The rise in popularity of the Internet to conduct daily activities is having a direct effect on the way people process and store information. It has never been easier for one to gain instant access to information whenever needed. This information comes from all over the world, and is accessible right at our fingertips. With the convenience of instant information access, the question needs to be posed as to how this is affecting our way of life and processes for storing information. The rising use of social media is also beginning to negatively affect people’s thought processes; we are losing the ability to think critically, perpetuating belief perseverance and confirmation bias. As people surf the web, they increasingly build a repertoire of beliefs based on the information they relate to. Often they will choose to believe false information simply because it follows the pattern of their preconceived notions. This leads us to a burning question: Is the Internet dumbing us down? As technology is developing at faster rates than ever, the Internet is proving to be quite the wonder. Never before has it been easier for a person to have instant access to nearly all of the information in the world, right at their fingertips. In 2012, the Internet had 2,405,518,376 users (Internet World Stats, 2012). But, with this convenience of instant information, one must stop to ask what the negative repercussions may be. Does all of this mindless surfing inadvertently lead to the loss of sustained attention and reflective thought (Tucker, 2010)? As noted by Clark (2010), cognitive psychologists are concerned over the development of behaviors directly tied to people's need to be in constant connection, including directing their attention toward their... ... middle of paper ... ... (2012) point to the positive factors that the Internet brings to us by offering social networking sites that contribute to the positive well-being of users. Carr (2011) points out the double-sided coin of neuroplasticity. As evidenced by Graham and Metaxas (2003), it is easy for Internet users to fall for inaccurate information, including advertising claims, government misinformation, and propaganda. It would be prudent for schools to focus on teaching students how to accurately conduct Internet searches and identify reliable information. At this time, there may not be an answer as to whether the Internet is dumbing us down. It is important, as with any good thing, to observe moderation. Works Cited Bargh, J. A., & McKenna, K. A. (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55(1), 573-590. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141922
The argument that the web is to blame for making us dumb by Nicholas Carr convinces his audience that they might succumb to becoming braindead due to excessive online clicking. Hopping from link to link never fully understanding the content. While Michael Rosenwald points out that we are slowly molding the brain to only skim and search for key words to put together. With these two programed ways our brains work soon libraries and book stores will cease to exist. Or will they? Clay Shirky challenges this thought by saying that among the cat videos and conspiracy theories there lies true gold within the websites of the internet. The gold consists of scientific journals and a place to discuss anything and everything. A community to share ideas and culture. Has the internet changed your brain for the
In The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, he asserts that the evolution of information and communication technology (ICTs) is having a detrimental impact on our brains despite the many benefits and advances we have made with it. His main focus is on the internet which he commonly refers to as the “universal medium” (92). Carr presents a very detailed but biased argument in which he views the internet and other technologies as the adversary of critical thinking and progress. To Carr, we are sacrificing our ability to think logically because we are choosing the simpler way to gain knowledge.
In the articles, “How Facts Backfire” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Keohane and Carr explain the cognitive blocks we are faced with in society. Keohane explains how we can be misinformed because of our beliefs. These beliefs can cloud our judgement of what is true and what isn’t true. Carr focuses on how the internet has changed the way we think. Carr includes how the internet can distract us, making tasks harder to complete. Both Keohane and Carr show us the negatives side effects of cognition.
Atlantic journalist Nicholas Carr confesses that he feels something has been “tinkering with his brain.” The internet, he fears, may be messing with our minds. We have lost the ability to focus on a simple task, and memory retention is steadily declining. He is worried about the effect the internet has on the human brain, and where it may take us in the future. In response to this article, Jamais Cascio, also a journalist for the Atlantic, provides his stance on the issue. He argues that this different way of thinking is an adaptation derived from our environment. Ultimately, he thinks that this staccato way of thinking is simply a natural evolution, one that will help to advance the human race.
In Nicholas Carr’s, “Is google making us stupid,” Carr indicates a problem that is affecting a majority of the internet users; that being as time we spend on the internet increases, the more we are diminishing our intellectual ability, and losing the ability to become intertwined in a lengthy article or an extended book. Carr states, the technology we are in contact with on a daily basis, has a negative effect on our cognitive ability, and is forcing our brain’s to evolve. Throughout the article, Carr argues the negative effect media, mainly the internet, is having on his capacity and concentration: he effectively argues his point through the uses of many rhetoric appeals, drawing in the reader. His use of logos compares the past and present
Nowadays people don’t bother sitting down and going through an article or book from page to page, because it’s not a good use of their time as they can get all information faster through the web. By examining the behaviors of computer users, both authors argue that people don’t really care about deep knowledge of what they are learning or reading. People want to know how things work or are connected in an instant. They feel that they don't need to critically think about the information to help get them along in life. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” supports this claim by citing a scientific study from the University College London were the researchers examined the behavior of visitors to a couple popular websites and found that people using the sites displayed skimming activity (41). The users of the sites did not bother taking the time to read the articles, but they instead power browsed, jumping from one site to the other and hardly returning to the websites they had already visited. In addition, the internet has made people accustomed to new reading styles that people don’t fully comprehend or absorb material. They read things for apparent meaning. Carr also says “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.”
