The human brain is composed of a network of neural connections that have the ability to reconstruct themselves as new information is acquired. The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” explains how the internet has enabled humans to easily acquire new and extraneous information without having to spend hours, or even days, searching in a library or elsewhere to find it. With modern internet search engines, users can simply type the subject or matter in which they wish to inquire about, and within seconds, several different sources pertaining to the search will pop up. The author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr, shares his ideas and justifies his thoughts as to why the internet may be altering the neural connections in many humans.
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Carr presents the idea that “...the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most...information.” Since humans have become so accustomed to the structure of the internet and the information it supplies, they can quickly skim information, without deeply processing and storing it, and move on to another source. The author explains how his “...mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” I can agree to Carr’s perspective on how quickly information from the internet can go through one ear and out of the other. When reading resourceful books for information, you’re usually able to read and ingrain the information from the book in your memory, while a virtual article or book is usually just skimmed through, providing that it has several extra distractions (such as ads, e-mails, messages, etc.). Carr further supports his idea of fast-paced web browsing with a study done by scholars at University College London, stating that “...the scholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites...that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information. They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already
Carr presents the idea that “...the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most...information.” Since humans have become so accustomed to the structure of the internet and the information it supplies, they can quickly skim information, without deeply processing and storing it, and move on to another source. The author explains how his “...mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” I can agree to Carr’s perspective on how quickly information from the internet can go through one ear and out of the other. When reading resourceful books for information, you’re usually able to read and ingrain the information from the book in your memory, while a virtual article or book is usually just skimmed through, providing that it has several extra distractions (such as ads, e-mails, messages, etc.). Carr further supports his idea of fast-paced web browsing with a study done by scholars at University College London, stating that “...the scholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites...that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information. They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already