PLN #3: Is Google Making Us Stupid?

“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr describes how using the internet modern day is slowing down peoples’ brains and not requiring them think as much as they used to, resulting in being less effective readers and learners.  Today, when people need to find research, all it takes is a few clicks and they get right to their destination without having to read barely anything, whereas only a few decades ago people would sit for hours looking through books for what they needed.  Since people don’t spend very much time reading actual literature nowadays, it is hard for people to focus on articles or stories more than a few paragraphs long without losing interest or getting distracted.  Also, when people are researching on the internet and looking for something specific, they tend to skim the articles and pick out the information they need, rather than read the whole article and absorb the whole thing.  In order to be effective in learning, people need to start taking responsibility for their own learning rather than having the internet do it for them.

          I think that the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr shows very effectively that modern day technology can be incredible and very productive, but unfortunately, like most great things, it also has cons.  For someone like me (and most teenagers/adults, for that matter) who uses the internet and online resources on a daily basis, this is upsetting because I don’t want to think that all the wonderful things that I get out of the internet can also have a negative effect on my learning.  As much as I love the internet, I also find it upsetting that many people who grew up reading books are not reading at all anymore, and there aren’t just a few.  Many have even confessed to not reading books at all anymore.  It is very interesting for me to think about the concept that people don’t grow up automatically learning how to read and speak; they need to be taught.  If generations to come just grow up reading things off the internet and never actually learn how to interpret literature on their own, they might never get the education that they need.  It is also very interesting to me to think that even if you are an older person who grew up reading but today barely reads ever, your brain can still change and adapt to the life that you are living, so your education about reading could go away if it is not exercised enough.  Although these could be scary thoughts, we can overcome them by reading more the traditional way and trying to learn for ourselves (rather than having the internet do it for us) so that we can make the most out of our learning.