Response to " Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

When I first read this article, I disagreed with Nicholas Carr. How could Google possibly make one stupider? You can literally, find information on any subject you could think of. Like someone said in class, maybe Google just makes you lazier. After reading what Nicholas Carr had to say, I realized that he has some valid points. I found myself agreeing with him on the issue of artificial intelligence and that the internet divides your attention. Both of these problems however, have answers that make them not an issue.

Personally, the idea of a HAL-like Internet or search engine scares me a little. I’m not very keen on some machine controlling the information I receive. But I suppose, Google and other forms of media do that now, so what is the difference? I think it is the movie, and movies like, 2001: A Space Odyssey make us scared of some super computer taking over the world. This seems a little far-fetched to me, and not feasible. In daily life, we edit what we tell people. For example, you may have gotten a hangover from a party the night before. Your mom calls you, and can tell that you’re sick. Instead of telling her that you went to a party and got drunk, you say that you ate something at the party that gave you food poisoning. You are leaving out the fact that you got drunk. Even the media does this when they are relaying information to the public. They leave out news that they consider not important and cut out bits of a story that aren't essential. Therefore, what is the difference between Google and the types of information technology we have been using for hundreds of years?

When I research on the Internet, I often find myself distracted by Facebook or my email account if I don’t reign myself in. Carr is right that the internet diffuses our concentration. There is an enormous difference between reading a physical copy of a book and reading a book online. A copy of a book only has the story, nothing else to get distracted by, whereas an online copy has many distractions. Unlike Carr, I am perfectly able to sit down and read a book without feeling the “results” of the internet. I don’t find myself wanting to skim the book or getting bored with it, unless it’s a really horrible read. Maybe this doesn’t apply to everyone, but I find that if I don’t allow myself to open other links, I can read a book online or do a homework assignment without getting distracted. The key in achieving a meaningful experience from the information you’re receiving is to focus only on one article or web page at a time.

While Carr has valid concerns about what the Internet could do to the way our minds work, I think he should consider that humans before us adapted to new technology and can do the same with the Internet. We can train ourselves to concentrate only on one page at a time and should be skeptical of movies and people who blow this issue out of proportion.