In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr explains how the way we use the internet has changed the way we think. Carr uses examples of things his acquaintances have said to his personal experiences and how things are different because of the usage of internet. Due to the convenience of the internet, people are no longer reading to learn, but rather skimming to get the piece of information needed. When people opt out of doing the actual work and take short cuts it can affect people in negative ways. Carr talks about how things are different because of the easy access to the internet. He explains that this is becoming more of a problem now than it ever has been in the past.
Carr talks in his article about how he would enjoy reading quite often stating “my mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose.” That is not the case anymore because of the lack of concentration people have. “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages…I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle” (Carr). While listing some things he uses the internet for he is also giving examples of how quick you can find what you are looking for. Carr compares how things used to take days of searching for now can be done in minutes.
“For me, as for others, the net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind” (Carr). This statement just goes go on to show that it is becoming much more common to go to the internet for the first source of information. As generations grow seeing this as the new norm, the problem worsens. Now the millennials are known as a generation seeking instant gratification and having short attention spans. This is not the first-time technology has changed the human senses. “Lewis Mumford described how the clock “disassociated time from human events and helped create the belief in an independent world of mathematically measurable sequences” (Carr). He is only further proving his case on how people look towards technology as the quickest answer.
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Through the many ways Carr explains how technology is taking over humanity, he does so with several examples. People don’t notice the affect that the daily usage of the internet has on their lives until they are no longer able to do things they could once do. Individuals aren’t getting on the internet to learn things, they are only looking for the answer to their questions. We are failing ourselves and future generations when we turn to the internet to be our main source of information. Carr, along with acquaintances, acknowledge this epidemic is happening but don’t know how to stop it. In Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, I would say yes, it is.
References
- Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr
- Is Google Making Us Stupid? CBC News
- How Google is making us stupid (but not the way you think) by Kate Letheren
- How Not to Be Stupid by David Brooks
- Google is making us stupid, and we know it by David Glance
- The Effects of Mobile Devices on Mental Health and the Brain by Katelyn Marie Reed
