P6 Is Google Really Making Us Stupid?

Is Google really making us stupid? Yes and no. After reading Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” I would have to agree with Carr in that used properly, Google and the Internet is an incredibly advanced and useful tool, but is also hurting our society in a way.

Google and the Internet is the quickest and most convenient way to access information about pretty much any topic. Instead of spending hours in the library among enormous textbooks and encyclopedias, one Google search can result in the same information in a fraction of the time. Talk about efficiency. In that way, Google is indeed increasing our knowledge.

            However, if so many people have such easy access to that information, then why aren’t we all super geniuses Albert Einstein or Mark Zuckerberg? (I actually had to do a quick Google search to make sure I spelt his name right. Ironic?) The reason we aren’t like them is because even though we have immediate access, the difference is how we access this knowledge. As Carr states, “Google is doing the work of the mind” and we simply click and click and click until we find what we are looking for. The only work we are doing is a quick scan to see if what Google finds really answers our question.

            Another way the Internet is compromising our minds is it is shortening our attention spans because on the Internet, once you get bored with something, you are just one click away from doing something else. As Carr wonderfully summarizes this idea in a metaphor, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” It is becoming uncommon for people to sit down a read because when you’re online the instant the you get bored, you make a few clicks and just like that you are on another website. And if we can’t keep our attention on one webpage, how are we expected to focus on something so dull and lifeless as a novel or newspaper?

            Contrary to some of my classmates and even lit majors in this article, I still find myself reading print, especially books, for hours at a time. For me, a good book can capture my attention until I’m too tired and need to go to bed. I find books entertaining because they tell a story, fiction or none fiction, that is so different from my own life that it is exciting. Call me a book nerd, but I still believe in their fun.

            So again I ask, is Google really making us stupid? My Answer is still yes and no. If used appropriately, I think it’s an awesome tool to increase our brainpower. If abused, and used to do our thinking for us, then yes, Google is decreasing our knowledge.