Post by marcmanheim on Aug 6, 2011 13:53:16 GMT -5
Whenever I read an article such as this one I always think about how years ago older people were warning younger individuals about how TV would rot their brains or give them cancer or one of the multitude of horrible things that would supposedly happen if you used a new appliance. I’m not sure what Is considered deep reading by the author of this article, but I recently read a 550 page book without skimming or getting largely distracted. I came out of this with many new ideas about the world and what it may have in store for us. I am also an avid internet user. I am sitting here on my computer about three to five hours a day on average and have a lot of experience searching the web. So I must say that I was a little confused when the author, an experienced reader and searcher explained his newly discovered problem. Now, it is completely possible that I am merely too young to have developed “deep reading” skills, but I’m still an avid reader and am more than capable of getting through a long book without getting distracted. This personal experience leads me to believe that we’re not changing at all (At least not everyone). We don’t skim articles on the internet because our brain has programmed itself to go faster, we skim and read more articles in a shorter amount of time simply because we can. Before the internet, one would only have a certain number of books on a particular subject to look through to find the information he or she needed, and would therefore make certain not to miss anything when going through them. With the internet however, we are no longer limited to a few books. The entire world is our oyster. We have access to more of the books and writings on a particular subject than we could read in our lifetimes. We have not lost any reading abilities. If the author of this article were deprived of internet access for a period of time, he would likely be able to read as deeply as he did before the arrival if the internet. In short, our brains are not changing; the world around them however is improving rapidly. We’re not losing our ability to read.
However, there IS a danger here. My current generation began our education before the internet was widespread and learned to read “the old fashion way”. Future generations whose education will likely be based on the internet in one way or another will likely not be able to develop the skills needed to get through long pieces of writing and prose. It should be put into consideration that children under a certain age are given internet restrictions so they can develop both styles of reading effectively.
Overall, I have to say that no, Google is not making us stupid. Quite the opposite. It is making us develop a new, efficient way of searching for information. It is not however, negatively affecting the way we process that information.
However, there IS a danger here. My current generation began our education before the internet was widespread and learned to read “the old fashion way”. Future generations whose education will likely be based on the internet in one way or another will likely not be able to develop the skills needed to get through long pieces of writing and prose. It should be put into consideration that children under a certain age are given internet restrictions so they can develop both styles of reading effectively.
Overall, I have to say that no, Google is not making us stupid. Quite the opposite. It is making us develop a new, efficient way of searching for information. It is not however, negatively affecting the way we process that information.