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.

            In July of last year, a team of researchers published a study on the effect of having information readily accessible versus knowing that that same information would not be available after the first introduction to it. Their findings were interesting, to say the least. The researchers found that “we actually remember facts better when we know we won't have ready access to them,” and that “when we are confident that bits of information will be available to us…we are more likely to commit to memory how to access them again,” for example, the keyword used to find it originally or the folder we stored it in (Healy 1). This does not mean, however, that knowing that we have access to any piece of information at any time through Google is making us less able to remember things. In fact, we us Google today like we would have used co-workers, family members and friends in the past, with “certain individuals have always been the repositories of specific categories of information,” allowing others to remember other types of information through knowing that that specific person would always be available to ask about their category, much the same way oral history works (Healy 1).

            Just because our minds have adapted to having constant access to vast amounts of information does not mean that we as humans are no longer able to memorize vast amounts of information. It is still possible to use ancient techniques to memorize, for example, the digits of pi up to the 50000^th decimal place. However, the author of the study argues that having Google, this vast repository of information, at our disposal could “free us to spend more time and brainpower discerning patterns and interlocking themes” in the information it allows us to access, letting us analyze and understand the information more efficiently.

            However, to make full use of the extra brainpower that Google frees up, we have to be able to focus on the information that it provides so readily, and this is something that the Internet itself does not encourage, as Carr shows in his article. The Internet, in its most basic form, is just a constant stream of bits, which are then rendered into the websites that we experience. And we experience the information the Internet provides to us in the same way, as a constant stream of information, which we can, as Carr puts it, “zip along the surface [of] like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Carr 57). This skimming makes it much more difficult for the brain to make the deep, important connections that are essential to understanding and retention, in comparison to the deep reading that Carr says engages “our ability to interpret text [and] to make… rich mental connections” (Carr 59).

 Deep reading is a skill that, even without the constant distractions present on the Internet, is difficult to learn to do well and constantly. In addition, even for those of us who have long practiced deep reading, reading to get at the heart of what the words say and not just what they mean, it is more difficult to do so on a computer, whether or not that computer is connected to the Internet. For me, at least, it is far easier to engage in a text when there is a physical copy in my hands, both because it is easier to jot down thoughts and so maintain a constant state of connecting and, I believe, because the act of physically turning a page keeps your mind focused on the page in front of you.

This kind of engagement is what is necessary for the development of intelligence, that state of having ideas and thoughts about different pieces of information in your mind and being able to pick out connections between them, whether or not you have the exact information they pertain to inside your head. Because of this, I believe it is not Google itself that is making us stupid, but the way we use Google. To make full use of the ocean of information that Google and the Internet offers, we need to treat it not as a man with a jet ski flying over the surface of the ocean, as Carr states that we do, and as the economics of the Internet encourage, since companies make more money from advertisements the more pages we view, but as a scuba diver, exploring the greatest depths of one area of that ocean. Only with a deep exploration and understanding of the knowledge provided by the Internet can it be used to make use smarter rather than stupid.

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008: 56-63. The Atlantic. Web. 07 Feb. 2012. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/>.

Healy, Melissa. "Is the World Wide Web Becoming Our External Memory Drive?" Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. The Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2011. Web. 07 Feb. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/14/news/la-heb-memory-gadgets-20110714/2>.