Post by kaitlinsnapp on Aug 4, 2011 18:15:22 GMT -5
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
I am so glad I read this article. This concept that Carr presents around the internet and its effects on our attention spans puts my mind at ease. I just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible today and I struggled with the material just as Carr explained. Even though I found the book pretty interesting, I never really enjoyed reading it. For the longest time I thought I just didn’t like the book. However today, as I was finishing it up, I realized that I liked the plot and characters of the book. So I had to ask myself, why couldn’t I sit down and read it for hours upon end? Nicholas Carr’s article answered my question perfectly. I completely agree that our mindset has been changed by the internet. I can no longer just sit still in one place for an extended amount of time. I feel unproductive when reading even when I know I’m getting work done for school. I’ve noticed now that anytime I read a book my mind starts racing and jumping from one point of discussion to another, almost none of those topics involving my actual reading material.
It’s a shame. I feel I was most definitely a better reader in middle school than I am now just because I am out of practice. If I ever need information I immediately locate the “Google” toolbar on my home screen and type in a few key words. There is no trip to the library. No book finding or skimming to see what best addresses my research needs. What even is the Dewey System? Rather, there is just a keyboard and the magical “enter” button. To make matters worse, once the list of available sources on the Net pops up on my monitor, I am so overwhelmed by all the possible choices that I never truly read the entire article or page. Just as Carr explained, I am one of the many people who skims the material to see if it’s what I’m looking for. To take it all a step further, sometimes I don’t even read the information at all! Often I base whether I should even spend time skimming the page on the appearance of the website. The size and color of the font, along with the easy hyperlinked short cuts to other pages plays a big role in whether the site has “adequate” research information. In a sense, yes, Google is definitely threatening our intellectual levels.
Nevertheless, I don’t think Google and the World Wide Web can take all the credit for the steady dumbing down of humanity. Our entire lifestyle here in the United States encourages us to rush. We are not near patient enough to actually allow our brains to thoroughly learn new material. The media teaches each and every one of us to make the most of what little time we have each day by cramming it full of too many commitments. We work long hours, sleep little, and eat in a hurry. We are constantly on the go. So you can see how we are not use to just sitting still and reading for a long period of time. Anything along those lines has become unnatural to our busy bodies and therefore is not easy to do. Hence, it is not just Google that is “making us stupid,” but it is also our rushed lifestyle in general.
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
I am so glad I read this article. This concept that Carr presents around the internet and its effects on our attention spans puts my mind at ease. I just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible today and I struggled with the material just as Carr explained. Even though I found the book pretty interesting, I never really enjoyed reading it. For the longest time I thought I just didn’t like the book. However today, as I was finishing it up, I realized that I liked the plot and characters of the book. So I had to ask myself, why couldn’t I sit down and read it for hours upon end? Nicholas Carr’s article answered my question perfectly. I completely agree that our mindset has been changed by the internet. I can no longer just sit still in one place for an extended amount of time. I feel unproductive when reading even when I know I’m getting work done for school. I’ve noticed now that anytime I read a book my mind starts racing and jumping from one point of discussion to another, almost none of those topics involving my actual reading material.
It’s a shame. I feel I was most definitely a better reader in middle school than I am now just because I am out of practice. If I ever need information I immediately locate the “Google” toolbar on my home screen and type in a few key words. There is no trip to the library. No book finding or skimming to see what best addresses my research needs. What even is the Dewey System? Rather, there is just a keyboard and the magical “enter” button. To make matters worse, once the list of available sources on the Net pops up on my monitor, I am so overwhelmed by all the possible choices that I never truly read the entire article or page. Just as Carr explained, I am one of the many people who skims the material to see if it’s what I’m looking for. To take it all a step further, sometimes I don’t even read the information at all! Often I base whether I should even spend time skimming the page on the appearance of the website. The size and color of the font, along with the easy hyperlinked short cuts to other pages plays a big role in whether the site has “adequate” research information. In a sense, yes, Google is definitely threatening our intellectual levels.
Nevertheless, I don’t think Google and the World Wide Web can take all the credit for the steady dumbing down of humanity. Our entire lifestyle here in the United States encourages us to rush. We are not near patient enough to actually allow our brains to thoroughly learn new material. The media teaches each and every one of us to make the most of what little time we have each day by cramming it full of too many commitments. We work long hours, sleep little, and eat in a hurry. We are constantly on the go. So you can see how we are not use to just sitting still and reading for a long period of time. Anything along those lines has become unnatural to our busy bodies and therefore is not easy to do. Hence, it is not just Google that is “making us stupid,” but it is also our rushed lifestyle in general.
