Answers are what make the world go round. Everyone loves answers because they give people gratification. Luckily, today we have a whole database of answers. This database is more commonly known as the Internet. Although the Internet is an amazing tool for research, the Internet can negatively affect how we learn and how we obtain answers. The fact that the Internet is so accessible, and is so easy to use, knowledge and answers are constantly available. One might think this would make our culture smarter, but from a certain standpoint, this surplus of knowledge has made our culture less intelligent. This is true because the Internet has granted people the ability to attain knowledge without actually thinking. This horrible byproduct of the Internet has opened the door to many negatives. After talking with Morristown-Beard School teacher, Christian Rabin, about this subject, it is clear that the over-indulgence of the Internet is not always good for our brains.
Searching for knowledge online has turned into a brainless activity. If one were to look at their history on an Internet browser, one would see that there would be thousands of sites opened up; however, it is almost guaranteed that one would not be able to remember specifically why they opened most of the sites. Searching online brainlessly is considered messing around, and it is very easy to mess around online. If someone was on Facebook and clicked on another person’s picture and thought it was very funny, they probably would want to know who posted it first. Consequently, they look to see whose picture it is. This is a very easy task until the person who likes the picture, and the person who posted it are not friends. The person is dying to know whose picture it is, so he...
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...ited, and rewrote. This enables students to skip the toughest part about learning, which is to grapple with the information and making their own inferences. No one needs to make conjectures on subjects, because the Internet does it for them. It clearly asks the question, is the Internet a machine external to humans, or do we all make the Internet?
Now one can understand why the Internet has so many negative effects on the mind. Although the Internet has granted all of us with so much knowledge, the way this knowledge is giving has actually made people less intelligent. One could not see that the Internet can have many effects on him or her subconsciously. Some of these effects arte avoidable, but if there is one thing I have learned from Rabin throughout my two years of having him as a teacher is it is easy to teach people, but it is hard to be taught how to think.
In The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, he asserts that the evolution of information and communication technology (ICTs) is having a detrimental impact on our brains despite the many benefits and advances we have made with it. His main focus is on the internet which he commonly refers to as the “universal medium” (92). Carr presents a very detailed but biased argument in which he views the internet and other technologies as the adversary of critical thinking and progress. To Carr, we are sacrificing our ability to think logically because we are choosing the simpler way to gain knowledge.
The internet is ever changing, and so our minds, but can the internet mold our minds? Nicholas Carr and Michael Rosenwald support the idea that the reading we do online is making it harder to be able to sit down with a good book. In their papers they discuss the downfalls of using the web. While on the other hand author Clay Shirky challenges that thought in his piece. Shirky directly battles the idea that the internet is damaging our brains by suggesting that internet use can be insightful. In this essay I will evaluate all three articles and expose their strengths and weaknesses then add my own take on the situation.
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.
Most people believe that the web will increase their intelligence and with a smartphone knowledge is at the tips of their fingers; however, this is not exactly true. Research suggests that easier access to information reduces mental
In the article Mind Over Mass Media, Steven Pinker claims that the use of technology enhances our intelligence, despite what critics say, when used in productive ways. Pinker supports his claim by explaining that if electronic media were hazardous to intelligence, the quality of science would be plummeting and that philosophy, history and cultural criticism, are flourishing will the use of the Web. The author’s purpose is persuade readers that new media is allowing mankind to locate information at a faster rate, in order to prevent readers from believing that technology is hurting us. The author writes in an informal tone for technology users.
