Sunday, July 5, 2009

Is Google making us stupid?

Perhaps you read this article (same name as post title) by Nicholas Carr in The Atlantic when it came out about a year ago. If not, it's an interesting read about the real and potential impact of all of this technology on our lives and minds.
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2 comments:

  1. BryanJuly 6, 2009 at 8:02 AM

    I find it ironic that Carr writes an article about his inability to concentrate on long works, then uses 4,220 words and 40 paragraphs to create his argument (yes, I cut and pasted into Word and used the word count feature out of curiosity).

    Although I understand what Carr is saying, I don't think Google is making us stupid. In fact, I'd argue the opposite: Google is making us smarter.

    Before the Internet, I would do research for an academic paper, spending hours pouring over materials that had little to do with my topic, only to eventually discover a small bit of the information I needed. Now I can discover material almost instantly. One could argue that all those hours of pouring over material exposed me to new knowledge, and that would be somewhat correct, but I never tried to commit any of it to memory, mainly because it wasn't what I needed.

    Now, I use Google Scholar, or some other academic search tool, find the information I need, and then read several articles on the subject, providing a much deeper understanding of the topic than spending hours looking at extraneous material. Also, when I'm reading an article and come across a concept I'm unfamiliar with (which happens frequently), I highlight the item and Google it. These little side readings help me understand the original article much better.

    With Google, I spend time reading relevant information. Without Google, I waste time reading irrelevant information in hopes that I'll eventually mine a nugget of information gold.

    As a postscript, here's an article that says adult literary reading rates are actually on the rise, rather than on the decline, as Carr suggested:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/books/12reading.html

    ...and the article doesn't count typical online reading, such as news or journals.

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  2. NancyMcJuly 7, 2009 at 4:06 AM

    I agree with Bryan that Google has helped me get to the meat quicker that I was able to learn more. It also has allowed people to explore topics that they might not have had they had to go to the library. The ease of the search means that my 80 yr old mother doesnt mind looking something up that in the past she might have just put off till some opportunity later that might never appear.

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