Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"


Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is an essay evaluating the internet’s effect on cognition. His main argument of the text is that the Internet might have harmful effects on cognition, thus weakening ability for concentration and reflective thought. Carr begins the text by reflecting on his lack of attention span that is rapidly increasing as he begins to rely on the internet more and more for resources. He claims we want are information in a “here and now,” type of manner. Therefore, internet users are becoming lazing, by letting the computer do all the work for us, we rarely even think for ourselves anymore. We seek convenience and quick answers; rarely do we actually think through and digest texts anymore. Another key argument of Carr’s is that “we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of technologies.” Thus we become reliant upon them and allow them to shape the way we think; therefore, they essentially control the way we operate, instead of them adapting to us, we adapt to them. For example, when the mechanical clock came into common use, we stopped using our senses and started obeying the clock. No longer did we base our day and act on instinct but we started to rely on time. The clock now decides when we eat, work, sleep, and rise. Is the internet manipulating our thoughts, and controlling the way we operate as well? To conclude, Carr places his skepticism in a historical setting, reflecting upon how previous critics of technological advances have proved themselves correct.  Skepticisms such as Socrates' concerns about written language and Hieronimo Squarciafico's concerns about printed works were unsuccessful to foretell the welfares these advancements might add to human knowledge.
Carr posed a very convincing and in my opinion accurate argument for the effects Google, or the internet in general is having on our society, and the minds of individuals in it. He explains how our cognition is negatively affected. Our attention spans have dramatically decreased, we are less patient, and lazy when it comes to analyzing, reading, and digesting text. I definitely agree with these strong arguments, even in my own life since I have started using and in result, depending on the internet more and more for my information I am becoming less patient and even perhaps lazy. Although Google is in fact, a good thing, and without a doubt a very efficient and useful way to get information, is it making humans any less intellectual? And since technology is advancing every day, will the raw human mind be affected even more negatively?

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