Exemplification Essay: Is Google Making USupid?

When is the last time you had to take a trip to the library and spend hours upon hours for your research? Chances are that your answer is probably never. Nowadays information is easily accessible just by a click of a mouse or a tap of a screen. Through the use of search engines, particularly Google, a researcher can virtually search anything that he or she need to know within a minute’s time. Given that, Is Google making us humans stupid? According to some, the use of Google is making us lazy, stupid, incompetent people that do not digest the knowledge the way we did years ago when long and strenuous hours were spent basking in the library’s atmosphere soaking up all the information we could, one page at a time. While Google has drastically changed the way we use our minds, it is needless to
say that we have become mentally incapable, in fact it has made us smarter, in a sense The perceived proposition is that internet is somehow “rewiring” our brains, to the point where we become mentally incapable of focus and indulgence due to the many popups, tweets, and updates that jump around the screen. In reality, these abilities that are claimed to be impaired actually are explored further, which naturally makes us smarter. According to Christopher Chabris and authors of “The Digital Alarmists are wrong”, they state “Of course, the brain changes any time we form a memory or learn a new skill, but new skills build on our existing capacities without fundamentally changing them” (2). This shows that the skills used when accessing the internet actually builds upon our cognitive capabilities. Additionally, Chabris and Simons state that the internet magnifies the scale and diversity of knowledge, essentially making collective exchanges possible. The authors state “It was not so long ago that scientists worked mostly within their own laboratories…” They continue, “Today scientists are more likely to collaborate in larger, more diverse teams that often span the globe” (Chabris Simons 2). By stating this, the authors point out the fact that the internet is actually making us smarter, by expanding the complex mental capacities that we already acquire. Furthermore, Nick Morgan of Forbes magazine conjures the idea that the internet makes us smarter because it allows us to indulge in information in more complex ways than written language, specifically audio and visual outlets.
The author implies that society’s drastic shift into the visual world is essentially making us smarter. Morgan writes “we’re learning a new language and a new medium” (Morgan 2). “We can now handle visual shortcuts and codes that would have baffled us even 20 years ago” (Morgan 2). This shows how our minds are developing alongside the advancement in technology. In addition, Morgan calls out the flaws in the concept that proclaims that people are no longer able to consume information in abundance as we used to. He notes “whatever you may think of Lost, or 24, or Homeland, the fact remains that these are long-form stories and require the viewer to be able to keep track of plot lines and characters every bit as complicated and dense as, say, Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (Morgan 2). Essentially, the former is a visual medium while the latter is printed. Morgan believes that we retain the same amount of information just by different means of
presentation. A great deal of journalist and “digital alarmist” alike assert that the internet has disrupted our train of thought and caused extensive damage to our critical form of cognitive thinking. However, we not only are not getting dumber, we are also getting smarter through the extensions that the internet gives us and through the newer, more complex ways information is displayed upon us. Chabris and Simons state that “the basic plan of the brain's ‘wiring’ is determined by genetic programs and biochemical interactions that do most of their work long before a child discovers Facebook and Twitter” (1). “There is simply no experimental evidence to show that living with new technologies fundamentally changes brain organization in a way that affects one's ability to focus” (1). Chabris and Simons believes that no matter how you put it, the ability to focus is not particularly affected by the technologies that people are introduced to. Simply put, the use of the internet is making us smarter individuals in a new, advanced, complex society. Ultimately, the given point is that the internet has reimagined the modern world, and doing so has made people more intelligent. Through the endless possibilities that the internet governs, we humans can continue to grow in intelligence as technology continues to advance.