I had an
assignment this week to study articles with opposing views about the future of
Google. The assigned article was titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”by Nicholas Carr. I chose to counter it with an article titled “Does Google Make Us Smarter? The World Says Resoundingly, `Yes’” by Hal Varian.
Carr states that the Internet –
known generally as Google - is making us stupid. He thinks that we spend so
much time on Google that we lose the ability to concentrate and to think deeply
because we are always skimming through articles on the Net. Here is one
paragraph in his long article.
“So, yes, you should be
skeptical of my skepticism. Perhaps those who dismiss critics of the Internet
as Luddites or nostalgists will be proved correct, and from our hyperactive,
data-stoked minds will spring a golden age of intellectual discovery and
universal wisdom. Then again, the Net isn’t the alphabet, and although it may
replace the printing press, it produces something altogether different. The
kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not
just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual
vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened
up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of
contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own
inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf
argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking.
“If we lose those quiet spaces,
or fill them up with `content,’ we will sacrifice something important not only
in our selves but in our culture….”
In his article Varian quotes
numerous experts – 76% of those questioned - who collectively say that Google
does not make us stupid. Here are some of the best quotes in my opinion.
. “My conclusion is that when
the only information on a topic is a handful of essays or books, the best
strategy is to read these works with total concentration. But when you have
access to thousands of articles, blogs, videos, and people with expertise on
the topic, a good strategy is to skim first to get an overview. Skimming and
concentrating can and should coexist….” --Peter Norvig, Google Research
Director
. “Technology isn’t the problem
here. It is people’s inherent character traits. The internet and search engines
just enable people to be more of what they already are. If they are motivated
to learn and [are] shrewd, they will use new tools to explore in exciting new
ways. If they are lazy or incapable of concentrating, they will find new ways to
be distracted and goof off.” -- Varian
. “I don’t think having access
to information can ever make anyone stupider. I don’t think an adult’s IQ can
be influenced much either way by reading anything and I would guess that smart
people will use the Internet for smart things and stupid people will use it for
stupid things in the same way that smart people read literature and stupid
people read crap fiction. On the whole, having easy access to more information
will make society as a group smarter though.” -- Sandra Kelly, market research,
3M Corporation
. “Google is simply one step,
albeit a major one, in the continuing continuum of how technology changes our
generation and use of data, information, and knowledge that has been evolving
for decades….” – Mario Morino, Chairman, Venture Philanthropy Partners
I agree with the experts. I do
not think that the Internet makes us stupid, but I do think that it changes how
we do things and thus has changed our lives. Who wants to carry paper maps in
their car and search for roads when Google can plot a route for them? The smart
person trusts Google but verifies routes with a paper map if in unknown
territory. Who wants to go back to using card catalogs when one can use the
Internet? No one that I know! Who wants to give up social media, cell phones,
etc.
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