In Nicholas Carr’s article in the Atlantic “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he claims that Google and the internet are changing our reading habits. He believes that we are beginning to skim over what we use to read deeply and that we are incapable of concentrating on reading for long periods of time.
In Carr’s article he claims that “The human brain is almost infinitely malleable.” He also quotes James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, who states that the mind “is very plastic.” And that it “has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.” Here Carr is basically saying that our brain has the ability to change rapidly and drastically when needed. Because of the internet he claims that we are becoming less familiar with the way of reading that involves deep understanding. I agree with Carr and Olds that the mind does have the ability to change.
Carr also makes an important claim concerning our focus when reading. “I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” In making this claim, Carr argues that because of the internet we are no longer able to spend hours in reading long ordinary writings. I’m of two minds about Carr’s claim that the internet is causing us to be unable to read “long stretches of prose” deeply. On the one hand, I agree that we read less and less of lengthy good prose. On the other hand “I believe we still have the ability to read deeply when it is necessary”.
As our minds change in the way we read, we are beginning to skim over and move on without understanding and reading deeply. I believe Carr is right in saying that because of the internet our minds are conforming to its new life style.