At Harvard we start out each semester with a week called “Shopping Week.” During this week we “shop” classes – meaning that we go to any class that sounds remotely intriguing and see what it’s like before we decide which courses to register for.
Today, I’m shopping a class called History of Science 189: Speech, Print, Television, Blog: The History of Communications Technologies. For our first class, we were asked to read an article titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” from The Atlantic. The premise of the article is that our use of the internet is reprogramming our brains, decreasing our ability to process information and shortening our attention spans. As examples, Nicholas Carr, the author, writes that he can no longer read long books or long articles. He writes that he often gets distracted after 2 or 3 pages and starts looking for something else to do.
Although parts of this article resounded with me, I don’t think that the internet is making me stupid. Rather, I believe that the internet is an immense educational tool, capable of providing us with information we would not otherwise have had access to.
What about you? Is the internet making you stupid? Read the article here and let me know what you think.