"Is
Google Making Us Stupid?”
Is Google making us stupid? It seems that once a new
technology has developed, that is used to make our lives easier, someone argues
how it is harmful to the population. I feel like everyone said that the
television was making everyone stupid because it took time away from those who
would read books. So automatically everyone is saying that the internet is
making all of us stupid. However, I am not sure if Google is making us stupid
but is just changing the way we think.
According to Maciak, technology is not making us stupid
because we have been getting progressively smarter as a species. The internet
has contributed to our ability to process much more information, and do things
at a rapid pace. With all these new technologies coming out, we also are able
to adapt to changes much better than our ancestors. Multitasking is a technique
that we excel at. An excerpt from Lauren Miller’s column supports these claims:
IQ
tests have to be regularly updated to make them harder; otherwise the average
score would have climbed 3 percent per decade since the early 1930s. (The
average score is supposed to remain at a constant 100 points.) And IQ measures
problem-solving ability, rather than sheer data retained, which has grown even
faster over the same interval. Each of us knows many more people and facts than
our counterparts of 100 years ago; it’s just that the importance of those
people and facts remains somewhat uncertain. Knowing a little bit about Lindsay
Lohan and Simon Cowell (two people I recognize despite having no active
interest in either one) can’t really be equated with knowing a bit about Marie
Curie or Lord Mountbatten. We have more information, but it isn’t necessarily
more valuable information.
On the other hand, Nicholas Carr argues that
Google is making us stupid. Today, people have lost the ability to read
a long article. Instead, individuals will skim the article to see if it
pertains to what they are looking for. If not they will click on another
article that Google has found. Also, some articles found on Google will have a
short synopsis describing the content of the article or abstracts will be given
of a journal article. This can save a person time by allowing them to read the
summary instead of the entire article to see if it applies to their research. It
seems that what Google is doing, instead of us having to read pages and pages
of books, encyclopedias and articles, is making our lives easier by saving us
time. I would not necessarily say that it is making us stupid.
One
point mentioned in this article was how distracting the Internet/Google is. I am willing to say that I get distracted very
easily, especially when companies post their advertisements or I get bored of
doing my school work and go to check my Facebook or email. After reading two pages
of this article, I was already distracted and opened a new browser to check my
Facebook. And when I went back to read the article, I started to read the
paragraph that stated: “They typically read no more than one or two pages of an
article or book before they would ‘bounce’ out to another site.” And that is exactly what I had done. When I am
really interested in a topic I have the ability to sit and read the article all
the way through with no interruptions. If I set my mind to it, or it’s an
interesting read, I can make sure I do not get distracted. But in the end, I
love multitasking. When I am trying to complete my homework, I almost always
have Facebook chat open, my music playing, and a game of solitaire going. As
said in Carr’s argument, we are being reprogrammed by the Internet, but I do
not think it is making us stupid.
Maciak, Luke. "Did the Internet Shorten Your
Attention Span? | Terminally Incoherent."Terminally Incoherent | I Will Not Fix Your Computer. 7 July 2009. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2009/07/07/did-the-internet-shorten-your-attention-span/>.
Miller, Laura. "Why Can't We Concentrate? -
Twitter." Salon.com. 29 Apr. 2009.
Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.salon.com/2009/04/29/rapt/>.
When it comes to reading this article, I too became very disinterested after reading only a couple of pages. While I believe original copies of work are still out there on the internet why waste the time if you can find a slimmed version of it? I also agree that it is easier to become distracted with the many features technology offers. Maybe not making us "stupid" but definitely lazy. At the end of the day it is upon us whether or not we want to read full documents and some still do. HOwever as we age so does technology, making me only think how can we slim down the information more so at the point it is already at.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do not totally agree with your stance on the article, I do believe that this is a very interesting way to look at the issue. I do agree that the internet has allowed us to process information at higher, faster level. However, I feel like this has allowed us to become lazier by not exercising our brain to take the time and read a book instead of get the summary from google. However, I also do think you had a great response to the article. Great Review!
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