Nicholas Carr - "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

In "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Nicholas Carr takes on a nostalgistic role by covering the widespread effects on the wonder that is the Internet, bringing to light many key issues such as decreased attention span, and a greater focus on efficiency.

It's no secret that I, alongside many other teens spend much, if not most of my free time on the internet. It's a great way to both waste time and learn random, entertaining things, when we're not using it to find information for school or work. Reading Carr's essay, it did seem to correspond with what I see as some of my shortcomings, especially the short attention span, and reminded me a lot of several valid points raised by Sir Ken Robinson's ideas on changing paradigms. However, I'm still quite capable of diving into a book and getting wrapped up in the details, and I find that personally my ability to pay attention is mostly dependent on how interesting the current subject matter is in comparison to recent events (If I just finished beating a massive video game, studying for a test would be comparable to watching paint dry), rather than how it's delivered.

Also, one could easily look at people's ability to quickly skim and catalog information as an advancement and growth alongside today's society. The simple fact of the matter is that both Internet browsing-based learning and long book-based learning just simply can't agree to coexist; focusing on one negatively impacts one's ability to effectively use the other. And what with the massive rise of portable computers in schools and work, it won't be long before we're downloading college lesson plans instead of scouring through textbooks. There's no turning back; publishers aren't going to start making things longer and less interesting, it just wouldn't be in their interests. And what with e-readers, it might not be long before books are as ancient a relic as an abacus is to a calculator.

And published books don't seem to be getting any less interesting and/or inspired, so it's not like the use of the internet has suddenly transformed us all into the stereotypical automaton. Carr said it himself: Google is a godsend to writers. Getting your facts organized and straight has never been easier, and now with PC's in most public school, digital word processing has become the golden standard for composition.

Maybe we really are outgrowing the time-tested constraints of our society. Maybe we're just overreacting, like we always do whenever something new and radical shows up and changes anything about our normal tradition and routine. But one thing's certain: no matter what revolutionary technological advancement changes our lives drastically, humanity will find a way to adapt. It's what we do, it's what we're made of, and that's on thing that can't be formulated.