So, what do you think? What is YOUR opinion? Respond to the article you read for Monday night: Nick Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
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The author of the article makes a great point. So many of us do not even realize how often we use the internet as a crutch. We no longer read long and boring books; we look online for the Spark Notes, or the most common test questions. The majority of people today who rely heavily on the net have such a difficult time sitting down to read things not as quick or stimulating. The people of today are highly dependent on the quick and easy to read access of the internet, and the thought of the consequences can sometimes be terrifying. What will happen to the education system because kids can’t pay attention long enough? What happens to secondary and post secondary education when a horridly vast majority lacks comprehensive abilities? What is going to happen to those long lengthy textbooks so many dread but could make it through and now find it nearly impossible. There are days I must admit that I wish my psychology book could be found in quick print online with better pictures and shorter sections, but for the long term, I’m glad it’s not that easy. We as a society have fallen down to taking the easier path, whereas reading those awful required reading books did more than just give you a boring story. Those required books taught you to make it through your assignment, gave the basis of self-discipline and responsibility. Now with Google EVERYWHERE, people no longer need the long and boring books for school, they can learn everything for the next class in half the time online. In all honesty, what are we really getting out of it when we take those short cuts? How will this affect us in the long term?
ReplyDeleteI do not think Google is making us stooped. As I said before the internet may be making us lazy but our brains are still the same if not better. Every day we log onto the internet and read the news headlines and we learn something new. We read a book online…we are reading who cares? We do research online…again who cares? We are learning. But the sad thing is people do care. Why? It is honestly very hard to understand. The internet was not invented just because. It has purpose. The purpose is for our pleasure however we choose to use it whether it’s reading, researching, blogging, networking or even using it as a short cut for writing a book report on a book you have never read. In response to Meaghan’s response, yes some people do use the internet as a crutch and that may not help them in the long run but there are others who do use the internet to help them in the long run. Like I mentioned on the last blog, my sister is dyslexic and hated reading books but once she found ways that made reading more comfortable for her on the internet she eventually evolved from just reading on the internet to actually checking books out of the library and reading them. I think that is an awesome thing. I feel if the internet can do that for her it could do it for others in her situation or maybe not so much in her situation maybe just for others who just don’t like to read at all. The internet may be more used than it used to be or used more than it should be in someone’s eyes but it’s not making us stupid and I feel our brains are not suffering as much as people are making it seem.
ReplyDeleteGoogle has not made our society stupid. I believe it has made us very lazy. Like Meaghan said instead of reading long books, everyone just goes on spark notes. I will admit that I did that a couple of times in high school when we had to read books like The Old Man and The Sea. It took less time to just look up a summary on each chapter that was only a paragraph long instead of having to read twenty pages in the book. Google has changed the way we read, but I do not think that is has made us stupid. Teachers should make their test questions harder, so that you cannot just read the summary and pass. This way, students will have to read the books in order to pass the tests or write their papers. Like I said before I have cheated my way around reading long and boring books as well, but I still read books that I want to read. Most people just use the internet to find out information on things that they are not interested in. This does not mean that they do not read at all. Brittany has a good point. Some people would not read at all if it were not for the internet. Some people love to read and others hate it. The only way some of people will actually sit down and read is if it is on the internet because it may be easier for them to read or more interesting. As long as they are reading one way or another, I do not see a problem with it.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the Atlantic article, "Is Google making us Stupid?," is a bit misleading. While the author discusses Google and its scientist' and developers' ambitions for Google and its influence on the world's thinking, the article is largely devoted to the role of the Internet and the impact it can have on how society thinks. I find the author's reference to HAL and Kubrick's 2001 to be interesting. I had the same reference in my last blog on Sixth Sense Technology. I see a real risk here if we allow technology to structure out thinking. The statement in the article from the Google people about having our brains "enhanced" or replaced by technology and our thinking systematized really scares me.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet and Google are terrific tools. They can and will supplement how I learn and explore the world of information. These tools have made it easier to access information from various sources and help in the education process. However, I view them as just tools to help me, not to think or to reason for me. I believe we as a society run a real risk of becoming conditioned to get snapshots of information and summaries that do not require us to probe all the details in a literary piece. We run the risk of having our thinking "directed" by the information discriminator of we become overly influenced by the Internet and ignore our own critical thinking processes.
The article is a good example of how we could miss important information if we become information skimmers and we avoid probing for a fuller understanding of a topic. As the article is worded, I immediately thought it was about Google. Reading the whole article shows that it is about how the internet as a tool has the potential to transform how we think and how we act=, in a negative way. If you don't read the whole article, you do not get the author's point. If you skim, you never actually get to the provocative quotes from Google staff nor do you understand how the mention of HAL from 2001 in the beginning of the article fits into a discussion about Google.
