“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr was a unique article and an interesting read. In a world where technological advances occur at an ever-accelerating rate, how often do we stop to consider the implications beyond our own instant gratification? I found Carr’s essay to be refreshing and it confirmed my suspicions about the world’s next generations becoming too technology dependant.
Carr’s writing style is easy to read and understand, his beliefs are clearly outlined and supported. I, agree with his assertion that reading long-winded articles or newspaper reports have become increasingly difficult for the average individual, as our computer screens are being filled with short Internet articles and video news clips. Carr goes to great lengths to provide examples of how other inventions have changed our thought process and everyday lives including the: written language, typewriter, clock, and Taylorism. Looking to the future, Carr implies that supplementing or even replacing our brains is a possibility in the eyes of the Google founders. I wonder…when does the health of our minds outweigh the world’s need for efficiency, speed, and convenience?
Carr’s writing style is easy to read and understand, his beliefs are clearly outlined and supported. I, agree with his assertion that reading long-winded articles or newspaper reports have become increasingly difficult for the average individual, as our computer screens are being filled with short Internet articles and video news clips. Carr goes to great lengths to provide examples of how other inventions have changed our thought process and everyday lives including the: written language, typewriter, clock, and Taylorism. Looking to the future, Carr implies that supplementing or even replacing our brains is a possibility in the eyes of the Google founders. I wonder…when does the health of our minds outweigh the world’s need for efficiency, speed, and convenience?
Hi! Overall, I think the Internet is a good thing. It makes it a lot more efficient to access information, which is quite nice. I get what Carr was saying about how it is so hard to focus while on the computer because there are so many distractions, but I don't understand how that transfers to everything else. It would be so weird not to have the Internet because I've used it my whole life, but at this point I don't think it will ever go away. So in that case... Yay short attention spans!
ReplyDeleteI think there's a [small] movement of people beginning to realize efficiency, speed, and convenience isn't necessarily best for our population. An example I see includes our food industry. It's way more efficient for giant fields of genetically-modified vegetables that have been engineered to be efficient for machine harvesting and lasting the shipment all the way to the supermarket with as much yield and profit as possible.
ReplyDeleteBut when people take into account quality, there's a big difference between the efficient mechanism and the quality-based mechanism. Giant commercial factories that produced "cheese" is nothing compared to artisan-crafted, small batches of cheese.