What Do You Choose To Forget?

After listening to Lisa Jardine's podcast "Information Overload" I still agree with my first stance about the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The internet has done a lot for our generation over the years, and I believe that because this information is available to us more easily, it makes us more lazy. (Myself included.) Jardine starts off her podcast by talking about Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (Or Sorcer's Stone). More specifically when Harry was wearing the invisibility cloak to have access to the restricted section of the library. And how a year later, the founders of Google launched their search engine site. I am guessing this was a coincidence, but it's crazy how fast we are able to access websites on anything. There is this comic I found on StumpleUpon talking about life before Google. I am sure you all know what StumpleUpon is, but if you don't I would recommend that you don't go on it because it can take up a lot of your time, without you realizing it. Here it is:

I'm not buying it

The perception that increased
internet use leads to a decrease in attention span is a common one by
contemporary technology theorists. However, there is little to prove this and
ultimately the ill effects of extensive internet use on the brain are being dramatized
like in Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
The main fault in the article is it
lacks evidence to support his claims. For example, he begins talking about how
he feels his attention span is waning because he can feel it in his own head.
Everyone knows his or her bodies to a certain extent, but everyone also feels
tired or uninterested at times while reading long blocks of text. Feeling
yourself get disinterested sometimes is not irrefutable evidence that there is
a dramatic psychological change on a large scale.
When Carr does try to use studies
and social developments as proof, his evidence does not directly correlate to
the issue. He cites theorists like Marshall McLuhan, Joseph Weizenbaum, Alan
Turig and Friedrich Nietzsche. These individuals are not lacking of
credentials. However, each of them worked at a time predating widespread
internet use. Therefore, there work was not done with the intent of evaluating
attention span in the “digital generation.” In fact, some of the studies Carr
sites barely seem to have any relevance to the issue at all. Turig’s study was
mentioned in Carr’s article as a theory declaring how computers could
eventually take over for all other machines. This may be true, even if the
study was done when computers were just a theoretical construct at the time,
but it does not address the issue of whether computers are making us stupid.
Carr failed to link the study to his position on attention span or any other
psychological effect computers have on peoples’ brains.
The article also fails to address,
even if there were changes in peoples’ brains because of the internet, if those
changes are bad. Fear of technology is
nothing new. In When Old Technologies
Were New by Carolyn Marvin, Marvin discusses how when electricity was first
invented there was a backlash about the potential negative consequences. “Experts,
and not only experts, were content to believe that the form in which the world
offered itself was the best and most natural one.” Therefore, anxiety over large
scale changes, such as the implementation of electricity into everyday life and
more widespread use of the internet, has always been common in technological
development.
In conclusion, studies should and
probably are being done to prove the credibility of claims like Carr’s that
suggest changes in the brain because of internet use. However, until such
scientific evidence exists, it is impossible to be conclusive on the issue.
Carr uses many studies, but most are loosely related to the issue of the internet.
When discussing the internet, Carr’s only evidence is what he feels inside his
own head. Therefore, I have trouble believing his position in “Is Google Making
Us Stupid?”

Marvin,
Carolyn. When Old Technologies Were New. “Epilogue.” 1988.

Phantom Vibration Syndrome

            Before reading Is Google Making Us Stupid?, these ideas regarding technology

and the functions of the brain never crossed my mind. Call me a hypochondriac, but after

reading this article, I feel the precisely the same way as the author.
   
            It really does make sense. Our world has become increasingly surrounded by

technology as a means of both convenience and subsistence. The author, however,

focuses on how the convenience of technology has a correlation with the actual functions

of our brain. When writing was invented, we began to get lazy because we could rely on

written material, along with Google’s ability that allows us to find/read/do anything in

seconds.

             Technology has created a fast-paced society in which we have become

accustomed to completing tasks immediately. If we send an email we expect to have a

reply in a relatively quick manner. We expect Google to have pertinent results in

seconds. If we receive a text, our friends expect to have an answer. As the author

suggested in the article, this has created a sense of anxiety and inability to focus. There

are so many avenues for information and communication that our minds attempt to keep

on top of all of them, simultaneously.

             Personally, I can relate to this slight anxiety with what some have called

“phantom vibration syndrome.” It is the feeling that your cell phone is vibrating in your

pocket, when in reality, you have not received a text or a call. I suspect that I am not the

only one in class to have experienced this. In my opinion, I believe it can be attributed to

our brain’s need to be quick and efficient, just like Google and just like the assembly line.