The article discusses the theory that "how we read" and hence how we digest information and form our way of thinking is threat ended by the internet. The article raises alarms about technology replacing our brains. It also discusses how tools,such as the Internet, can help and it uses the example of Nietzsche, who used a typewriter to help him as his eyesight was fading. The three posts have only scratched the surface of the meaning of this article or in my opinion, missed on the point of this article The point of the article is broader than "using Google makes you dumb." It emphasizes that all tools, when properly used are good but the risk is there for misuse and the warnings echoed in Kubrick's 2001 are very real. I do not want some programmer in Google's headquarters programming the way I think and reason based on their ideas. This prospect scares me and should scare other critical thinkers.
Easier. Faster. More manageable. Isn’t that what everyone is looking for these days? As I’ve said before, our society is becoming and very fast pace society. People are always looking for the easy way out. That, I don’t think is going to get better; but only worse. In saying so people are looking for the fastest way to find out what they are searching for. Answer, google. Right? To be honest, I agree. The author argues that the information is “bull-honkey.” Okay, and I would agree that some of the information on google, such as information found on Wikipedia, is not credible information. Google does however enable access to websites that are credible in a much faster way. When I’m looking for a certain store, or whatever the situation may be, google brings me to the sites I need very quickly-that I may not have been able to find without the google database. Like Matt said, the article proposes thoughts that technology is replacing out brains. People, like him, are afraid that google is programming things into our brains. I would have to disagree, because if we were to argue that point, wouldn’t a book or text be “programming things into our brains” as well? Yes. I don’t think it’s fair to say that. I’d have to admit that like Emily, I have skipped reading a book and typed and clicked right through sparknotes. This has changed our way of reading. It’s enabled for faster, quicker ways or aquiring our information that is so important to our society. It isn’t making us “stooped” at all, but rather different. It’s change. And I think people need to start grasping change, especially involving technology, because it’s ultimately inevitable.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet shows so many ways of accessing information. I don't believe that Google is making us stupid. Google actually gives a lot of information and sometimes not the right. But it’s like what Megan said, “Easier. Faster. More Manageable,” and I agree with that. Our society is on high speed. When people want information they turn to the internet. Google distributes information in all aspects. When society wants something the first search engine is Google. I love using Google actuall, every time I enter in something my search comes up positive. Usually the first thing for a word I search, Wikipedia is the first. I absolutely hate Wikipedia even though it would be easier to use that engine is terrible. Google being such an open company it does restrict some sites. It has such enormous website population they have everything for anyone. The article does point out Google as making us stupid but isn’t it saying different. Google is not the main enemy in this it’s the internet as a whole. Can the internet destroy us? No I don’t think, the internet can only be a better source for accessing information. Though the library is helpful it can be easier just jump on the web and see what you need. Google needs to be more what the word, “meaningful.” is not saying anything is wrong or making the population dumb, but make the search criteria more conscious and right to the point. The population wants in-depth information right to the point not something that goes “Do you mean this.”
ReplyDelete“I really don’t wanna read all those chapters for English?”, “ Just Google it.”
ReplyDeleteGoogle is today’s quick fix. If you need to find something, someone, or figures out how to do something, you just Google it. The articles title “Is Google Making Us Stupid” is ambiguous. Its not that Google is making our society stupid, its making our society lazier than it already is. Like Emily and Meghan said in high school it was just easier to Sparknotes the books and chapters we needed to read instead of reading 20 pages. I did the same thing in high school I would just read the summaries and be good to go. Emily also pointed out that teachers should make questions harder so we would actually read the text. My English teacher from sophomore year would print out the quizzes from Sparknotes and give those to us. So Google hasn’t only mad youngsters lazy, it’s also made the “old fashioned” lazy. My mom is one of those “old fashioned” people, when ever I need to know something she’ll make me look it up in a book or another source before I use the internet because she says it good to know how to use other resources.
Like Brittany said some people don’t like to read and if there was no internet those people wouldn’t read at all which is sad but true. So I think that the internet and Google are great tools but I also think that they have made our society very lazy.
Google is not making us stupid! Who ever came up with that idea is stupid! Google is just a source just like any other website on the World Wide Web. Google is just being attacked here because it is the most well known search engine known to man. The author states that he cannot read “War and Peace” anymore; who reads that for fun?! No wonder they believe that they are going stupid, because what they are trying to read is probably one of the most boring books on the planet. No wonder they can’t focus for more than a few pages. People who attack technology now a day are just jealous because they did not grow up in this era with al the resources that we have today. Yes, we do scan through stuff a lot more then people used to but even if we do, we scan for the important stuff and just skipped the extra stuff that is no used to us. That way we are experts on what we are studying or researching and do not have all that extra stuff in our brains.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brittany when she says that people that use Google today as their main source of knowledge might not read at all if there was no Google or spark notes. Google isn’t bad at all because it also gives you links to online encyclopedia’s called E-books, it gives you knowledge from around the world, and best of all, it makes knowledge free and convenient to people who can’t go and buy books or make it to a book store or a library.
