Is Change Necessarily Bad?
In the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, you are able to view a man experiencing the information age firsthand. Carr was born in 1959 and is now in a position to compare life with and without modern day technology. He argues that technological innovations, but specifically computing have an effect on the way we think. The Internet is potentially one of the most impactful inventions of our time. Nicholas Carr claims that our cognition has changed drastically due to the creation of the Internet. Carr writes, “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” With this being said, Carr finds it difficult to process information like he used to. The way people read books is very different in comparison to reading online text. The Internet is constantly consuming new information and data, which is causing its users to take in information at a more rapid pace. Although the Internet provides vast information at the click of a button, Carr expresses that this relatively new innovation can be problematic.
I was pretty involved in technology while growing up. Now that I am older I guess I can realize how much of a role it has played in my life. The Internet gives others and myself the ability to view endless amounts of information at anytime. I was born with the ability to access the Internet whenever, while Carr sort of experienced it as he aged. I think it is very important to note that he grew up in a time when the Internet was not in the same condition it is in today. I am not able to compare how the Internet effects the way I process information, like he can. Carr writes, “I’m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances — literary types, most of them — many say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” With this being said, I think it is important to know which generation his friends were born into. The past generations educational structure was focused more around traditional media, which has enabled them to think in a more deeper attentive way, while the more modern generations of people are programmed to think in a more hyper attentive way. This certainly has to do with the changing media landscape. I feel that someone older would find the Web to be very distracting, but ultimately focusing on information is a personal matter. I for one can process information regardless of it being in a book or online. I don’t think the Internet is really a distraction unless you let it be. I also, believe that the younger generations read in a different style, which may be a result of the Internet.
Technology today has equipped the majority of the population with smartphones, laptops, iPad’s, etc. These gadgets have linked millions of people to the Internet and even to other people around the world. All of these modern day technologies play a huge role in everyday life because we are constantly connected to information and data. Carr writes, “Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking — perhaps even a new sense of the self.” With this being said, this technology age is part of our culture. I think we are taking in information just as it is being presented to us. It is hard to believe that I can learn about one subject and in a matter of seconds be learning about something entirely different. Before the Web, people would read large books about a topic of interest. That would be way more of time commitment in comparison to simply searching for something on the Internet. I believe the Web was constructed for our own convenience. I think people sometimes forget where all of the Internet’s information comes from. Everything that is searched on the Web was put there and created by someone else. It is really just a database for shared content entered in by people.
People go on the Internet for many different reasons. This is certainly true, but really what is its intended purpose? The Internet has become so involved in our everyday life that we find it useful in many different situations. Carr writes, “The internet is a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information, and its legions of programmers are intent on finding the ‘one best method’ — the perfect algorithm — to carry out every mental movement of what we’ve come to describe as ‘knowledge work’”. With this being said, we use the Internet for many different functions. The programmers who maintain the system give everyone the ability to do as they wish. It almost seems like they are catering to our needs. The Internet simply attracts people because of its efficiency. People are drawn to the idea of working hard, but doing less. This is something that can negatively affect other facets of life, but Google really just provides an easy access to thinking.
In a way our brains are working just like the Internet does. Carr writes, “In Google’s view, information is a kind of commodity, a utilitarian resource that can be mined and processed with industrial efficiency. The more pieces of information we can “access” and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers.” Doesn’t everyone want to have access to endless information? Google systematically connects us to as much information as possible, in the fastest amount of time. This is very similar to the way our brain processes something and later learns how to react a certain way. I think it is logical to compare our brains to a search engine, but just at a lower rate of speed. The Web contains copious amounts of information and is continuing to grow. Will the Internet ever reach a point of over capacity? This is something that I really cannot answer. I think it is even safe to question whether or not the Internet can ever have too much information. I’m sure Google has future plans that cannot even be processed by a majority of people, but what really is their objective?
Google is definitely not allowing us to access all of this information for free. They are a business and their goal is most likely money and power. Certainly they control power already because of the demand our culture has for their service. I question how reliant the future generations will become of Google. I really cannot imagine a life without the ability to search something within seconds. Another goal of Google’s is of course to make money and a lot of it. Carr writes, “The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines is not only built into the workings of the Internet, it is the network’s reigning business model as well. The faster we surf across the web — the more links we click and pages we view — the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements.” The Internet plays a huge role in the business plan of a company. I study advertising and the amount of money invested into advertising placements is unimaginable. Its almost unfair to the consumer because we are constantly being marketed to and pressured into buying something. Also, I feel that most people do not realize their data is being sold to companies to help cater advertisements to their searches. While you are requesting information from the Internet, the Internet is getting information out of you. Once you start looking into the Internet you see that both positives and negatives exist.
Nicholas Carr wrote, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” with a lot of skepticism. I respect all of his claims and actually agree with some of the points he made, but I do not think Google is specifically making us stupid. I think our culture is so involved in the Internet that we cannot realize the potential problems we may face. I do agree that we are limiting our intelligence and contributing more to artificial intelligence, but in this current state I don’t think we have to worry. I find that I can actually relate somewhat to Carr because he is an over thinker. I find that I can over analyze any situation just because I mentally have the ability to. In any situation you are able to find pros and cons. In today’s day and age I think everyone should simply enjoy what the Internet is offering us. This somewhat new innovation will change the world potentially for better or worse. In later years I’m sure research will explain how specifically the Internet has effected our brain and cognition. I can only imagine that the generational shifts and the changing cognitive modes are the beginning of future discoveries regarding this change. In present time no real problems truly exist unless you allow them to. In the end, the Internet will be remembered as one of the world’s greatest creations. Carr argues his viewpoint in an interesting way, but it is hard for me to compare life without computing. I sort of hold a bias to this topic because of the generation I was born into.