If I feel that my phone is vibrating, I have to answer right away, just like my friends and

family expect!



Haupt, Angela. "Good Vibrations? Bad? None at all?." USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-06-12-cellphones_N.htm.

What we lost along the way...

The role of quick-stream media has become more prevalent in our years as students. After reading this article I can’t help but ask myself have I been facing the same issues?

Hell yes.

I believe with our upbringing this generation is finding a little easier to manage an academic life with

From Human Face to Computer Screen

            The article, by Nicholas Carr, entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” made me really sad and almost mournful of what our world has become. People have completely stopped reading—yes, have terminated the use of—books, Books! My favorite childhood pastime, of only 10-15 years ago, is becoming a figment of historical dust. As Carr suggests, this is all because we want information quickly, without desiring to invest a lot of time in acquiring knowledge.

In the last decade, many questions have emerged regarding the advancement of technology. One of the key concerns is the fact that Generation Y has become so invested in the internet that we no longer think critically nor use a main resource of self-development, each other.

You Know What They Say About A Rolling Stone.

     Occasionally, in polite conversation and serious debate, I like to reference my favorite videogame, Bioshock. That's where the sighs begin. "Oh, he's referencing a video game. Here we go." But the game hit hard, with its sci-fi setting and tales of technology gone wild in ways that a book never could connect for me. I'm a hands-on learner. I like to do with my hands and experience things on my own. The medium is a wonderful tool for grasping the attention of people wired like me, and it's really effective for a lot of people. In a sense, I suppose it works like the web, easier to grasp and keep a hold of.

What is the Web Making Us Into?

              When hearing Nicholas Carr's question; "is Google making us stupid?" some people may disagree, agree, or are somewhere in between. Personally, I strongly agree with Carr's statement. He is opening up a very relevant topic in today's world. Everyone should ask themselves this question and really go beneath the surface of it and think deeply about this subject, being that it effects us greatly.

Don't Be Afraid of Change

Design director of The New York Times Tom Bodkin stated, ‘“Old media have little choice but to play by the new-media rules,’” when explaining the new design of newspapers, a media that seems to be slowly losing ground to smart phones and other modern technologies.

Getting Our Wires Crossed

"Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives—or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts—as the Internet does today. Yet, for all that's been written about the Net, there's been little consideration of how, exactly, it's reprogramming us" (Carr).

Is Google Making us Stupid?

As soon as I read the title of this article, I answered yes to this question. Undoubtedly, over the course of time, things are constantly being re-constructed or edited, to be better or to be more efficient. At what point however, do things become too efficient, to easy? The progress in technology throughout the course of my lifetime alone is baffling. I am not necessarily against this progress, because it has undoubtedly made my life easier. However, I do believe that it has hindered our ability to do things independently. It has become a crutch to lean on. My concern is, what happens when that crutch falls?

            It is very easy to see that the way we do things now, is not the same way that past generations did things. For example, the use of a library has drastically changed. I can remember in elementary school when we learned how to use the card catalog. If you wanted to find a book, then you looked in the appropriate section of the card catalog, got the call number, and found it. Today, I don’t even have to be in a library to get a book that I want. All I have to do is simply access the database from my laptop, and I can download an electronic book instantly. This is just one example of how not necessarily just Google, but the internet itself has replaced the thought process. Instead of finding a card, going to the appropriate shelf, and finding the right book, I can just type it into the internet and it appears.

            Also, this connects directly to reading. In his article, Carr quotes Bruce Friedman who says, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print”, (Carr, 2008). Think about the last time that you actually had to sit down and read something in its entirety, as opposed to skimming through the book or article, or even Googling a summary of that article or book. I too do this quite often. My point is, the internet has clearly replaced our thought process. It can think for us, it can make connections to a book for us, and it can give us an answer in a timely fashion.

            In conclusion, I do think that “Google is Making Us Stupid.” It is great and very convenient to use, and admittedly, I use it every day. My worry is that what would happen if Google wasn’t there anymore? Then we would actually have to read.

Is Google Really Making Us Stupid?!

"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.

Tip of the Iceberg

Tip of the Iceberg

After reading “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Mr. Carr it really made me begin to think about society in general.  The society we live in demands easy access and high speed to get our daily tasks accomplished.  I agree with Mr. Carr’s view on how the Internet has began to make us less intuitive while reading long articles and information, but overall disagree it makes us dumb.

