Nicholas Carrs argues in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” that search engines are taking away our ability to concentrate for long periods of time, and retain in depth knowledge about multiple subjects. I agree with his argument completely, because I have realized this change in myself as of recently.
The NY Times website is my web home page, and I always read the little headline blurbs, and sometimes I will read the article if it catches my interest. Most of the time though I actually never finish the article, and I always ask myself— why? If the article exceeds three pages I usually stop reading, because by the third page my attention span is starting to rapidly unwind and I start thinking about life instead of the article. The article then becomes information I am just skimming through instead of actually retaining …
I am not sure if Google is making us “stupid”, but changing the way we process knowledge. In the article it related the use of the Internet to the use of clocks, and how people started to live their lives by scientific spans of time, instead of natural instinct. The Internet has changed, and is changing learning, just like clocks desensitized our natural awareness of time. The Internet could take away a person’s natural ability to learn. Even though it’s a step forward for technology it has similar effects that the printing press had on learning. Except this time, everything is virtual and gives anyone and everyone an infinite vat of knowledge at there leisure.
What happens though, is instead of retaining the entirety of Google’s contents, whenever it is needed you go your computer, blackberry, Mac book, iphone ect. when you want learn something to be put in your short term memory. But what happens if technology is suddenly taken away? Will the natural instincts that we as human kind use to live by come back immediately? Or would there just be mass confusion? Technology is not a bad thing by any means, we use it constantly and it is now an enormous part of our everyday lives.
Another comparison Carrs makes is between the creation steam engine and the Internet. Showing how the steam engine took away the necessity of physical labor. Just like the Internet could take away the necessity to think.
This is a problem.
Getting rid of the demand for physical labor by machines replaces the need for physical exercise and other ways of keeping our body healthy and in shape. Which, unfortunately, in this country has become something many people do not find important. So, can the same happen to our brains? Will there be an epidemic like obesity that is created from not using certain parts of our cerebrum? Will there be brain nutritionist, personal brain trainers, websites, books, and magazines all devoted to telling us how to keep our brains healthy. The problem is there is no balance, as progress is made the usage of machines and computers become more extreme. Which leaves me with the question:When does access to so much information become too much?
The first couple sentences really caught my attention, especially since I was thinking the same thing in my head. You backed up your argument really well with all your examples. The personal example about New York Times fit in well with this assignment.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing you may want to add is some more explanation about the example of the similarities between the steam engine and the internet.
Otherwise I thought you did a great job and asked really important questions.