Is Google Making us Stupid?

Carr N. (2008), Is Google Making us Stupid?, Atlantic Magazine, July-August, Vol. 302 Issue 1, p56-63.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

 

The title of this article is thought provoking, when I initially read it I though NO. As far as I can read the author is arguing that with the internet, not just Google, so readily available to use on computers and mobile devices we do not have to think for ourselves anymore. If we need an answer to a question, given the ubiquity of the internet, we just pick up our smart phone, tablet or log on to a laptop/PC and Google the question. As little as 10 years ago we may have had to spend days or weeks researching in libraries; now we can find the information in a matter of seconds. I would agree with his assertion that the internet has altered our mental habits; he has noticed it in himself and his friends have also noticed it in themselves.

It reminded me of Blooms Taxonomy and the lower tiers where we just need to recall knowledge and do not have comprehend or synthesis the information. However we still need to analyse and evaluate the data returned to ensure it is what we are looking for.

I personally always found it difficult to sit down and read books or articles from cover to cover but the author recalls this is how he researched in the past. Reading the pieces more than once to ensure he fully understood the text and the arguments. However in recent times he states he now just skims them or power browses to see what is contained. He regularly hops from one source to another printing, but not necessarily reading, different articles. He described himself once like a deep sea diver searching the ocean of information; whereas now he feels like he is jet-skiing across the surface.

I don’t agree with the author that the internet is reprogramming our brains but believe that our brains and minds are adapting to a new way of storing, presenting and retrieving information that is the internet. Yes our brains can be likened to a processing unit in a computer but the computer is mimicking the brain not the other way around. We are required to analyse and evaluate the information as the scatter of information can diffuse our concentration.

I found the reference to Fredrick Windslow Taylor very exciting, I studied Taylorism (or the Science of Management) as part of my primary degree in Human Resource. Taylor looked at the operations carried out by working in a Seattle steel factory to see why one worker was more productive than another. He found that if a simple process was instigated and each worked use the same tools for the task at hand they would perform better. In the article the author states that Google is breaking down our thought processes and giving us the tools to find information stating that what Taylor did for the hand Google is doing for the mind, I think this is a good analogy. Google do this by examining the crumbs of data we leave in the wake of our online activity.

I found the reference to Plato’s Phaedrus interesting where it states Socrates feared that with the invention of the written word it would substitute knowledge in peoples head and they would become forgetful. Different developments over time, such as development of the printing press and television, has caused debates about intellectual laziness and weakening of the mind. I believe that with every new medium to transmit information we need to learn how to use it store and recall information. We do not need to rely on storing the information in individual’s heads that only they can recall. The information can be stored, and backed up, electronically and accessed as required. This can be done on both an individual or organisational level.