"Is Google Making us Stupid?" By Nicholas Carr

 In Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making us Stupid” he states that he feels like the internet is changing the way people’s minds work and think.  He says that deep reading used to come naturally and that his mind would get caught up in the narrative.  But he has noticed that as he has spent a lot more time online, he’s not thinking the way he used think.  He loses his concentration, gets fidgety, and gets distracted more easily when reading.  He feels like media is reprogramming us.  Carr Supports his ideas by stating that he’s not the only one who feels this way.  Carr interviewed psychologist Maryanne Wolf, who said that the efficiency and immediacy style of reading promoted by the Net may be weakening our ability to read deeply.  Carr also mentions Friedrich Nietzsche whose writing style changed because he went from writing in pen to writing on a typewriter.  The invention of the clock has even changed the way we act and think.  Carr talks about studies that have been done on the human brain and how even the adult mind is constantly reprogramming itself and altering the way it functions and how media has affected it.  Then Carr discusses the thoughts of the two young men who founded Google.  Apparently they desire to turn Google into an artificial intelligence machine that might be connected to our brains somehow.  They think if we had a smarter artificial brain attached to our own brain that we’d be better off.  This is scary because they make it seem like the brain is outdated and not enough.  In the end, Carr wraps up by stating his fears of us turning into “pancake people” spread wide and thin as we connect with all this information accessed by the touch of a button.  We have come to rely on computers and it is like our own human intelligence is flattening into artificial intelligence. 

I think Carr’s essay really relates to the topic of my blog.  Technology, the internet, and social media all have benefits and have helped improve society in certain ways.  But Carr really points out how the internet is actually changing the way our mind thinks and works.  Just like in my post about social media addiction, social media has the ability to change your brain chemistry and the way we act. Carr made a lot of good points in his essay and it made me think from a different perspective.  It even made me realize how it’s affecting me.  I thought about it and realized that I also rarely read books anymore and that it’s really hard to focus if the reading is long and I’m not particularly interested in it. But do I think that Google is making us stupid? No. But I do agree with some things Carr pointed out.  The internet and social media can negatively affect us greatly.  But I also think it’s a great tool and can really help us.  I believe it’s all about how you use it.