Is google making us stupid

Simone Sutton

8/24/09

AP English III Blog Assignment

“Is Google Making us Stupid?”

Does surfing the internet cause our brains to become less efficient. This is the main point that the author of this article is trying to make. In the past the author of the article could read for hours on end without losing focus. He could absorb hundreds of pages with such ease. But now he can’t, and he’s not the only one other well educated individuals who could read forever can’t read what they once could. Bloggers and lit majors both experience this problem. They all have one thing in common, they all use the internet. And they use it more than ever.

Apparently using the internet not only affects how we get information but, also how we comprehend it. The internet doesn’t help us find information we need, it hands it to us on a plate. While researchers once had to spend hours inside of a library to find enough information to write whatever they were writing, it only takes a few minutes on the internet. Not only that, but there is almost no effort on our part besides typing a few words and phrases. Because it’s so easy and fast for us to be entertained and find what we need on the internet, our brains have adjusted. We don’t need to understand a foreign concept because the internet will tell us. We no longer need to focus for more than a few minutes because we can just look at another source to tell us what we need to know.

The way we read determines how our brains will function. If you read characters instead of letters, you will have a different brain function. Consequently, reading on the internet instead of reading, printed sources will cause your mind to function differently.

The human mind is an ever-changing thing. With every new king of technology our brains adjust to make the most of it. Our mind starts taking shortcuts. As technology becomes more advanced and like the human mind, the less significant our own minds become. When writing was invented people thought humans would become stupid and lose their ability to remember things in their head. Now, we can’t remember as much as we used to be able to but because of writing knowledge began to spread. When the printing press was invented people thought that the wide availability of books would cause learning to decrease, but still knowledge began to spread and more people learned how to read.

It seems through history people have been skeptical of new technology, and even though it changed our brains abilities there is no doubt that it has all been for the better of intelligence.