Uranchimeg Batbayar Professor Lynda Nichol ESL 52A 5 September 2 Does the Internet Make You Dumber? In the article “ Does the Internet Make You Dumber?,” Nicholas Carr discusses the question of if the internet make you dumber or smarter. Even though many people think that the Internet allows us to get a lot of information and makes life easier, it makes people fall into bad habits. The net regularly interrupts of our lives, and it makes people intersperse, shallow, and inattentive thinkers. Also, the Internet affects our brains.
Carr thinks that excessive use of the internet might cause permanent changes to the way our brains work and we don’t have to remember as much, because we have RAM (Random Access Memory). Carr suggests that due to all the choices and distractions the internet provides its user whilst searching for information, it ‘turns us back to our native state of distractedness’ (Carr 373). Carr feels like due to the constant quick thinking skills that the internet demands us to have; we are losing our higher order cognitive abilities gained from focus reading such as from a book. Our ability to think in a creative and reflective way is diminishing. Carr feels the automatic way of thinking means we are ‘losing our mental discipline’ (Carr 375).
SOPA AND PIPA SOPA will have a far reaching effect on the Internet community. It is your right to know the negative and positive effects this will have on you as an internet user. What is Washington's Stand on SOPA? For years authorities have been lamenting the lack of law that will hold in court to convict perpetrators of online piracy and counterfeiting. On May 12, 2011 a bill was proposed to the Senate to address this deficiency, the Protect IP Act or Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (S.965.IS).
They can choose to engage in deep thinking activities. Too much of anything is not good for any one, and this also applies to internet usage. Scholars say that the price of technology is alienation and that this indicates that the more distracted an individual becomes, the less able they are to experience human emotions such as empathy and compassion. It is still too early to tell what the results of the future effects of the internet, but as Carr states, “An intellectual technology exerts its influence by shifting the emphasis of our thought. As the brain adapts to the new medium, the most profound changes will take place over several generations’
He states that even as a writer his mind struggles to keep focused on a book, something that is new to him. He blames this on the internet, which he describes as “The perfect recall of silicone memory” (2). He uses his friends as examples, stating that “..many are having similar experiences” (2). While impossible to tell if this fiction or not, one can reason that he’s most likely stating fact. Carr does bring up facts from a London study where results suggest that internet readers aren’t reading in traditional methods and that they do not absorb the text that they are reading.
Josh Haning Mr. Rogers English Final 05/31/2011 Us Stupid Google Making Is As times change, so must our methods of dealing with them. The evolution of media has changed the way we absorb information from writing to radio to television and so on. During these trans-formative periods, skills are lost and skills are gained; but to label the internet as the catalyst for the degeneration of our intelligence goes a bit too far. In his article ”Is Google Making Us Stupid” Nicholas Carr argues that, in its current form, the internet is not conducive to the kind of deep thought required when reading a long article or novel. He feels that while the internet is extremely useful, it is designed to distract as opposed to focus the mind.
We are becoming more and more radical in our subjectivism. We are “amusing our selves to death” by filtering out whatever we find to be irrelevant indirectly. The internet is now our personal bubble, the internet and web 2.0s are allowing us to form a bubble where the internet opens a portal where we see what we want to see and not what bothers us. We are becoming increasing apathetic to things that make us uncomfortable and the internet shelters us from ideas/events that challenge our way of thinking. Therefore we are losing our ability to determine what right and wrong looks like.
The instant entertainment, communication, and social media all gone, people’s lives would probably be destroyed. We are too reliant on technology and it’s becoming part of our lives. Computers and cell phones affect social interaction, interferes with family obligations, and shortens ones attention span. Although this “supersystem” provides us with the best entertainment and is always convenient, we should go into the outside world and do activities without the use of the internet. Instead of wasting valuable time browsing the web, try going to a fundraiser or book signing.
The Inception of the internet and World Wide Web has changed how we research and gain knowledge. Before its introduction to society, libraries were utilized to reference scholarly works by previous intellectuals, but now they are used for computer access and social media. Google and Wikipedia have leaded the charge of information services and the fingertips of our culture. While a great resource in conjunction with other academic sources, they are not the best example of accurate and reliable material. Google is by far the worst example of an information supplier, in that, a search on Google can inundate the reader with an outlandish list of results.
It’s time to turn the computers off. The minds of this generation should not be spoiled by the new wave industrialization called social media. If we do not come to understand the harsh realities that technology shadows under its web of social networking sites soon, we may never be able to repair the damage that it causes. Social media can be a huge blessing, but at the same time, if we’re not careful how we use it, it can become a huge curse. Do I Really Have Join Twitter?