Reading Response #4

In the article “Google is Making Us Stupid” author Nick Carr brings up the idea that the internet has changed the way we think, hindered our ability to focus on one thing, and has made reading deeply much harder than it used to be. Carr points out that now a days we are receiving most of what we learn through the internet, and that the fact that we have such a rich amount of ideas at our finger tips has been widely appreciated and liked by the public. He then argues that, “But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. 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.” He is basically saying that the internet has made it so he can no longer focus on one specific idea for too long, because he’s used to surfing around and not staying in one place for too long. This is significant because he is arguing with what the general public agrees with (that the internet is a blessing and has made our lives better.) Carr’s idea is looking past generalizations and showing the faults of the internet which is something that we trust very easily. I am of two minds in this situation, I agree with Carr in that looking past generalizations is important because for me seeing the big picture can help when I make decisions about how I feel, but I also can agree with what the general public feels, I’ll be the first one to admit that the internet has genuinely made my life easier.

Carr also feels that the internet is too abundant in our lives and that it is filling up too much space in our brains. He argues that “If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them up with “content,” we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture.” In this quote he is arguing that with out deep thinking and reading we will lose ourselves, and the culture that we come from. He continues to say that by losing that space we will be spreading ourselves too thin and won’t have enough capacity to truly learn and comprehend what he read. I strongly agree with Carr when he says that losing quiet spaces will lead to us losing our sense of self. Personally I am afraid that because I am constantly surrounded by media, internet, and television I’m losing my own thoughts and just taking on those of what I see and hear every single day. I feel that these outlets have hindered my uniqueness.