I highly disagree with the article that google is making us stupid. I do think that it is possibly changing the way we think, but is that overall a bad thing? New technology is being invented everyday that changes the way people live, and there is no use to try and stop it. In fact, being stuck in the past puts you at a great disadvantage for life in the every changing world. I know this from personal experience.
I don't have a cell phone, facebook, cable, my own lab-top, and even high speed internet for the longest time. It seems that I am left behind in the whole picture of things. Everyone else seems to just assume that you have the common luxury that everyone else seems to have and don't adjust their ways to fit your disadvantages. In a world where the majority of social communications happens through cell phones and facebook, it makes a huge social impact when you have neither. Everything is shared on facebook and I often feel left out of the circle in many ways. I don't get the latest low down of things which ultimately excludes me from multiple conversations and social events. But in a way, its my own fault for being stuck in the past. Even if google is changing the way we think and the life we live, there is no use trying to fight it and try to live in a world that ultimately no longer exists.
Plus, I don't think that any of the change is bad. Google has made life so much easier and convenient. Just think, you have a whole world of information just a click away. It opens up a world of opportunities. Don't know where to find scholarships or if you should see the doctor? No trouble, you google it. You could become a genius on a topic in a matter of minutes. The whole topic just reminds me of an episode of Scrubs called My Boss's Free Haircut, when an uncertain liposuction patient outsmarts the doctors on random topics and information. Actually, I just googled that, and doesn't it make me sound so much more legitimate?
Also, the author uses the example that google has made deep reading harder, but is that really Google's fault? I mean, whenever you google a topic, the majority of the time you don't have the intent to read whatever pops ups for hours on end. Isn't this a fault of our own? Google's purpose is to be convenient and fast, so maybe google has changed us, but it wasn't very difficult. We easily allowed the change. The author switched his deep reading for quick google searches. Maybe we need the change.The world is changing and we can't stop it, the best thing is to just go with the flow.
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Great response, Kaylee. You raise some legitimate points. The ways in which advancing digital technologies affects literacy is a big interest of mine, so I suspect we'll talk more about this in class.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thoughtful post!
I give you props Kdim, no cell phone or facebook is very out of the ordinary for the typical high school student. But i think that it is awesome that you don't have either! To be honest, I think people use both way too often and let them distract them with almost everything they do! I'm speaking for myself as well. But I do also agree with you that google is making us smarter. I mean where would we be today without it? I think some people abuse it and take it for granid but it is still a great thing to have!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I too never really had things like a facebook (freshman year for me I think) and cell phone (just got one this summer, actually) and there's definitely quite a bit of a social disconnection.
ReplyDeleteAs for the essay, I agree that the allure and attention-grabbing nature of the internet is undoubtedly shortening attention spans, but it's not the downfall of society that's going to reduce us all into automatons like he worries about.