Steven Pinker and Nicholas Carr share their opposing views on the effects that mass media can have on the brain. In Carr’s Atlantic Monthly article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” it explores his viewpoints on how increased computer use affects our thought process in a negative manner. Carr critically analyzes that having widespread access to the internet via the internet has done more harm by disabling our ability to think complexly like it is the researching in a library. On the other hand, Pinker expresses how the media improves our brain’s cognitive functions. Pinker expresses that we should embrace the new technological advances and all we need is willpower to not get carried away in the media. Although both authors bring very valid arguments
Nicholas Carr states that spending too much time on the internet has caused him to lose focus while reading, writing, and focusing in general. He claims that he gets too wrapped up in the pleasures of the internet such as shopping, scrolling through Facebook, paying bills, etcetera. In summary, it is shortening his attention span. Carr thinks that he needs to step away from the internet in order to correct his “neural circuitry”.
2. Previous Research: There is a debate as to whether Internet use has a positive or negative impact in our social lives. One study found that for 40% of the college students in their sample, the Internet had been instrumental in the formation of new friendships. Moreover, 7% of their sample had used the Internet to find a romantic partner. The participants in the study claimed that one of the main benefits of communicating through the Internet was reduced social anxiety and shyness (Knox, 2001). In another study, there was evidence that lonely individuals were more likely to use email and the Internet in order to stay connected with others—in theory, giving them a healthier social life—however, evidence showed that heavy use had a negative social impact (Morahan-Martin, 2003). Finally, another study found that individuals comfortable or regularly involved in social gatherings reported more positive effects from Internet use than shy individuals less involved in their community (Kraut, 2002).
Over the years, technology has thrived and became very popular. One of the most used technologies over the time is the Internet. Although, it is very popular many have noticed the effects that it has on our mind and the way we process new information. It’s a struggle to even deeply read an article that is more than a few pages for many that once was so very easy. Nicholas Carr is one of the many people that have noticed what the Internet is doing to us!
Various electronics are frequently used to go on pointless websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, which ruin society’s social abilities. More and more people use social media on the internet as a communication source. This does not apply merely to kids and teens, but adults as well. Using these sorts of websites as a way of communicating causes many individuals’ social skills to decrease. A plethora of children and teens would rather stay inside and interact with their friends through the internet than go hang out with them. Before technology people were not afraid to go up to a random person and talk to them. Now many friendships form through the internet and these friendships are not genuine. When these “friends” meet in person, they find nothing to talk about. For example, I remember after watching Perks of being a Wallflower, a movie taking place in the early nineties, my friends and I discussed how all the characters communicated in person and during hanging out they played games and talked. Now...
In Nicholas Carr’s article Is Google Making Us Stupid? he explains his concern about how the internet is negatively affecting the minds of its users. Carr uses his own experiences, input from his peers, scholarly research, and concepts from historically significant people, to support his view that the ease of having a myriad of information readily available (via the internet) has a crippling effect on the mind. Nicholas first explains his newfound difficulty when attempting to read two or more pages of material. He states that he notices a growing inability to concentrate. He attributes this difficulty to not only the large amount of time that he spends online, but to the amount of information that he is able to find in such a short timeframe. According to Carr’s interpretation of concepts expressed by media theorist Marshall McLuhan, all forms of media serve as a medium for the transport of information, thoughts, and the methods for formulating those thoughts. He believes that the internet alters one’s mind to process information the same way that it is distributed; in a fast...
The internet is becoming an extremely important tool for nearly everybody. It is the most recent and progressive media surely to be the “medium” of the future. Yet the debate persists that the internet may or may not benefit the human mind. The web/internet makes the human mind collectively more intelligent. For instance, if a person searches for a topic online, the answer would be immediately available rather than going to the library to find several books and periodicals for information. While a person searches through the internet for data, this research process helps develop areas of the human brain not normally used.
Answers are what make the world go round. Everyone loves answers because they give people gratification. Luckily, today we have a whole database of answers. This database is more commonly known as the Internet. Although the Internet is an amazing tool for research, the Internet can negatively affect how we learn and how we obtain answers. The fact that the Internet is so accessible, and is so easy to use, knowledge and answers are constantly available. One might think this would make our culture smarter, but from a certain standpoint, this surplus of knowledge has made our culture less intelligent. This is true because the Internet has granted people the ability to attain knowledge without actually thinking. This horrible byproduct of the Internet has opened the door to many negatives. After talking with Morristown-Beard School teacher, Christian Rabin, about this subject, it is clear that the over-indulgence of the Internet is not always good for our brains.
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