Media Multitasking Essay Summary
Is Google Making Us Stupid Summary
Nicholas Carr begins his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains” he references Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, particularly the part where a character is dismantling the brain of and artificial intelligence machine. Carr goes so far as to say that he can relate to the aforementioned machine because he feels his brain has also been tampered with. He quickly loses interest in the activities he used to enjoy, such as reading, because he spends so much time on the Internet and believes it is affecting his concentration abilities. He is fair in that he admits that the Internet has been useful in connecting with people and finding information but he also believes that, like a double-edged sword, the benefit comes with a price. Carr believes that media through the Internet can provide the information you need but also shapes the course of a person’s thought process. He believes our minds will begin to need to take data in the same way that the Internet does, “In a swiftly moving stream of particles.” Nicholas Carr is not the only one with this opinion; Scott Karp is an online blogger who claims he has completely stopped reading books even though he graduated college as a literature major. Karp believes that, since he started using the Internet, the way he thinks has changed but not the way he reads. A study recently conducted by the University College London backs this theory up. The five year study shows that most online users only skim dialogue, sporadically save long articles to read later, and tend to, “power browse”, a term that means people will look for keywords that pertain to their research to avoid reading more than they have to. Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist and author, says that, “We are not only what we read; we are how we read.” Wolf is of the opinion that the way people read on the Internet puts efficiency and immediacy above all else and may dwindle the
Nicholas Carr begins his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains” he references Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, particularly the part where a character is dismantling the brain of and artificial intelligence machine. Carr goes so far as to say that he can relate to the aforementioned machine because he feels his brain has also been tampered with. He quickly loses interest in the activities he used to enjoy, such as reading, because he spends so much time on the Internet and believes it is affecting his concentration abilities. He is fair in that he admits that the Internet has been useful in connecting with people and finding information but he also believes that, like a double-edged sword, the benefit comes with a price. Carr believes that media through the Internet can provide the information you need but also shapes the course of a person’s thought process. He believes our minds will begin to need to take data in the same way that the Internet does, “In a swiftly moving stream of particles.” Nicholas Carr is not the only one with this opinion; Scott Karp is an online blogger who claims he has completely stopped reading books even though he graduated college as a literature major. Karp believes that, since he started using the Internet, the way he thinks has changed but not the way he reads. A study recently conducted by the University College London backs this theory up. The five year study shows that most online users only skim dialogue, sporadically save long articles to read later, and tend to, “power browse”, a term that means people will look for keywords that pertain to their research to avoid reading more than they have to. Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist and author, says that, “We are not only what we read; we are how we read.” Wolf is of the opinion that the way people read on the Internet puts efficiency and immediacy above all else and may dwindle the
Cited: Carr, N. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic.com. July/August 2008. 19 August 2008. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200807/google Page, L. Brin, S. Google Mission Statement. Google.com. September 1998. http://www.google.com/about/company/ Wolf, M. "Learning to think in a digital world". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-11-01. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Wikipedia.com. April 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Google_Making_Us_Stupid%3F