Is Google Making Us Stupid? -Tristan

Nicholas Carr wrote an essay titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in 2008. This piece of writing is discussing the issue of the internet disrupting mans ability to critically, or deeply, read anything that is over a few pages long. Carr argues that the internet is forcing people to take in large quantities of information that only requires quick skimming, especially sources such as Google. When mentioning his problem of not being able to focus on long papers to his friends they all strongly agree. It is not only affecting him but this concept of the internets intelligence disturbing our ability to analyze writings is become commonly widespread. Bruce Friedman is an avid user of internet blogs and reports that the internet has almost entirely destroyed his ability to read and absorb a long paper. Maryanne Wolf also informs readers that reading is not an instinctive skill, “It is not etched into our genes the way speech is.” These are only a few of the users that have noticed extreme changes and wish to spread the knowledge. Friedrich Nietzsche bought a type writer when his vision began to fail on him from long hours huddled over sheets of paper. Soon after purchasing this item his friends noticed a changed in his writing and confronted him, he fully agreed that the tool you use affects the outcome. At the end of the essay Carr emphasizes the fact that he may just be over thinking this whole ordeal, and there may be parts he is over looking. The point he is trying to get across does not change though, he strongly thinks the new technology is altering current writing and reading.

I fully support Carr’s claim. The main factor for me is Google or any other search engine. If you are wondering about anything go to Google, ask your question, and boom thousands of results. What one are you going to choose? Personally I will click the first one, skim it, and then move on to the next. I am only one person but my results verify Carr’s claims. People in this current generation will be presented with a multiple page long paper and either read the first page and the last paragraph or skim through the entire packet. This is not critically reading anything and you gain no knowledge or a deep understanding of the text. Although there are exceptions to this issue, there are people whose daily job is to deeply read texts and connect with them, book critics, poets, authors, and journalists read and write everyday. The true question though is how much time they have to spend on the internet. I view this as a turning point, the more time you have to spend on the web the more this problem will affect you. I recommend that this concept is shared with more readers because the only way it can be fixed is to accept the problem and work off of it. With knowledge of this spread around and teachers, parents, or even kids stepping up to the plate this could be resolved relatively quick.