Is Google Making Us Stupid?

This article was written by Nicholas Carr of The Atlantic Online website in the summer of 2008. Within the article Carr discusses the effects the internet has had on our ability to process and retain information. Instead of having the stamina needed to read lengthy, in-depth pieces of literature, we are instead crippled by the quick flood of information provided to us by the internet, causing us to skim instead of read. He talks about the internet as both a blessing and a curse, it gives us unparalleled access to copious amounts of information with just the click of a button. On the other hand, such quantities of information presented to us on a single page may do more harm than good.

The pros of the internet are many. It allows us to have unparalleled acces to virtually an infinite amount of information. With a simple click of a mouse we can enter a site with terabytes of data, all leading to other sites with the same amount of knowledge. All this can be controlled and processed through mediums such as your phone, computer or other electronic devices. Essentially what the internet has done, is shrunk the world to such a small size that within a few seconds we can know what is happening across the globe.

This may seem all fine and dandy to the procrastinator, journalist, researcher or basically anyone, but if we step back we realize that this is not the case. Through the internet and its tools, it is slowly taking over our minds like a robot from the matrix. Frederich Nietzsche said once about a typewriter, "our writing equipment takes the place of our thoughts. It changes arguments to aphorisms, thoughts to puns and rhetoric to telegram style." This is still the case today with all our fancy, high powered computers and their capabilities. When we sit down to write a letter or paper, we just type the keys and the words appear for us.

In my opinion, the internet is by far the greatest invention of the modern era, if not of all time. It connects people world wide, transacts business, gives information to anyone about anything. With that said, the article seems to be telling us that all of this is good, in moderation. On the other hand this beast known as the internet is ever expanding and there is no stopping it. Although the internet has hampered the development of our overall intelligence it has most definitely advanced the effectiveness of technology. Hopefully that technology never becomes more powerful than us!