just to get the short summaries of what they just read, instead of taking the time to understand the true meaning behind it. Because of technology rising at an exponential rate, we as a nation have access to numerous sources with a click of a button, as opposed to long ago when sources were limited and people took the time to truly understand what they were reading and not just collecting the facts they needed. Birkerts is reminding us that knowledge is always good, but we must not fail to remember to look over the facts and figures and gain wisdom from it and essentially find the depth underneath. What Birkerts is trying to consider to the readers, is that we are lacking the depth, wisdom and resonance behind reading and how much of it is of value and impact in our lives. He is also saying that we should direct more of our attention to this issue and how we should not lose the depth, wisdom, and resonance we once had.
In his writing Birkerts’ claims,” Newspapers, magazines, brochures, advertisements, and labels surround us everywhere—surround us, indeed, to the point of having turned our waking environment into a palimpsest of texts to be read, glanced at, or ignored”…“As we now found ourselves at a cultural watershed—as the fundamental process of transmitting information is shifting from mechanical to circuit-driven, from page to screen.” Birkerts argues is that because of the age of technology, we are open to countless sources surrounding us, but all we do is just take a quick glimpse or read a piece from the writing and just finish it as quickly as possible. What he also emphasizes, that because of the numerous sources at our fingertips we tend to look for more information through the internet than through books, magazines, newspapers, etc. compared to long ago when sources were so limited to people to use.
This passage is claiming that we are getting lazy of reading large articles or passages and that we are prone to just getting the reading done by saying, “If I just read the gist or summary of the text, I can fully understand what the whole paper is about”, but that is not the case. This is where Birkerts is trying to advocate us not to do. Because of our laziness in reading and wanting to take shortcuts, he also points out our lack in depth, wisdom and resonance we once had a long time ago. This passage is important because I believe you can’t quite understand something unless you fully understand the whole piece instead of getting little bits and pieces. If I didn’t take the time to understand a text or reading, I would probably be unclear about what the author is claiming in their writing and see that there is so much depth, wisdom, and resonance behind their writing.
What Birkerts acknowledges in his writing is true of what Robert Scholes wrote in “Reading a Video Text” with the example of the Budweiser commercial. Scholes mentions how the commercial is trying to sell beer by giving the viewer images of a black man becoming an umpire, how he is given a test near the end of the commercial and receiving a reward for making the right decision in his test. Based on what Birkerts wrote, at first hand, many people will see this as a commercial selling beer, but if you took what Birkerts mentioned and understand the commercial more, the view can clearly see that not only has the commercial selling Budweiser beer, but they show the myth of America (The American Dream) and how the system works.