The title of this article is somewhat misleading to its content. The article talks more about the Internet in general than it does about Google. I do not think Google is making the population stupid. I think Google is a great resource that allows people access to many different materials online that they might not have access to. Google allows people to retrieve information from sources around the world. I think people rely on Google too much to do simple tasks that they are capable of doing. Like Meaghan said, students don’t want to read books therefore they Sparknote it and read a summarized version. These resources are easily available to students, I had a teacher in high school that would read Sparknotes and her test questions would be things not mention by Sparknotes, it made students read the material. While reading material from the Internet, people get easily distracted by pop-ups and other advertisements causing them to not read and fully comprehend the information. Reading books seems boring because there are no pictures or other visuals to look at. People have become “lazy”. I agree with Nicholas when he says, “Google needs to be meaningful”. Websites such as Wikipedia are making people stupid because it feeds us false information. These types of websites should not be allowed to post their information on sites such as Google. People believe this false information because it came from the Internet but the Internet can provide false information, the user just has to know where to look for accurate resources .
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the authors of this article, but at the same time agree somewhat. Google is not making us stupid, however they are not stupid for saying this like Jordan said. Google is just contributing to America's laziness. People no longer have to go and research books and multiple sources for information. They can simply attain it through Google. I do agree that this helps attain world wide information like Jordan said. However when he says that they are jealous that is incorrect. It is hard to adjust to a steadily advancing technological world. I can't imagine the artificial intelligence that will be around ten years from now. I feel that for those who can accept artificial intelligence and use it to their advantage will be getting the same knowledge as those who go and look it up in books. No one is forcing people to use artificial intelligence; it is simply there for help. It is true that generations are slowly but surely making shortcuts a lot faster, for example centuries ago when the scientist was afraid writing stuff down will cause people to lose memory. Look where we are now. In some cases short cuts aren't so bad; however there are positives and negatives to everything. Google helps make obtaining information easier and more efficient, however it contributes to laziness. Today a worker who has good time management skills and can do stuff efficiently is a good worker. Google and artificial intelligence as a whole help with both time management and efficiency. In a time and age when leisure time for most is limited to a few hours a day, Google helps to make catching up on the news and other things easy. I do agree with the author of this article in that when reading I cannot stay focused for long period of time. Maybe this is because I have grown up in the Google era; maybe it is just how I am. However what is so bad about reading up on information and getting just the important information and nothing else. I feel that Google has its flaws that contribute to negative effects on human society, but at the same time I feel Google’s positives far out weight the negatives.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Megan McArthur in that our generation tends to rely on google for credible information rather than books but who can really blame us? Its so easy to find information that seems credible on the web. As the article said, its too easy to do research on the web and this tends to make us lazy, in my opinion. We jump from page to page, link to link and then in no time were done with research that would have taken us hours to do at the library. I believe that most of us including me wouldn’t even know where to start when it comes to doing research in the library. In that sense I guess google has made us stupid in that sense because I have never had to do research in the library for high school. With google being such a reliable and accurate way to find information we tend to rely on that and after a while we tend to depend on it. At the same time although we may not be able to do long and extensive research in the library we are now able to use the web to our advantage and have become increasingly more skilled at digging deep into web databases and finding information we would have never found by going to the library. I think its an even trade off. There is way more information online that we can use as opposed to a library. It may not be credible but if the researcher is smart enough and knows what sites can be trusted and which cant then they should be fine
ReplyDeleteI don’t blame Google. I think that Google was trying to make money developing a quick and easy access to a variety of sources related to a given topic. It worked and it made everybody happy. People got what they wanted and now are complaining about it making their lives easier. Like B.Thigpen said, “The purpose is for our pleasure however we choose to use it whether it’s reading, researching, blogging, networking or even using it as a short cut for writing a book report on a book you have never read.” It is just a way too make things easier, so of course its going to make people try less and get lazy. In response to Meaghan McArthur, “Those required books taught you to make it through your assignment, gave the basis of self-discipline and responsibility. Now with Google EVERYWHERE, people no longer need the long and boring books for school, they can learn everything for the next class in half the time online. In all honesty, what are we really getting out of it when we take those short cuts? How will this affect us in the long term?” I hope that possibly one day we will develop the technology to directly transfer information into our brains. Things are the way they are and things will never change. The only hope is that we create a sense of responsibility. As long as society doesn’t fall into the trap of letting itself become lazy, than we can respond to the need that is instilled in our need senses need.
