Is the Web Making Us Stupid?

[Zeno Swijtink]

An interesting article in the Atlantic this month asking the question whether reading on the Internet makes us read differently, and ultimately makes us think in a different way.

*****
JULY/AUGUST 2008 ATLANTIC MONTHLY
What the Internet is doing to our brains

BY NICHOLAS CARR
Is Google Making Us Stupid?

"Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. "

(...)
"Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”"

cont. at https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

[Tars]

I don't think the web has dumbed me down. However, it has changed the way I intake and handle info. Like the author, I used to gather information from physical sources in the library. It was a slow and tedious process. I usually had to cover much more material to find the gist of what I was looking for. The upside was that I needed to remember a lot more information in the process of finding what I wanted to know. So I tended to know more...stuff.

Now, I only need to remember keywords, and also correct spelling of terms, which helps. With that, and Google, or whatever, I can get the information I need, usually within a few minutes. I consider that I have that information, but just store it externally. An upside here, is that since I no longer have to pore over numerous volumes to find information that is of incidental value to me, I can devote much more time to focusing on the fewer topics that are of strong interest to me. The web amplifies this.

I'm dumber in that I don't have all that stuff stored in my internal memory, but I have easy access to so much more that I'm fascinated by.

[Lenny]

Does me.

[brazen]

I think so, although it's hard to separate the computer effect from the tv effect which may be even more the culprit. I think people seem to be operating on sound bites, hopping from event to event without having either the time or the ability to put things together, see connections, question causes and effects, just swirling through time; as though asking profound questions like "what's it all about" might suggest you were weird, religious, or who knows what. For sure I don't have the concentration ability that a book calls for, that I used to. It could be just ageing, but I think it's surely also the effect of too much stimulation. I see it in young people who are very bright and technically competent but who don't seem to have any sense of wonder, "what's it all about" questions, which (I used to think) were part of growing up.
Brazen

[MsTerry]

Zeno,

Do you care to speak from your own personal experience, since you are the most prolific Waccoreader?
Do you actually read ALL the articles you post or do you merely skim and repost?
How can you process and retain all that info? Do you have a photographic memory?
Have your habits changed?
I have found myself, looking for points of interest and drop out of it gets too long, on line.I still enjoy reading long newspaper articles, but come to think of it, I seem to skip passages I deem irrelevant.
hmmmmmmm
Does that mean we are getting smarter or dumber?

[scorpiomoon]

No the Web does NOT make us stupid. A good friend of mine works for CNN and says he is required to write his pieces on an 8th grade level. If he applies intelligent concepts beyond that level he is required to edit it. Television replacing BOOKS or Web usage replacing BOOKS or any activity that replaces thoughtful introspection should be taken in small doses. I get the feeling despite all our new found resources we are not as smart as previous generations were. Maybe this is because we are not forced by nature to apply our knowledge in many areas to survive. This will change as the planet heats up. In the meantime, even the question is the "web" making us stupid, implies a subtle disconnection. What, YOU push the buttons, idiot. If you feel some mind numbingly stupid sensation, turn your computer off and read Mark Twain or go for a walk. Get some air into those brain passages. Take a smidgin of personal responsibility for yourself. I sometimes feel like an idiot if I listen to more than thirty seconds of Bill O'Reilly. The "no Spin" zone. Even a physical sensation of spinning, Does that happen to anyone but me, I wonder. It's actually funny, and eerie at the same time. They say it's a no spin zone but jeez, I'm getting a little dizzy. That's when I laugh and turn the tube off. They don't call it a boob tube for nothing.

[thewholetruth]

I think perhaps we're simply becoming aware of how stupid we actually are, after centuries of egomaniacal pretending we're 'all that'.

With all the information available on the web, perhaps someone could explain how an inexperienced racist could possibly be a leading contender for President of the United States. The web isn't making us more stupid. We've already got that covered. It's proving how stupid we are, that much is clear.

Oh, and it is affecting the way I think, as well, in ways similar to those already posted by others here. It's not making me more stupid, however. That comes with the package, I believe...(the skin suit, I mean. )

An interesting article in the Atlantic this month asking the question whether reading on the Internet makes us read differently, and ultimately makes us think in a different way.

*****
JULY/AUGUST 2008 ATLANTIC MONTHLY
What the Internet is doing to our brains

BY NICHOLAS CARR
Is Google Making Us Stupid?

"Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. "

(...)
"Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”"

cont. at https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

[Braggi]

No the Web does NOT make us stupid. A good friend of mine works for CNN and says he is required to write his pieces on an 8th grade level. If he applies intelligent concepts beyond that level he is required to edit it. ...

I do appreciate the general message in your post, however, there's also something to be said for a teacher who can break down complicated ideas and present them in a language that is easily understood by a great many students.

It's a challenge to be a good teacher. Although complex vocabulary and complex concepts are usually difficult to teach, occasionally someone like Terrence McKenna shows up on the scene whose lectures typically contained a Latin lesson along with the philosophy and anthropology he actually came to teach. His recorded lectures are timeless treasures.

-Jeff

[MsTerry]

With all the information available on the web, perhaps someone could explain how an inexperienced racist could possibly be a leading contender for President of the United States.

nice contradiction

It's not making me more stupid, however. That comes with the package, I believe...

Could you get any more stupid than the above statement?