Every day, a great number of people log on to the internet. These people read their e-mail, shop online, and research for their next term paper, but in all of this contact with the computer, is it altering the way we process information? In the article Is Google Making Us Stupid by Nicholas Carr, that is exactly what he sought after. It begins with him explaining how being on the internet has altered the way he thinks. He writes that, when reading, his “concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.” Carr goes on to give examples of the typewriter, the clock, and of Frederick Taylor’s method of improving efficiency and how these technologies have altered the way we operate. With media needing to constantly grab our attention, things must be shorter in order to meet the needs of our new attention spans. Tom Bodkin “[explains] that the “shortcuts” [will] give harried readers a quick “taste””. So with our brains being “almost infinitely malleable”, Carr gives valid points as to why he is worried that our minds are beginning to act like computers.
After reading this article, I had to laugh. Three pages into it, I had to read a text message. A few minutes later, I received an e-mail and all throughout the paper, I had to reread a paragraph because I couldn’t stop thinking about that apple crisp in the fridge. I love to read, I really do, but it takes a lot of concentration for me to get through a lengthy amount of text. When the piece began to talk about the media and how it is designed to “scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration”, I began to worry. Are we beginning to think like computers? Do we really want such short attention spans? Is this healthy? It became clear to me that the way I think is largely due to the amount of time I spend on this internet, however, I don’t believe that I should point a finger. So who is to blame? Though sometimes, the last person we want to blame is ourselves, I think we need to look at this a little closer. Yes, especially for students it is essential to be online on a consistent basis to research and learn. However, it is a choice to go on to Facebook and constantly click on the links that grab our attention. Just because those links are there and that information is readily available to us, does not mean that we have to act on it. On the other hand, if we do not notice that clicking on the pop-ups, or skimming those articles are altering our way of thinking, how could we know that this could potentially be a negative thing? Also, in such a fast paced world, where every move we make must be efficient, it would be a waste of time to do things in an old fashioned manner. Therefore, in a way, we are being forced to act in the way the internet wants us to.
As Carr states, “maybe I’m just a worrywart”. However, reading this article has greatly altered the way I think of the internet. Yes, of course I want technological advancement, but at what cost? Maybe if we were all aware of what is changing in our minds, we may have more control over how we run our lives and moderate our uses of the internet.
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