Everything Makes Us Stupid

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During the summer of 2008, the Atlantic came out with an article by Nicholas Carr entitled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” detailing how the internet may have adverse effects on human’s ability to receive information by effecting “concentration and contemplation”.  The article has stirred a broad discussion on how we interact with the internet and it’s effects.  In response to this article, Charles Arthur chimes in that it’s not Google per say or even the internet, rather it’s computer screens and how text is designed online that affects concentration. Carr cites Maryanne Wolfe’s expertise on the subject and who is a developmental psychologist at Tufts University (author of Proust and the Squid: The Story of Science of the Reading Brain) .

Wolfe worries that the style or reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace.

There is merit in what both writers are bringing to the table in that I feel like there is a lack of concern or a unawareness of how the internet affects people and society.  Carr’s argument has a negative outlook on how we are changing and with his provocative title he suggests Google as one of the main players contributing to the problem.  Whereas Arthur points out it cannot be Google alone, but rather other factors, including computer screen resolution and the inherent differences between reading online as opposed to a book.  The most important aspect that one should take away from this discussion is that the internet is effecting how we perceive and take in information and subsequently will affect our cognitive processes.  It’s important to stay open minded in that there isn’t one root to why and how these changes are occurring.  We need to consider that there are most likely multiple factors of how the internet is changing us and try to stay objective in determining whether or not these effects are a negative or a positive.