Google is a helpful tool to most people but Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” challenges how helpful it really is. There are many points in this article, but only two points stood out to me. The first idea Nicholas Carr proposed was that the internet is changing the way we read, interpret, and gather information. Many people can no longer withstand long readings because they find themselves getting bored. The internet posts information to fit the needs of everyone and informs the reader quickly without multitudes of unwanted knowledge. Researching in present day is a lot faster and effective then in the past, therefore we become impatient if the wait is too long. The article states “they[the internet sites] supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought,” meaning that the web is changing the way we think. The second point that struck me was mentioned at the end of the article. It talked about how Google is a huge search engine and way smarter than people. The greatest solution to this issue would of course have to be that human brains are changed to be more like computers. This thought is greatly desired by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google who believe “… we’d all be better off” with artificial intelligence.
I believe that this article is taking the reading and attention span issue to an extreme. It is true that many people get their information on the internet now and it is easier to find but is it really causing us to lose focus? I think a lot of this issue has to do with will power. If you really wanted to find good information you would sit down and read the whole long article, but many of us are too impatient or in a hurry that we just don’t have time to read. The reason I get bored or distracted when I am reading is that the writing is uninteresting or I am too tired to keep my attention span up. Everyone is still thinking the same as they did before, but the way they obtain the facts is different. I personally find that I can still read log articles and stories along with the short snippets on the internet. Is this because I am a part of the younger generation and I was brought up around computers and internet search engines from the beginning? Am I adapted to both ways? Does this part of the article pertain to mostly older people who were not raised with search sites so it is newer to them? Although it seems humans usually have a hard time changing, so wouldn’t it make sense that the older people would keep their ways and be able to read extensive papers and articles?
The last part of Carr’s article infuriated me. Google is a smart and helpful tool but it does not have to operate our brains. Brin states, “Certainly if you had all the world’s intelligence directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” I disagree and think that an artificial brain is the worst idea I have ever heard! It would fix the issue of reading long articles, I guess, because you would already know the information; but the cons out weigh the pros by thousands. If we all had artificial brain we would all be the same. We wouldn’t have to work towards becoming what we want to be because there would be no motivation; we know everything. There would be no experts in fixing cars, teaching math, or flying planes; anyone and everyone could have any job they wanted. Teachers would not have a job because kids have everything imbedded into their brain already. Everyone could fix up their house causing home repair men to be out of a job. Do you really think artificial brains are a good idea? Another sentence in this article that made me extremely angry was when it said “the human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and bigger hard drive.” HUMANS ARE NOT COMPUTERS! We invented the computer; we can’t be computers at the same time. Humans are not outdated, we constantly learn as we go through life that’s the point. Not everything has to be fast paced; sometimes we have to slow down and think. Reading about people haing artificial brains made me think of the science fiction book Uglies.
In Uglies by Scott Westerfeld the character’s brains are basically computers when they turn 16. At this age they get an operation that ‘re-wires’ their brain. The characters cannot think for themselves and lose all of the personality that they had before the operation. Every person acts the same looks like everyone else.
Do you want to be like everyone else? Do you really want to know everything there is to know so you have nothing to look forward to? Do you really want everyone to be the same person? I certainly hope not.
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