Like Gladwell, Nicholas Carr believes the internet has negative effects. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Carr attempts to show as the internet becomes our primary source of information, it diminishes the ability to read books and extensive research. Carr goes on to give a very well researched account of how text on the internet is designed make browsing fast and profitable. He describes how the design for skimming affects our thinking skills and attention spans. He wraps up his argument by describing what we are losing in the shift toward using the internet as our main information source. Carr suggests the learning process that occurs in extensive research and through reading is lost. While the learning process can be beneficial to scholars and intellectuals, not everyone has the capability to follow through with it. The internet offers an education that anyone can have access to and understand. Also if Carr believes the learning process is better, this option is always available for people who want to learn according to this scholarly principal. However, for the rest of the population the quick and easy access has allowed the average population to become more educated, and to expose themselves to aspects of academia that previously is reserved for
In the articles, “How Facts Backfire” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Keohane and Carr explain the cognitive blocks we are faced with in society. Keohane explains how we can be misinformed because of our beliefs. These beliefs can cloud our judgement of what is true and what isn’t true. Carr focuses on how the internet has changed the way we think. Carr includes how the internet can distract us, making tasks harder to complete. Both Keohane and Carr show us the negatives side effects of cognition.
It is a well-known fact that the Internet has become a central part of society, and it has completely changed every aspect of life for the human race, whether it is for better or worse. Nicholas Carr explains his thoughts on how the Internet has changed how people think in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He believes that the human race is losing its ability to think deeply and is creating a distraction culture, and that companies like Google are working to increase this way of thinking. However, the issue of how the human brain is changing with the Internet is very complex, and the answer to this question goes beyond a simple yes or no.
Advancements in technology have strived to make life easier for so many people. In most cases, the advancements have achieved its goal, but in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr questions if the improvements in society have unintentionally hindered our thought process overall. Carr begins the article by providing personal instances when his concentration seemed to diminish due to the internet. He explains how he now loses interest when reading lengthy portions, his mind just can’t seem to remain connected to his readings. He then proceeds to talk about how today’s life is surrounded by the internet, and explains the pros and cons of it. The negative side of it is that his mind now wonders off when seeking information from
Atlantic journalist Nicholas Carr confesses that he feels something has been “tinkering with his brain.” The internet, he fears, may be messing with our minds. We have lost the ability to focus on a simple task, and memory retention is steadily declining. He is worried about the effect the internet has on the human brain, and where it may take us in the future. In response to this article, Jamais Cascio, also a journalist for the Atlantic, provides his stance on the issue. He argues that this different way of thinking is an adaptation derived from our environment. Ultimately, he thinks that this staccato way of thinking is simply a natural evolution, one that will help to advance the human race.
The internet damages us, people have lost their ability to read full articles and don’t fully understand what they read and because of this,our natural intelligence will never be the same with the internet around, thinking for us.
These two articles are similar in the sense that they agree that the internet and computational objects are reshaping our brain’s structure by changing our neural circuit. By using examples from their personal experiences to identify a trend in technology use, the authors illustrate that the more we bury ourselves in technology the more we are unable to understand material which leads to loss of concentration and the ability to think for ourselves. As an author, Carr finds the internet a beneficial tool, but it’s having a bad effect on his concentration span. Carr points this out by stating “Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy, now I get fidgety, lose the thread and begin looking for something else to do” (39). He is no
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.
In the article “Does The Internet Make you Smarter?” the author, Clay Shirky is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He states his argument about whether or not the internet is making society smarter and whether it enhances the success individuals achieve in life. To do this, he uses surveys as evidence and his past experiences on the effects of internet on society to persuade his audience to show his credibility. His main idea of the article was explaining to his readers that the internet is indeed making society more intelligent. He provides the audience with many contrasting points on how the media is making us smarter as a society,
...he Internet has altered the way we see text and how we read it. The computer or smartphone provides us with so many distractions and alternatives. When we get caught up in hyperlinks and our minds become hungry to find out new information. Before we know it we could spend hours and hours on YouTube looking up funny videos and get none of our homework done. If we isolate ourselves in a room with just a book or a newspaper we are likely to just focus on the book and comprehend a lot more because that is all we can do. We are just too lazy to read a whole book when we can just find out about it on the Internet. The Internet allows us to have fast access to simplified information. Instead of pushing ourselves to read the whole book we go for the easy way out, like Nicholas Carr said. I have experienced this first hand and that is why I agree so strongly with him.