Cutting corners throughout the centuries…
After reading both Nick Carr’s article “Is Google Making us Stupid” and Clay Shirky’s response to Carr’s article, the biggest idea that stuck with me was this: The process of cutting corners/not being able to fully process one thing at a time “started long before the internet became mainstream. Much of the current concern about the internet, in fact, is a misdirected complaint about television, which displaced books as the essential medium by the 1970s” (Shirky).
Having grown up in the age of iEverything, my generation is constantly being told “how easy [we] have it nowadays.” Yes, information is more accesible than ever before, no one can argue that. But Professor Westerman made a good point in class the other day in saying that it’s not like before the internet people never skimmed books or scholarly journals. No matter what resources we have at hand, people will always try to find a quicker way to do things.
It’s not so much that “Google is making us Stupid,” but that Google allows us to access information in a quick and efficient way (partially due to the Control + F function) even if it’s not the most in-depth manner in which to access the information.
So whether it’s the invention of the printing press, the television, or the internet the problem isn’t new: people will use technology to cut corners. However, what we should focus our energy on is striving to use the information to its fullest- whatever form it comes in.
To read Nick Carr’s article, go to: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
To read Clay Shirky’s response, go to: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
