The Internet Made Me Stupid
Julia Mo | Jun 08, 2010 | Comments 2
A major concerned about the human faculty is being raised. Is the internet making us stupid? A proactive question rose from a splashy 2008 Atlantic cover story “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” authored by Nicolas Carr now hitting the question harder with its new book “Shallows”.
The book is an expanded discussion of his thesis, regarding the diminutive effects of the internet to the human brain. He theorized that, every time we tether our selves over the net, this somehow re wires our brain (in a very bad way) resulting to disabling us to think and ponder on something, deprived us from essential learning, and strain our long term memory on things. Carr’s hunch (as experienced by him first hand) is also experienced by his friends and colleagues and some surprisingly even stopped reading books in favour of the internet. Sought evidences to backed up his claim, that the internet is doing something that we may be sorry in the generations to come.
With insights from experts from the fields of linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology. Carr’s hunch draws a scary conclusion. Yes, the internet is doing something with our brain, and it’s not good.
After its advent in the late 70’s, the internet has grown into a universe of its own. Compose of a myriad of computers, inter connected (thru the world wide web) to each other. Every knowledge known to man can be found even the latest of technology. We share information more massively and faster than out 17th century man counterparts.
The more we spend to the net the more we deprive ourselves from reading, books, and magazines, in other activities that stimulate our brains to think or ponder more sufficiently. The most scary is part is that our young generation is spending more time online activities than reading a good book.
Carr’s sighted that the internet works like a drug, it instantly gratifies someone, can be available universally. And like its narcotic counterparts. It short circuits our brain consciously and sub-consciously disabling our minds to think deeper, think creatively.
Filed Under: Internet • Technology
This is utter tripe. Without the internet we would lack the communication we need to survive in this society. Books are on the internet. They are faster and cheaper to access. The internet is a blessing on this Earth.
Learning about how an AC motor works does not deprive us of the deep thought required to understand and formulate reasoning skills. Knowing the information allows us to move on and ponder the questions that are unanswered to humanity. How does gravity work?, etc..
Get the old stuffy scrunched up bookworm that wrote this into the real world.
I think the use of chat, IM, etc is one of the main causes of the degradation of our language/vocabulary.
Younger generations think it is acceptable in the real world to type “ur” or “lol”, and so on when they use mobile devices to IM.
How many times have we seen the misuse of “your” vs “you’re” in articles, blog posts, or forums? Irks me every time I see that.
Moreover, sites like Twitter force you to keep your thoughts to 140 (or is it 160?) characters. Naturally, short hand usage to get your tweet out will take higher priority – therefore further propagating the idea that “ur” is acceptable.