Although the world wide web has been around for just 20 years, it is hard to imagine life without it. It has given us instant access to vast amounts of information, and we’re able to stay in touch with friends and colleagues more or less continuously. But our dependence on the internet has a dark side. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.
When we’re constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be when looking at the screens of our computers and mobile phones, our brains can’t to forge the strong and expansive neural connections that give distinctiveness and depth to our thinking. Our thoughts become disjointed,
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They expected the intensive multitaskers to have gained some mental advantages. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, the multitaskers weren’t even good at multitasking. “Everything distracts them,” said Clifford Nass, one of the researchers.
It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and mobiles. But they don’t. The cellular structure of the human brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use to find, store and share information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The alterations shape the way we think even when we’re not using the technology.
The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being “massively remodeled” by our ever-intensifying use of the web and related media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Merzenich, now a professor emeritus at the University of California in San Francisco, conducted a famous series of experiments that revealed how extensively and quickly neural circuits change in response to experience. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be
As human beings, it is becoming more of a second nature to us to multi-task. As the world is technologically advancing more and more every day, there are becoming more distractions. Social-media is flourishing, reality TV show ratings are going up, and humans even unintentionally check their phones every two minutes. In this day of age, multi-tasking is proving to promote inefficiency rather than productivity.
Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
“Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of our Era”, “‘Plug In’ Better: A Manifesto”, and “Your Brain on Computers”: A Critical Analysis of the Efficacy of the Methods by which the Authors Convey Their Ideas Technology and our exposure to it are changing our lives; of this there is no doubt. The issue regarding what form that change will take and the effects of it on our physical and emotional health, however, are more contentious, and experts’ opinions on it run the gamut. In “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of our Era”, neurologist Dr. Richard Restak examines what effect technology has on our brains, and posits that technology, as well as the increasing demand on our brains to perform multiple tasks at once, is causing a decrease In “‘Plug In’ Better: A Manifesto”, technology writer and commentator Dr. Alexandra Samuel states that she believe that there is a middle ground between completely “plugging in” and “unplugging”. She states that we should approach our online interactions in the same ways we approach our offline ones.
The internet is our conduit for accessing a wide variety of information. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr discusses how the use of the internet affects our thought process in being unable to focus on books or longer pieces of writing. The author feels that “someone, or something, has been tinkering with [his] brain” over the past few years (Carr 731). While he was easily able to delve into books and longer articles, Carr noticed a change in his research techniques after starting to use the internet. He found that his “concentration often [started] to drift after two or three pages” and it was a struggle to go back to the text (Carr 732). His assertion is that the neural circuits in his brain have changed as a result of surfing endlessly on the internet doing research. He supports this statement by explaining how his fellow writers have had similar experiences in being unable to maintain their concentrations. In analyzing Carr’s argument, I disagree that the internet is slowly degrading our capacity for deep reading and thinking, thereby making us dumber. The Web and Google, indeed, are making us smarter by allowing us access to information through a rapid exchange of ideas and promoting the creativity and individualization of learning.
Technological advances though have been moving fast and some people would argue that it is too much for our brains to handle. As Restak states in his essay,” This technologically driven change in the brain is the biggest modification in the last 200,000 years (when the brain volume of Homo sapiens reached the modern level).” Our brains are experiencing a change in how it functions, and this last quote by Restak shows just how different the human brain has became since our last change in evolution. One of the changes that are forced on our brain is that of multitasking and when we are faced with the ability to focus our attention. Restak shows an example in a situation where there are crawlers at the bottom of a television screen. He comments how he could not keep focus on what he was watching and kept on looking at the words that were at the bottom of the screen because they were made to catch your attention. Another example is that of split screen interviews, which makes us divide our visual attention. With all of this we have become more high strung and our brains function have changed for the better. Restak would call this as us being more hyperactive, where we are now more frenetic, more distracted, and more fragmented. Yet all of this would be for the better for our species. The technology is only going the
The use of technology is debilitating our ability to think pensively. Carr demonstrates that relying on the internet reduces the use of our creativity flow in our brains. “The Web provides a convenient and a compelling supplement to personal memory - but when we start using the Web as a substitute for personal memory, by bypassing the inner processes of
Knowing that a most of his audience spends a majority of their time on the web; Carr concedes by admitting to his audience that, “ For more than a decade now, [he has] been spending a lot of time online” (Carr 92) and that the internet has been, “ [G]odsend to him as a writer ” (Carr 92) as he can now complete, “ Research that once required day in the stacks of periodicals rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes”(Carr 92). By conceding that the internet is amazing, he is not alienating a large part of his audience who believe the internet is a “Godsend”(Carr 92). Furthermore, Jay Heinrichs ( an author of THANK YOU FOR ARGUING) states, “ In rhetoric, a sterling reputation is more than just good; it’s persuasive (Heinrichs 44). It is important for Carr to come off as a trustworthy individual, and by conceding to the internet being amazing, he has done that. Throughout the article, Carr refers to the research that has found the same finding as Carr’s beliefs; that being the internet is affecting our cognitive ability. He cites, “[L]ong-term neurological and physiological experiments that will provide a definite picture of how the internet use is affecting our cognition”(Carr 93). He goes on to cite international studies from the U.K educational consortium who have observed, “ a form of skimming activity”(Carr 93) and the users are “ [H]opping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited” (Carr 93) and to Carr, this type of activity is changing they way our brains function. Carr’s appeal to ethos is done through him conceding, and the vast research he cites. By him conceding his trustworthiness is established as he shows the reader he shares the same view; forcing the reader to take Carr's argument to heart. By Carr citing ongoing multinational research, his credibility is established as he has done the work necessary to validate his argument;
Nicholas Carr wrote ‘How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds’ published in the Wall Street Journal in 2017. Carr believes that as the brain becomes reliant on smartphones the intellect diminishes.
