Post by DiamondPace on Aug 9, 2011 13:07:19 GMT -5
In reading “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, I began to relate to many of the troubling occurrences laid in front of me. Statements such as: “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print” and “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” are all too familiar as I look back on my experience reading longer works in the past couple of years, the years that I have been more involved on the net. As a matter of fact, in reading this very article, my mind begins to drift and wonder as I realize I would rather be spending the last days of my summer enjoying my freedom, not reading online articles. However, this article strikes a chord with me, and unfortunately, I believe it may strike a few chords with my peers and Internet users across the world.
However, I am glad to know Nicholas Carr hasn’t spent his time writing a biased article about this epidemic on teenagers, like Deresiewicz did in “The End Of Solitude.” Carr rightfully utilized adult sources such as, Bruce Friedman, who admitted that “Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.” Although it is falsely believed that more young adults use the internet than people over 30, the truth is that many older people use the internet in a desire to stay young and stay savvy to the new trends. Thus the negative results of the internet have reached all ages and the only solution is to greatly limit the amount of time spent online. The problem has arised from us letting the internet rule our reading lives and outweigh the amount of time that we spend reading in the traditional sense. If we back off the internet and start reading tangible books like we used to, our ability to read and absorb information may improve. However, it is not merely or ability to “absorb information” that has faltered, but our ability to think deeper, making inferences and connections within the text to realize the greater meaning. We rarely find reason to do this on the internet. Although reading in the traditional sense is largely done for pleasure, we also read for information. Now, there is no need to read a 500 page book to gain information, when we could easily type a few words into google and receive the answer we were looking for.
Thus, we need not look towards google and the internet to solve our daily problems “enrich ourselves with knowledge.” The greatest thinkers and influential people in this world did not become that way by using the internet to solve their problems. They read books, and studied and became the people who invented our unfortunate substitute. Furthermore, if we do not go back to reading in the traditional sense, we may never become surpass the intelligence of Albert Einstein or other great thinkers.
However, I am glad to know Nicholas Carr hasn’t spent his time writing a biased article about this epidemic on teenagers, like Deresiewicz did in “The End Of Solitude.” Carr rightfully utilized adult sources such as, Bruce Friedman, who admitted that “Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.” Although it is falsely believed that more young adults use the internet than people over 30, the truth is that many older people use the internet in a desire to stay young and stay savvy to the new trends. Thus the negative results of the internet have reached all ages and the only solution is to greatly limit the amount of time spent online. The problem has arised from us letting the internet rule our reading lives and outweigh the amount of time that we spend reading in the traditional sense. If we back off the internet and start reading tangible books like we used to, our ability to read and absorb information may improve. However, it is not merely or ability to “absorb information” that has faltered, but our ability to think deeper, making inferences and connections within the text to realize the greater meaning. We rarely find reason to do this on the internet. Although reading in the traditional sense is largely done for pleasure, we also read for information. Now, there is no need to read a 500 page book to gain information, when we could easily type a few words into google and receive the answer we were looking for.
Thus, we need not look towards google and the internet to solve our daily problems “enrich ourselves with knowledge.” The greatest thinkers and influential people in this world did not become that way by using the internet to solve their problems. They read books, and studied and became the people who invented our unfortunate substitute. Furthermore, if we do not go back to reading in the traditional sense, we may never become surpass the intelligence of Albert Einstein or other great thinkers.