Is Google Making Us Stupid?

The first thing I noticed about this article by Nicholas Carr was the illustration that was done by Guy Billout. The police car says "Internet Patrol" on the back of it and the police officer is writing a man, not in a car, a ticket while they stand next to a sign for the speed allowed. This implies that the man was using the Internet faster then allowed, or faster then thought safe. Does that mean the speed of the Internet can be considered unsafe?

The reference to the movie "A Space Oddessy" appropriately relates the supercomputer in the film, Hal, to the malfunctioning that may occur in today's technology. The description of the man who's mind is changing is due to the Internet, and is talking about how his mind can no longer stay focused on a slow paced book when today we are used to computers feeding our minds at incredible speeds. Internet has allowed our minds to change the way we think, and the way we access information, no longer through books, but now in seconds via Google. Come to think about that, I used to read much more when I was younger. I always equate that change with the fact that I am much more busy with school work and work in general but maybe it also has to do with the fact that I can much more quickly just go read something online, or have interaction over the computer. Something I really notice in the way I read, is how I feel about lengthy articles and posts. I'd prefer a summary. I know a lot of people who use www.sparknotes.com in order to avoid reading long books. Sparknotes is a tool of the Internet to avoid taking the time to read, its knowledge- but faster.

I like the word "power-browse", it really describes how we read things online differently, traveling from link to link and using hypertext to quickly go from site to site searching for the paragraph or small quote we will end up using instead of thoroughly inspecting every word. The median we use for language definitely changes how we write and what we are writing. In the article Carr takes note of a writer who's writing changed after his switch from pen and paper to the type writer. In our WSC 001 class, we talked about this all the time, including our construction paper crayon activity. This activity showed us that for the most part what you are writing on can break up and change how you approach the same topic.

The clock controls every ones lives every day. Even while writing this, I have probably checked the time on my computer, cell phone, and watch more than 100 times today. I know that I am obsessed with time. We base our entire daily routine on the time of day. This dependence is similar to the dependence on the Internet because it changed the way we think about things, and what is important. Time also effects what we want to read. Even the New York Times changed it's layout to include shorter clips of stories so that when the consumer is in a hurry they can get a quick overview of the story. Our attention spans are just so short that no one wants to take the time to read more then necessary to figure out what is going on in the world.

Google uses its search engines to run experiments everyday, testing to find out how and what people take from the information they are looking for on the Internet. In Google's attempt to be a perfect search engine they stated that their mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Allowing perfect access in the most convenient and quickest way possible. Carr describes our minds as "hyperactive" and I think that describes how the Internet has changed our minds the most.

hy⋅per⋅ac⋅tive 
–adjective
1.unusually or abnormally active:

Compared to the slower paced thoughtful minds of our ancestors, our minds today move at an unusually fast pace where we cant meditate for too long on any one subject, without becoming distracted. Carr is worried that as the Internet continues to make life easier, our minds and intelligence will slowly turn to completely dependent on technology.