Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Is Google Making Us Stupid?
When researching for class, a project or personal pleasure what skills do you use to find your information? Well in today’s age most of us are “skimmers” this mean we look over the text of a website or book briefly to find key things. Some of us may have become this kind of researcher or reader while others have been taught to. Either way this is a big change from how it is said that people used to read. Should we blame technology?
Author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid” Nicholas Carr has a very bold opinion on this topic. His article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” is a very detailed and thoughtful essay. Not only does he relate our new ways of reading to past things in history, but also provides studies and facts that prove his point. Carr’s point/opinion being that the internet really is reshaping our brains, especially when it comes to reading. He goes so far as to say that he feels to others (in reference to the makers of Google) “the human brain is just and outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive.” Frederick Winslow Taylor was the man who came up with systems of doing everything as fast as could be done with most product and profit. Carr relates Taylor’s system to how our brains now work; our brains are programmed to do everything quick and efficient now. Carr is really questioning the “efficient” part of this whole idea, is skimming through text for facts really better then old fashioned deep reading?
Nicholas Carr’s opinion, statements from others and facts all make sense to me, but I can’t say that I agree one hundred percent. When writing a paper that you need information for, I don’t necessarily think that “skimming” through an article is such a horrible thing. Reading a novel or a text that you are really supposed to be learning from is a little different. Skimming can help you pick out good facts, but I still believe that you should completely read something and then skim back through to find those key things that you remembered, especially in text book reading. If you need to learn the information then you need to make sure you “read deeply” and absorb all of the little things as well. We all have different ways of learning though and some people may skim and others may read deeply. Whether our way of reading and processing has changed or not I can’t agree with the title. With the advances we are making in the world today I don’t think anyone is getting “Stupid.” I do agree that it is easy for us to develop new ways of doing things. Like Carr pointed out in his article, it is proven that even adult brains are very malleable. I question some of his opinions, but then again so does Nicholas Carr. Carr says “maybe I’m just a worrywart.” So I think with a few more facts and a few less comparisons Carr is really onto something.