"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

by Makayla Paige

In the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Nicholas Carr is proving what he thinks is true evidence that the Net is making people less focused and things that used to engage a reader are now turning us away, making us less engaged in the reading. Carr explains his personal experience by explaining that he used to spend hours online, searching the web. He goes on to explain that the Net “seems to be chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” He shares his feelings and thoughts with friends who also think the same thing. Bruce Friedman who is a blogger also described his experience, saying the net has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print” says pathologist at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Carr is trying to open people’s eyes to the habits that we have and don’t realize. He is using his own personal experiences and bringing in people who also know what is going on. He wants people to be aware that the effects of surfing the web can really play a huge role in the way our brain works and functions.

While reading through this article, I had the problem that the article was talking about. I couldn’t focus on a mere 7 pages! It was making me sleepy and I didn’t want to read it. I can read book after book but this article, I just couldn’t stand, it was so packed with heavy facts.

I believe that the article was full of factual information by reliable sources such as a psychologist, a sociologist and a mathematician. Carr filled his article with hard cold facts and evidence that our brains have formed a habit that they just can’t concentrate on a few pages of literature.

I, being a person who loves to surf the web and read amazing articles about life and death have seen the effects of internet abuse. Like the article states “the brain has the ability to reprogram itself on fly, altering the way it functions” which is very much true. My brain is 16 years old; it has held a lot of information and learned new habits to maintain all this information. I respect his thoughts and I believe that he is correct. The ability to stay focused on article after article was easy to do 20 years ago but with the internet we get so side tracked by little popups or side notes that we can’t hold attention for that long. Carr and his other cowriters had a valuable point; we are losing a very important part of our brain; the ability to concentrate on information given.