I found the article “is google making us stupid” very interesting and insightful. I know the internet is like having the world at your fingertips, but I never realized it can actually change how we think. I believe what made this story so compelling is that the author, and the people who added there experience showed a great deal of intellectual humility and courage. After hearing them confess they have lost there ability to concentrate on a long story or read a book I found that I can really relate. They articulated exactly why this might be the case and it really makes sense when you think about it. I have had internet access in my home for less than 6 months and I have noticed a difference already. When the article came to the point of “power skimming” I realized that I was power skimming a story about power skimming, it was sad and funny at the same time. This article spoke a lot of truth, but the bias could be that the author pointed out the internet flaws but never addressed the idea that internet itself might be completely unnecessary. Considering we read the article on the internet who can really expect such a statement? Sure the internet has many advantages, but we had gotten by for a long time without it. In the last 6 months I have come across more disgusting, sad, mean, stupid, and twisted things than I ever imagined anyone, including our children would have open access to. This worries me, and to be quite honest I would be more than happy to get rid of my computer if I didn’t need it for school, and that in itself is a sad fact. One part of the article really stood out to me and I will copy and paste it.
Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.”
Wow that is so true! I love everyones point of view of this article, it is refreshing to see all of the different ideas and thoughts that came from this articles ideas. I think that there is are lot of unnecessary things on the internet, but maybe if we just looked up the knowledge we wish to learn and stay in a sort of bubble; we can sort of protect our selves and family from the horrible images and negativity that comes up in a lot of x rated pages.
ReplyDeleteI know I have started skimming articles and have a hard time concentrating on reading too. I think it's part of our fast paced society and the fact that we are constantly rushing to do everything. We don't have enough time to slow down and take the time to partake of reading as a leisurely activity like we used to.
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