Hold it right there! I find this article to be extremely ironic and hypocritical. Carr mentions how he has "been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet." It's totally crazy to me that he is even complaining about the Internet when he is clearly on it all the time. And when Carr talks about attention span and how the Internet is supposedly shortening it he talks about it for more than the time I can even focus on it. And what's more than that?! He wrote and published the article on the Internet!! I can't get over that. Haha.
Anyway, I think that sadly this article is pretty spot on. I wish it wasn't; but honestly, what am I doing right now? Not reading Cat's Cradle like I should be. I'm writing a BLOG on the INTERNET. But I'll continue on. So, I think that there is a point where we humans should stop learning and stop trying to figure everything out. And I believe that this point is being reached by the Internet. There is so much information out there. There is no way that we could ever take in all of it! But I don't believe that we're meant to. And this right here is where people split on this issue I believe. Some people are all about progress no matter what the cost. Knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. But then there are those people that learn because they like to learn and are genuinely interested in what they're learning. The problem is, the people that just learn a bunch of stuff are some of the people that are clogging up the Internet. I don't think that the Internet is a bad thing I just think that everyone needs to know when is enough is enough; personally.
The Internet also takes away an individuals ability to think and process things for his or her self. When you read something on the Internet it is normally in a quick and easy form to read and therefore you get all the information you need. Right upfront. This isn't good. Although we have all this information we don't know how to use it anymore because the thinking and analyzing has been destroyed. That is why I find the following statement from the article totally false, " The more pieces of information we can 'access' and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers."
This whole thing is frustrating to me because it kinda feels like man is just giving up and okay with the fact that this quote from Carr's article might actually become truth, "The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive."
Sorry if some of this makes not sense whatsoever. I'm dead tired. Woo color guard. HA!
Peace.
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So, um, yeah...
ReplyDeleteBut really. Good posting here! I mean, you have some really unique ideas going on here. Yeah, I totally thought the same when I was reading it; the author of this article is a total hypocrite. haha. But so are we for using the Internet.
And yeah, I tend to think that because our brains aren't the size of Neptune, we're not really meant or structured to understand everything. I mean, that's why we make new discoveries every day! That's why we're constantly learning things. If we were meant to know everything, we would have been born with everything already in our heads.
I think that using the Internet might make us be more productive thinkers if you do it right. You have to be able to filter through all the amateur crap floating around and find what really matters. Also, the more information you take in, the more you'll be able to analyze other information objectively. I don't know if this makes any sense, but like if you read up on breast cancer screenings, and then heard about the new guidelines, you would be able to take all that information and make an informed decision for yourself.
ReplyDeleteSo in some ways, I think the Internet does make us more informed, but it also definitely makes us lazy about how we get our information.
So yeah, I think you made some interesting points in here. Good job!
Bye!
hey ariel!
ReplyDeleteI think you also had some really interesting points. We do need to limit how much time we spend on the internet and what we put on it. Although it's easier to just get all the information you need with the click of a button, we become so dependent on it and definately lazy. I have suffered from laziness all my life (:P)and I always turn to the internet when I haven't read a book. But I think because we are so used to reading such a small amount of information on the internet in so little time that we have a hard time thinking for ourselves. The internet can be helpful, but we depend on it too much and who knows what we'll do without it!
Hey Hey!!
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm sorry about posting this comment a little late... I kinda forgot... I agree with what you had to say about the Internet taking away our ability to process things. I am guilty of that sometimes. i still think that I can use my brain as it was intended to be used, but I guess I get a little lazy sometimes. Maybe not even that. I think I just want to find the answer and KNOW. You know? I understand completely what you said about us becoming more productive thinkers. It takes brain power to even sort through all the google stuff and know what is and isn't relevant.It's kinda like what melanie had to say. it really does make you a more productive thinker. you have to be able to process the information. If someone was doing all the work then we would eb really stupid. Google just does all the looking super fast... oh well, I still love it