Is Google Making us Stupid?

No one can deny the increasing presence of technology in our society. The Internet has become a worldwide phenomenon that connects us to global information 24/7. The question that Nicholas Carr asks us as a reader is what the Internet is really doing to us; is there more harm than benefit to this technological breakthrough?

A key point that Carr made was that the more he used the Internet, the less desire he had to read something deep, like a novel. This was because he didn't have the concentration to sit down and comprehend more than around five pages of text. Using the Internet provides us with the ability to search through a plethora of information in seconds, giving us tons of options. I took notice that when I was reading this article, it was hard to focus myself.

Another point mentioned was a “new kind of reading”, or skimming. It takes less time to glance over the text and pick out what we consider important. The skimming causes a lack of comprehension because we don’t take the time to absorb the context. I found the passage using Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist theory interesting. She mentioned that this new sense of urgency and immediacy in reading or even television would directly affect the way we live our lives. It makes sense. Every day seems to be a rush to cram in as much as possible before the sun goes down. It also seems like a race as to how fast all of this can be done.

There is a common saying known as “Google it!”. I believe this saying stems from human’s desire to do as little work as possible and make things very easy. Rather than take the time to research a question, we would rather just type it in the search and believe whatever answer pops up to be true.  This could be a possible conclusion for the concentration aspect. Why take the time to read five pages when it could take five seconds to search it online.

I found an intriguing passage on page four (“The Net…media rules.”). In a way, it made me laugh a little because these new technologies had to keep up with the constantly changing methods of advertisement. Even the Internet had to provide pop up ads. This connected me with cell phones because it seems that whenever you get a new phone, the next best thing comes out.

Now back to the question of if Google is making us stupid. I think that Google, and the internet itself has both pros and cons. I think Carr present both sides of the argument well. Google allows us to access innumerable quantities of information quickly. On the downside, we read over this information as quickly as we access it, which leads to concentration and comprehension issues. I think the main point to be taken from this article is that there should be a steady balance between technology and the real world. Without either, who knows where we would be today?