How The Internet Impacts Our Ability To Think, Read And Comprehend
Technology, social media and games have taken over the world. Nicholas Carr expresses his feelings towards technology from his own experiences through his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He creates a story that many people can relate to but have never thought about to the extent he did. His article is about the fact that the Internet has caused people to lose their ability to think, read and comprehend.
Carr begins to illustrate his point that the Internet has affected how people process information with a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In that scene a supercomputer, HAL, begins to break down Dave Bowman’s brain and Bowman states that he can feel his mind going. Carr utilizes this scene because he feels that our brains are in comparison to HAL. He even states, “I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory”.
Carr’s article discusses and acknowledges the fact that the new technology that has come out has rendered us incapable of critical thinking and reading. Being able to read a lengthy book or article use to be easy; now it’s merely impossible. Technology has contributed to the short attention span in humans. Carr mentions that when he reads a lengthy book he gets fidgety, loses the thread and begins looking for something else to do. The answer to everything we do is easy to find, the Internet. He states “A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after”.
Midway into the article Carr begins to discuss how Google, said, “its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, is a company that’s founded around the science of measurement. ” He then refers to research done by Harvard Business Review saying they stated; “it uses the results to refine the algorithms that increasingly control how people find information and extract meaning from it. ” The founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are very ambitious to create a HAL like machine that can act as our brains. Carr refers to a 2004 interview with Newsweek, where Brin said, “Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off”.
In the end, Carr refers back to the scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. He states, “In the world of 2001, people have become so machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine. That’s the essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy: as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence. ” Carr is bringing to our attention that we cannot just blame the Internet for our problems, which we have also contributed to them as well. Most people are aware how the Internet is affecting them but don’t take action to correct the oncoming problem. In conclusion Nicholas Carr saw a problem within the world and brought attention to it within his article. He not only used his own experiences but also others; as well as experiments and research that has been done. Carr concluded his article not only proving his point that Google has rendered people ability to think, read and comprehend but bringing attention to the fact that us relying on technology ultimately just turns us into HAL’s. “In the world of 2001, people have become so machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine. That’s the essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy: as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence”.
Response
I agree with everything that Nicholas Carr brought up in his article. Google is making people stupid and it is certainly because we are allowing it too. When we first started this class our first assignment was to describe what we struggle with and how we plan to improve it. I initially stated that I struggle with reading, comprehending and understanding long, lengthy readings because I get bored or distracted. I must admit that I am a victim of Google and social media as well. When I can’t understand or don’t know something I go to Google to find the answer. Even reading Carr’s article I found myself getting bored or lost in the text; skipping ahead to figure out what his point really was. Just like Carr mentioned people are aware what’s happening to them but they don’t take the correct measures to fix them. Even reading Carr’s article I found myself getting bored or lost in the text.
