Is Google making us stupid?

In the article “Is Google making us stupid?” Nicholas Carr makes a bold claim that Google/the internet are in fact making us stupid. Not only because searching on the internet is quick and easy and requires little to no skill, but for the face that the human brain is almost infinitely malleable. Meaning it is capable of reprogramming itself and altering the way it functions. A study of online research habits was conducted by scholars from the University College London to try to monitor sites such as, journal articles and e-books. The scholars concluded that most of the people viewing those sites exhibited a ‘form of skimming activity.” They also concluded the viewers commonly read no more than a few pages of something before “bouncing” to something new. Carr celebrates the fact that his theory of “Google making us stupid” was somewhat proven correct. Carr claims later in this article that, “we may be reading more today than we did in the 1970’s or 1980’s, but it’s a different kind of reading and behind it lays a different kind of thinking.” We can thank cell phones (text messaging) and social networking for that. Carr explains the fact that our brain has a mechanical clock. Our brains are trained to tell us things such as, when to wake up, and when breakfast, lunch and dinner are. Carr elaborates on this topic by saying that the internet is very similar, because it has structured our brains to function.

In my perspective, however, it is your own fault, not the internet’s fault that you are becoming 'stupider'. You are in charge of your internet usage; the internet isn’t in charge of you. I do find it very true that internet does in fact do some ‘mind altering things’, which is why people need to limit their time on the computer. The internet is not the only resource people have to find information. To explain, things such as textbooks, encyclopedias, newspapers, podcasts…etc are easy to access tools that may help you with both avoiding internet usage, and saving your brain. For example, Marshall McLuhan a media theorist emphasizes that, “The net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” I verify this statement because I often times catch myself struggling with concentration and focusing on one thing. McLuhan also points out that, he, a media theorist was “once a scuba diver in a sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.” This to me really rang a bell because like I said, I can relate 100%. While reading the article, I was put into instant realization when Carr states, “our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV. “ Reading those lines made me really think about how society today depends on computers for literally everything. I find it sort of ridiculous that technology is advancing each and every day, and that some other insane invention is going to come out next, making us even more dependable on computers. All in all, from a personal perspective I believe that people need to be less dependable on computers and technology and more focused on ‘old fashioned’ ways of completing such simple tasks.