Stupid? No. Changed? Yes.

As I read Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, I found myself feeling the very way he talks about his own feelings. Carr sees himself and his mind beginning to change because of the way that we now look for and receive information: from the Internet. Carr believes that his ability to read and think deeply has most definitely been affected by the Internet and I must say that I agree. As a child, teenager and young adult, I was a voracious reader. I would read books in a day and sometimes 3-5 a week. I loved when I could be challenged by the material and often sought out books that did so. Nowadays, my story mirrors Mr. Carr’s. I cannot focus on long articles (even this one!) and tend to skim more than I really read. I struggle to read critically and absorb the serious reading I once used to. I just don’t read or think that way anymore. Carr shows us how this has happened and explains that because reading is not natural to humans and we spend much more time online rather than in a traditional library setting, that this is bound to keep happening to us. Our way of thinking has changed. We look for and take in information in a new way so we’re bound to think in a new way as well. Who’s to say whether we were better off then or now, but one thing is certain, change is bound to happen and one can either embrace it or stay behind. -Susanne Makosky