ReplyDeleteReading this article really lets you know just how dependent we are for internet access. I had to get here eleven days early for athletic orientation and had no computer or I touch, I felt like I was in a cave for years. The amount of time that I have been on the computer this summer for just school work purposes has never been this high, with all of time being on blackboard making and sure you are on schedule it is crazy. It is true that internet has helped doing school work ten times over I could not even imagine doing a research paper without internet. I think Megan McArthur is right, that the Internet has become a crutch and kids now days are not able to sit down and get work done without checking other sites every five seconds. I know that it is not the best for society, and we are supposed to say that it is not good but I think it would be so cool to be able to just click a few buttons and be done. But I know deep down nothing would be learned and education would lose it meaning. That is the reason that we all are in college, yes we came to escape and have fun, but we came to learn and grow. So when we get a long text book everyone just needs to understand that this is part of the process, and with out the journey there can be no finish.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Atlantic makes a good point with this article. My whole senior year of AP Lit, I rarely read a whole book, because I procrastinated and knew that if I went online to read cliff notes that I would be fine on the test. Though on class fields trips we visited the library and learned how to use the Dewey Decimal system for locating books I couldn’t even begin to tell you were to find a certain book. Instead I would be more comfortable in using a search engine such as Google or Yahoo to find information, or to order the book online. I do not think though that Google has made us stupid I think that if anything it makes us lazy but it puts at our fingertips an abundance of resources and information that was not even imaginable before Google was created. James Olds who works at the George Mason University brings up the point that no matter the age the brain is very malleable and can be changed. A finding in psychology research backs this up; a feature of the brain is something called neuroplasticity. In neuroplasticity the brain if injured can re wire so the function that is lost can be restored. So if you got in a car accident and your occipital lobe is injured, your vision is lost, with plasticity you vision could be wired to take place in say the frontal lobe. I agree with mvm09c when they said that our society only wants the easy quick way out. I think that search engines like Google are a good start for people but if that’s all people use we are destined to become a nation of couch potatoes.
ReplyDeleteAnswering this question, I would not say Google is making us “stoopid,” but as Megan stated easier, faster, and more manageable to keep up with the pace at which our society is growing. When someone asks me a question, my usual response is “I don’t know, Google it!” Personally, if I may say… Google is one of my best friends. It tells me everything. Well, not everything… if I want a phone number of a store up the road I’ll Google it, but through writing many research papers recently I know that Google doesn’t always provide you with reliable sources. For example, you can find almost anything in Wikipedia. This also used to be one of my best friends until I was informed that it is not able to be depended on… everyone and anyone can edit all articles on there. And one of my favorite points was made by Matt, “I see a real risk here if we allow technology to structure out thinking.” The internet is taking over our society, as parts of this society it is slowly intermixing with the amount we actually use our own brain cells to think for ourselves. Another thing Matt mentioned was the fact that enhancing or replacing our brains with technology and having our thinking systematized scares him, I’d like to say that it frightens me as well. So depending on its reason of use Google can either be helpful or destructive.
ReplyDeleteIt is not fair to blame this on Google. Before I knew about Google I was a frequent visitor of ask.com, dogpile.com, and yahoo.com. Google is the most recent and updated internet tool to easily and productively find sources but it definitely was not the first. All of these websites were created to benefit us. As a society we complain if something is too hard or is taking too much time so I believe Google was created to provide us with a tool that is convenient. If a person solely relies on Google for all of their research and help, then of course they will lose the ability to retain information through reading, but if a person is able to balance the two it shouldn’t be an issue. Google has never once promoted itself as the ONLY source of information so its societies fault for abusing the technology. People who complain should reevaluate their work and research habits. I completely agree with Jordan. Whoever believes Google is making us stupid is ludicrous. Most internet articles so require reading so if the person prints it out and read it their brain is still being stimulated and losing reading comprehension should not be an issue. I understand the argument behind the author of the articles reasoning, it just seems he is blaming Google for him laziness. As society becomes innovated we won’t to go read a book or use anything other than the internet. With time everything is going to be done on the internet and it’s either going to make or break us as people.
ReplyDeletelike nick said, i dont think that if anything, it can make us smarter. it has the capabilities to give us whatever information we desire and i feel that is an extremely powerful tool that can actually make us smarter. in contrast, i feel that google definately is making people rediculously lazy. many highschool students, along with myself are guilty of not reading books and just sparknoting them. although you get the general idea of the book, you still miss out on valuable writing lessons that can only be achieved through actually reading the book. this laziness could go from skipping out on books, to eventually maybe skipping out on math classes, and then who knows what. so is google making us stupid? absolutely not. is google making us lazy? definately
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