Is it?

[dowellharmon]

The fact that the internet is changing the way we think is very true and relevant to the world, but especially our generation. I know many people, (sadly including myself) have a less than positive outlook when it comes to reading the majority of the time. Reading seems almost useless and tedious when you could find the same information in a matter of minutes on the Internet. In a time which is focused around speed, “old-fashioned” reading seems to be about the same as trying to go against the norm. I know that I have found little emphasis on the ability to read and find valuable information from literature and a bigger emphasis on using Google to find the same information. I think because of the increased technology, the times are making it much easier to bypass library research and the use of a mouse and keys to get what you need. It is odd though, that as technology increases, many schools still try to fight the curve for whatever reason (usually money I suppose) and don’t embrace the technological wonders available to them such as electronic textbooks and even laptops. The schools believe in scholarly research and try to limit the technology used in research, but they limit us by not providing a wide range of literary information or the skills by which to obtain that information from the literature. Technology has also changed the way we think and form opinions, not just access to information. As the article said, “They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” The internet maintains biases throughout its sites which distort the “facts” upon which we base our opinions on. The internet, and especially the most visited site is beginning to govern which sites a surfer accesses first, by listing daughter sites before other web pages to promote business, which indirectly produces a bias even in the world wide web. The ability to access the thoughts and ideas of great minds, or the minds of peers, allows a surfer to blend his own opinions with those of the ones read about, making the idea in his/her head not truly original. Take this blog for example. It is almost impossible to read another students post and not use any part of their answers within your own response. The only way to truly combat this problem is to not read any other entries before doing your own, but Google, along with the rest of the Internet, has trained us to believe we must look at previous examples to ensure we are doing the correct thing, or are “right” in some way. Google and the rest of the Internet have made the human race more dependent on each other due to the globalization and merging of many boundaries that previously held people within their region or niche. Thus, to answer the question is Google making us stupid, I don’t think there is a true right answer, but a way to argue that its access to expansive amounts of media makes us much more academic, but that the internet is taking our ability to think independently and is corrupting the learning process.