            From personal experience I can relate to many statements Mr. Carr presents.  I know that when I am presented with an email or text of any sort I immediately examine how long it is.  This has come natural for me and many others I feel growing up in our society.  With our generation leading the high-speed era I feel that we no longer take the time to read in depth all the material we are given.  We simply “skim” as Mr. Carr put it to find only the information we are looking for.  It is not that we don’t have the time to read it but even I notice myself becoming less interested in something that may extend over a few paragraphs.  This however does not make us dumb for not reading all of the content.  We are in an age where technology is only getting better by the day so how could we be doing so if we were dumb?  We wouldn’t be able to accomplish these strides in society if we were less intelligent then we used to be. 

            It is now part of our culture to do everything fast paced and in result of that we have shortened everything to mold to our thinking.  We still receive the information we need to understand but in a more condensed manner.  Could it be that we are becoming lazier? Sure, but definitely not dumb.  According to many laziness is evident even in the younger generations says Hillary Karbowski of the Michigan Kalamazoo Gazette (MLive).  We look for the quickest ways to find our information and move on but at the end of the day we have the information we need.  Society demands quickness.  Look at how everything around us is changing.  Google is simply a shortcut to thin out what we do not want and only process the relevant things to us.

            I find Mr. Carr’s argument somewhat contradicting due to the length of his article.  He stated himself that blogs that are several paragraphs long he only skims nowadays.  So why is it that he made his argument pages long? If he knows we are becoming less open to reading page long theories I believe to make his points worth while he would have shortened his article, thus explain our laziness but not our intention to become any less smart.  As a whole we as a society are continuing to stay at the peak of technology, which takes smarts, while we may be lazy we as a society are definitely not “dumb”.

Karbowski, HIllary. "Our Turn: Is Society Becoming Too Lazy?" MLive. MIchigan 
     Kalamazoo Gazzette, n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <http://www.mlive.com/opinion/ 
     kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/02/our_turn_is_our_society_becomi.html>.

The Internet and Intelligence: A Beneficial Relationship?

            In his article titled, ‘Is Google making us stupid?,” Nicholas Carr examines just that. However, before we examine his claims, it seems that a definition of intelligence is needed, to determine whether Google is adversely affecting it. The most common measurement for intelligence is an IQ score. However, IQ is considered a set quantity, and in fact generally has little to do with everyday intelligence. The two other most common measures of intelligence are the capacity for memorization of facts and the ability to analyze, understand, and relate those same facts to each other. These are the facets of intelligence on which I will be focusing.

Is google making us Stupid?

            Is Google making us dumber? Have you ever noticed that when you are on line you always pick the first of second website that they have for you to click on? Or that if Wikipedia is available you normally will read that and get most of the information that you need? On the surfaces you would think that Google would be doing the absolute opposite.

Is technology convenience changing our ideas?

Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” (Carss, 62) This is a great idea which was brainstormed from very intelligent people with great ideas to further technology as a whole.  But when has technology gone too far with changing our ideas of “this blog is too long to read” or “I don’t want to type this paper, it will take forever!” The article “Is Google making you stupid?” really made me step back and think, whoa this could actually be happening to me.  I am a culprit of this theory of thinking a one page blog is too long to read and moving onto the next one.  I also participate in reading just the first few sentences of a paragraph and then moving onto the next source of information.  Many people seem to also find themselves skimming the information they are reading because they feel it is way to long to read in full.  Back in the day, scholars would have to go to the library and read long chapters of books to get information, and now we can just type a few words into a search engine and get a million answers.  But we feel typing these few words into Google and reading a short blip of information is way to much reading.  Mr. Carr’s is completely right when he talks about this skimming problem our generation seems to have these days.  Not only are we missing out on important information, but we are missing learning opportunities for ourselves. “Attitudes affecting college students, preferences for distant learning”, an article about college students being more concerned with grades than their actual learning process as a student to further their life knowledge discusses how technology interferes with learning in the classroom and attitudes towards learning to be a better student. These students admitted to skimming Google sites instead of reading in order to create a better paper to get a better grade. 

Carr’s attitude towards technology is correct and there is evidence to show college students and even adults only skim and do not pay attention to the whole blog in order to just get the technology they need to get their tasks done.  It is crazy how in this generation we feel reading a 4 paragraph blog is too long in order to gather a good amount of information. 

Katz, Y. J. "Attitudes Affecting College Students' Preferences for Distance Learning - Katz - 2002 - Journal of Computer Assisted Learning." Wiley Online Library. 28 Feb. 2002. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.0266-4909.2001.00202.x/full>.