Is Google making us stupid?

Nicholas Carr’s main claim or controlling idea is that people are being rewired by mass media, internet, and especially Google. They are being rewired in the sense that they no longer possess a lengthy attention span, and that they are thinking more like a computer or search engine than the more traditional sense of thinking. This is supported by Carr when he claims, “They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” (Par.4) This chipping away at his capacity for concentration can mean many things. It can mean
that web users are subliminally conditioning their minds for lethargic reading, or it could just as likely be that as an individual he is losing attention span with age.

Carr’s essay was confusing to me at first because he spent half the essay illustrating the wonders of Google, only to tear down the image of online search engines. But it later made sense when I reviewed a few paragraphs and I saw that Carr had stated, “But that boon comes at a price.” (Par.4) In other words this means that although search engines are a blessing for research, computing, or figuring out general information that may otherwise take a long time to find, they also create a void of dependence upon our instant satisfaction technology.

But perhaps people are being rewired for the better. As scary as it seems, maybe we live in a world where snap decisions and quick judgment will serve us well, especially in the workplace. This positive outlook on being rewired is given when car claims, “For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind.” (Par.4) Maybe as a whole we need this universal medium. Perhaps it is the beginning of the next step of cultural evolution, or maybe it is just a fad that will fade with enough time.