Although the Internet has increased how much we read, it has deteriorated our concentration level. We are no longer able to read long passages and stay interested. We have resorted to skimming or finding a shorter version. It has also affected our ability to take an analytical approach to what we read. We no longer go beyond comprehending the information we take in. Outside of using the Internet to “enhance” our mind, Carr has also made the point that it is a daily involvement. We incorporate it in our everyday lives, because it is a source of entertainment or serves as some type of convenience for us.
Students may easily lose their attention and concentration with easy access to such incredibly rich store of information. With such new technologies as television, internet and social networks, people nowadays tend to multitask more often as they have easy access to a large amount of information. However, such easy access may sometimes be a distraction. Study “Your Brain on Computers” reports that heavy multitaskers perform up to 20% worse on most tests compared to performance of light multitaskers. Working efficiency of people, who multitask, is claimed to be significantly lower. The same is with concentration. (Crovitz 353) As a result, they are not engaged in working process. Students tend to be easily distr...
Using technology can have certain effects on the brain. Nicholas Carr’s magazine blog, “The Web Shatters Focus, Rewrites Brains,” tells us an experiment from a ULCA professor, Gary Small. Gary Small
Nicholas Carr shares his own experiences with technology and discusses the plasticity of the brain. He noticed that when he started using computers,
Performing well in at certain tasks and retaining information both require a high level of attention. Multitasking requires that this attention be divided amongst different tasks. As a result, the some of the attention used for a certain task must now be used for other tasks, which affects the factors needed to complete it. Referring to an experiment that was discussed earlier, Wieth and Burns (2014) stated that even with the reward, the promise of incentive could not override the limits of people’s attention. Retaining information requires undivided attention. The key word is ‘undivided.’ According to this experiment, it is nearly impossible to have the same high level of focus while working on multiple tasks that a person would while working on one task. Once someone has reached the end of their attention span, their performance begins to falter. In a final experiment involving media multitasking and attention, Ralph, Thomson, Cheyne, and Smilek (2014) stated that multitasking can lead to mind wandering and lapses in attention, which distracts people from their tasks. These results show that once their attention is divided, it can lead to distractions and difficulty completing different tasks. It is difficult to complete one assignment while focusing on several others at the same time. Multitasking affects the attention needed for a task, which can affect everything
The internet is shaping the way we think in more ways than one, and according to Carr (2008), it is suggests that the internet can lead to intellectual laziness. Depending on the internet as a source for information leads to an artificial intelligence. Carr also believes the media is always shaping how we think Carr (2008). Although Carr might not be the most credible due to his augment relying mostly on testimonial evidence, he has a good point. Imagine for a moment sitting in a class room and a professor asks a question. Some students will be right, and others will be wrong which leads to an opportunity for learning. However, if every student were to google the answer to that question each and every student would be correct. See the problem? With reliant use of the internet for information there is no room for creativity or learning.
In an era where all of the world’s information is readily available at our fingertips, it is difficult to imagine what life was like before the Internet. Today. people get anxiety attacks at the thought of a slow wireless connection. God forbid a webpage takes five minutes to load; we are left with rage and disappointment. Is the Internet making people stupid? Despite the fact that research on the detrimental effects of the Internet is still young, there is no doubt that the Internet is changing the way one thinks, but it is not necessarily making one “dumber.” What it is doing, however, is bringing to light some bad habits that are affecting the way we process information. The Internet is making us lazy and unable to memorize information.