Nicholas Carr first posed the question in the pages of the The Atlantic in the summer of 2008. But the issues he addressed were not new; similar concerns about the social and physical effects of the radio and movies were raised in the 1930s by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World. By the 1960s thinkers such as Marshall MacLuhan, Walter Ong and Neil Postman pondered the negative effects of new communication techologies such as alphabets, the printing press, and television on the quality of human life. In the 1990s Jane M. Healy rattled American parents by theorizing that fast-paced TV shows like Sesame Street were rewiring children’s plastic brains to crave constant change, thus shortening attention spans and lowering test scores.
In the last decade, researchers have demonstrated that brain function continues to be altered by what we engage with throughout our lives. So now the spotlight is on the effects of our multi-generational love affair with electronic media. Are they beneficial or destructive?
Carr and others such as Larry Rosen are convinced that with mobile gadgets and wireless networks making Internet access and use simpler, faster, and cheaper, our society needs to step back and wonder whether this is always a good thing. Carr is not only concerned about the erosion of our ability to think deeply, but also the erosion of the slower brain processes needed to experience empathy and compassion for others. And that in the end, we will become less human and more like the machines to which we are addicted.
But Carr has his critics. The Atlantic published Jamais Cascio’s rebuttal, “Get Smarter,” in the summer of 2009. The author touted the advantages of what he calls “fluid intelligence.” Cascio believes that engagement with the Internet will, in the long-term, actually improve our “ability to find meaning in confusion and to solve new problems, independent of acquired knowledge.” He says that this type of intelligence “doesn’t look much like the capacity to memorize and recite facts,” but that eventually it will lead us to a better way of thinking and processing information. We must bow to the inevitable, and rely on "strengthening our fluid intelligence.” This is the “only viable approach to navigating the age of constant connectivity.”
Teachers at all levels--kindergarten through college--report that their students increasingly lose patience with reading texts that are not fast-paced and exciting. And, as literacy expert Elizabeth Moje stated in the April 3, 2012 edition of Education Week, students “‘basically can’t make meaning of what they have read.’” Blame for this trend is usually placed on “video games, iPods, and social media.”
Is Google is making us stupid and less human, or does it has great potential to improve our lives? There does not have to be a black-and-white answer. Both can be true. And libraries can play an important role in helping our society take advantage of the benefits and mitigate the dangers of the Internet. Much as we used to ask people to pull the plug on their TV sets, a public or university library could sponsor community-wide Internet-free days. At the same time, librarians should encourage and guide patrons in using the Internet wisely and well.
For further reading:
Anderson, Janna and Lee Rainie. “Does Google Make Us Stupid?” Pew Internet & AmericanLife Project (February 19, 2010) http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1499/google-does-it-make-us-stupid-experts-stakeholders-mostly-say-no
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.” The Atlantic (July/August 2008). http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. New York: W. W.Norton & Company, 2010.
Cascio, Jamais. “Get Smarter.” Atlantic Magazine (July/August 2009). http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/07/get-smarter/7548/
Healy, Jane M. Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
Herold, Benjamin. “New Literacy Standards Could Challenge Evan Passionate Readers.” Education Week (April 3, 2012). http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/04/03/28pnbk_reading.h31.html?qs=literacy
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Chatto & Windus, 1932.
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. Riverhead, 2005.
Ong, Walter J. Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness. New York: Penguin, 1985.
“Parenting Controversies: Will TV Rot Your Baby’s Brain?” The Week. (October 19, 2011). http://theweek.com/article/index/220463/will-tv-rot-your-babys-brain
Rosen, Larry D. iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.
I think this is a very thought provoking area of Internet culture. This goes very far beyond just libraries. This topic of the way we think goes down to fundamental philosophies of epistemology and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI have an anecdote that I thought of while I was watching the video. Carr mentions certain things that I had thought of and started doing on my own. Carr explains how he started noticing that while he was reading he could not concentrate as well as he previously could. I had noticed this myself but in terms of my writing. When I was younger, when my parents bought their second computer, they let me have the old computer. This did not have Internet or even a CD-ROM drive. It ran Windows 3.1 I believe and was basically used for word processing. I would sit for hours and write -- horribly bad -- short stories and poetry on it. When I was about 25 it occurred to me that I could not sit for more than 15 minutes to write any kind of fiction. I would lose concentration and start poking around on the Internet or some other activity. How could I be losing concentration as I got older? How could I have been more focused at 12 than at 25? I realized it was the Internet and all of my electronic devices that were always "connected." Hence buying my first manual typewriter. My proof to myself that the typewriter works and the computer doesn't (at least for me) is that in November I wrote a 50,000 novella using only the typewriter. I would leave my phone, iPad, computer all downstairs and on the desk upstairs was a lamp, paper, and the typewriter. It worked.
So I think that we need to address this and find ways to use the technology we have and the new technology that is arriving while also not relying on it so much. I love technology but there is no denying that there are repercussions to it and a part of that, in my view, is the fast paced nature of technological change.
Another repercussion of new, mobile technology is a decline in meaningful face-to-face social interactions. How many times have you tried to have a conversation with a friend, only to be interrupted by a phone call or text message alert? Or heard the blare of an annoying ringtone in the middle of a church service or wedding? Even in the office, it's difficult have serious meetings without someone reaching for their iPhone to check their e-mail.
ReplyDeleteMany people (including myself) celebrate the expanded means of communication brought about by social media. But I also wish we could figure out how to keep the instant gratification of mobile technology from weakening our in-person interactions. People are losing their identity to a username, photo and page on an electronic screen.
I absolutely loved the idea of "internet-free" library days! As Heidi and Jason also touched upon, I believe that mobile technology and such can add wonderful dimension to our lives, when used appropriately. It is not worth loosing the ability to interact with others in a face-to-face manner, just to have bigger, better, and faster technology. I am very much included in the group that "needs" to have their cell phone at arms distance, but have been working to wean myself of that "addiction". Maybe we should have state mandated "internet-free" days! (Or maybe just an internet-free hour):)
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