Out of the essays I have read so far, I would have to say that this one wasn't very interesting and dragged on for longer than it should have. Yes, I found that it had some very good points that opened my eyes to what our society is getting used too, but I disagreed with the assumption that the internet is making us stupid. Towards the end of the essay, Nicholas Carr stated, "So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism." Meaning that the reader should most likely be questioning the points he is bringing up and I found myself doing that throughout the entire essay. One comment that I disagreed with was, "deep reading is indistinguishable from deep thinking." In my opinion, I think that the ability to take an idea or thought and manipulate it in your mind takes a lot more effort than deep reading. Anyone can get lost in a book, fiction or nonfiction, but not everyone has the ability to take something and create some sort of wisdom out of it.
One point that I did agree with was the fact that society's concentration often starts to drift during reading and it is becoming more and more of a struggle to get into that deep reading that used to come so naturally to us. People no longer have the patience to sit and struggle through research when they could simply skim or go on to the internet and find their answer within minutes. Is that a bad thing though? Is doing that making us stupid? Throughout this essay, Carr was giving the reader examples as to how the internet is so easily shaping the human mind, but isn't that what is supposed to happen? The human mind is what has allowed us to come up with so many different inventions. Those inventions then shape what life is going to be like from here on out and shouldn't that be considered the way of life by now? Using your resources is recommended by everyone. Schools encourage students to go on the internet. That doesn't mean that we rely on the internet so much that we can't find other ways to get what we need.
One last thing I noticed about this essay was that it didn't mention Google until the fifth page and the essay barely had seven pages. I found it interesting that the essay was named, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and Google was barely even mentioned and when it was, it wasn't even talked that badly about. Larry Page stated, "Google is the ultimate search engine and is something as smart as people-- of smarter." Which is true, but who created Google in the first place? People. People have created Google and the internet to help others. There is nothing wrong with taking a shortcut when doing some research and going on the internet. That is what it is there for anyways, right? The internet isn't making us stupid, it is simply allowing us to become more efficient.
I totally agree with you Lydia! Not only was this a particularly long article that kept repeating itself, but also I did not agree with the majority of the paper. I don't think the internet is making us stupid, just more efficient as you said. Sure we skim and maybe just pick up the most important points on some websites, but that broadens our horizons. We learn about many completely different subjects quickly, something that could not have been done in the past. Plus, if we take a particular interest in a topic, we can easily dig deeper and do in depth research.
ReplyDeleteHey Lydia, I hope you summer is also going well. I couldn't agree with the two of you more. The article dragged on and on, which made me want to simply skim everything that the author had to say. I love how Ann-Marie put it: how it "broadens our horizons." Efficiency plays a huge role in our society, so the internet is simply adding to this factor. We may skim some topics that don't particularly spark our interests, but when something does, "we can easily did deeper." It isn't fair for the author to group everyone into the same category, saying the internet is making us stupid.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you Lydia. At first after I read the article I thought that maybe the author made a good point. I mean I'm sure that the internet has affected the way we think, but like your said we are adapting to the new technology that we have and that is not a bad thing. The internet simply has assisted us in completing tasks that would have been far more difficult without it. This relates to the point you made about efficiency. With the internet we can accomplish tasks faster and move on to new ones quicker, how can that be a negative?
ReplyDeleteNice post Lydia. It was refreshing to know that someone was questioning the author when reading a persuasive essay on Google. When I first read the article I could agree with the author by stating that google may be making us stupid. From the points that were presented from one side to your own opinion, both were well written and thought out. Once I was done reading your essay I was caught in the middle not sure of what to think because for every point that Carr presented, you had a point to counter it which made the essay and response both intriguing and intelligent. Nice job.
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