Is Google Making Us Stupid?

-Nicholas Carr-

I partially agree with Carr’s idea of the Internet especially Google search engine. He strongly believes that the Internet made him change the pattern of his reading and they way he thinks. He also explained what the Internet had done to our brains. Nowadays, people feel it is inconvenient to read long and lengthy articles, by contrast to those days, where people used to read novels and long articles without any distraction. They managed to focus on that long piece of writing and came up with wonderful ideas. But in the present day, many people cannot stay focused on what they are reading; they will get fidgety, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do. For example, some will open many web pages a given time to avoid reading a long text. Other than that, some will be reading a long text while getting entertainment from the social networks like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Youtube and so forth. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle for many of us.

On the other hand, the usage of the Internet for scholars and researchers are inseparable and undeniable. These people have benefited a lot from the Internet as they can access information at the tip of their fingers. The world has become borderless with this most up-to-date technology. The compensations of having instant access to such an exceedingly rich store of information are many, and they have been broadly described and much-admired. According to Thompson, he referred to the Internet as “The perfect recall of Silicon memory” which can be an enormous boon to thinking. However, Carr commented on the adverse effects of the Internet. He mentioned that, the boon comes with a price. The Internet seems to be slowly draining away our capacity for concentration and contemplation.

In this era of globalisation, we want everything to be swift such as fast food, instant messages, instant noodles and so on. Therefore, we tend to skim the text and not scan for details. It is obvious that users are not reading online in the conventional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to shun reading in the traditional sense. It is more or less like glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper’s site. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration. Hence, the reading process undergoes changes in our brain.

Moreover, Google search engine provide all sorts of information that we need in a single click. Yet, Carr blames the Google search engine by saying that, easy availability of books would lead to intellectual laziness, making men “less studious” and weakening their minds. He also claimed that, Google is “really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale.” As a result, people stop thinking and become unaware of the capacity of their brains.

Apart from that, I personally feel that, the online articles are very complex and it will strain our eyes when we are looking at the screen for a longer period of time. Another problem is, we tend to use abbreviations in our written text. 

The internet has become a metaphorical drug or alcohol. The generation nowadays has become very addicted to it and is unable to stop accessing it every few minutes either via their phones or tabs. Such behaviour is regarded as a kind of psychological illness nowadays. Overuse of the internet may result in the neglect of other aspects of life, such as work, education, ones social life and in some extreme cases even their own personal hygiene. Unless one has the real need to use computers for a period of time, these actions should not be encouraged. It is particularly time-consuming, and more often than not, a waste of time.

Despite these facts, the Internet has been a major source of information and leisure, and we should use it wisely and discreetly. I personally think the benefits outweigh the harm. With a few clicks on the keyboard, we can virtually visit everywhere in the world.