I am so glad I read this article. This concept that Carr presents around the internet and its effects on our attention spans puts my mind at ease. I just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible today and I struggled with the material just as Carr explained. Even though I found the book pretty interesting, I never really enjoyed reading it. For the longest time I thought I just didn’t like the book. However today, as I was finishing it up, I realized that I liked the plot and characters of the book. So I had to ask myself, why couldn’t I sit down and read it for hours upon end? Nicholas Carr’s article answered my question perfectly. I completely agree that our mindset has been changed by the internet. I can no longer just sit still in one place for an extended amount of time. I feel unproductive when reading even when I know I’m getting work done for school. I’ve noticed now that anytime I read a book my mind starts racing and jumping from one point of discussion to another, almost none of those topics involving my actual reading material.
It’s a shame. I feel I was most definitely a better reader in middle school than I am now just because I am out of practice. If I ever need information I immediately locate the “Google” toolbar on my home screen and type in a few key words. There is no trip to the library. No book finding or skimming to see what best addresses my research needs. What even is the Dewey System? Rather, there is just a keyboard and the magical “enter” button. To make matters worse, once the list of available sources on the Net pops up on my monitor, I am so overwhelmed by all the possible choices that I never truly read the entire article or page. Just as Carr explained, I am one of the many people who skims the material to see if it’s what I’m looking for. To take it all a step further, sometimes I don’t even read the information at all! Often I base whether I should even spend time skimming the page on the appearance of the website. The size and color of the font, along with the easy hyperlinked short cuts to other pages plays a big role in whether the site has “adequate” research information. In a sense, yes, Google is definitely threatening our intellectual levels.
Nevertheless, I don’t think Google and the World Wide Web can take all the credit for the steady dumbing down of humanity. Our entire lifestyle here in the United States encourages us to rush. We are not near patient enough to actually allow our brains to thoroughly learn new material. The media teaches each and every one of us to make the most of what little time we have each day by cramming it full of too many commitments. We work long hours, sleep little, and eat in a hurry. We are constantly on the go. So you can see how we are not use to just sitting still and reading for a long period of time. Anything along those lines has become unnatural to our busy bodies and therefore is not easy to do. Hence, it is not just Google that is “making us stupid,” but it is also our rushed lifestyle in general.
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
I am so glad I read this article. This concept that Carr presents around the internet and its effects on our attention spans puts my mind at ease. I just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible today and I struggled with the material just as Carr explained. Even though I found the book pretty interesting, I never really enjoyed reading it. For the longest time I thought I just didn’t like the book. However today, as I was finishing it up, I realized that I liked the plot and characters of the book. So I had to ask myself, why couldn’t I sit down and read it for hours upon end? Nicholas Carr’s article answered my question perfectly. I completely agree that our mindset has been changed by the internet. I can no longer just sit still in one place for an extended amount of time. I feel unproductive when reading even when I know I’m getting work done for school. I’ve noticed now that anytime I read a book my mind starts racing and jumping from one point of discussion to another, almost none of those topics involving my actual reading material.
It’s a shame. I feel I was most definitely a better reader in middle school than I am now just because I am out of practice. If I ever need information I immediately locate the “Google” toolbar on my home screen and type in a few key words. There is no trip to the library. No book finding or skimming to see what best addresses my research needs. What even is the Dewey System? Rather, there is just a keyboard and the magical “enter” button. To make matters worse, once the list of available sources on the Net pops up on my monitor, I am so overwhelmed by all the possible choices that I never truly read the entire article or page. Just as Carr explained, I am one of the many people who skims the material to see if it’s what I’m looking for. To take it all a step further, sometimes I don’t even read the information at all! Often I base whether I should even spend time skimming the page on the appearance of the website. The size and color of the font, along with the easy hyperlinked short cuts to other pages plays a big role in whether the site has “adequate” research information. In a sense, yes, Google is definitely threatening our intellectual levels.
Nevertheless, I don’t think Google and the World Wide Web can take all the credit for the steady dumbing down of humanity. Our entire lifestyle here in the United States encourages us to rush. We are not near patient enough to actually allow our brains to thoroughly learn new material. The media teaches each and every one of us to make the most of what little time we have each day by cramming it full of too many commitments. We work long hours, sleep little, and eat in a hurry. We are constantly on the go. So you can see how we are not use to just sitting still and reading for a long period of time. Anything along those lines has become unnatural to our busy bodies and therefore is not easy to do. Hence, it is not just Google that is “making us stupid,” but it is also our rushed lifestyle in general.