Is Google Making Us Stoopid?

"Is Google Making Us Stupid"

~Matt Carr

I’m glad my brain runs counter to Mr. Carr’s assertion that the Internet is making humans stupider, causing a lack of focus & deep reading. He should be glad too, since I read all of his article, didn’t click on any links, remember what I read and care to comment on it. You can read the article here. I cut/paste quotes that rang loudly in my mind with my own comments below.

When we read online, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.

~ Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University

I think I agree. My anecdotal evidence is conversations with my husband. He is a voracious reader of the ‘Net, & he remembers everything he reads. He imparts to me the articles he’s read, the information he’s gathered. However, quite often there is no connection made or conclusion drawn. We often get in arguments, because I’m asking him, “What’s the point?” and he’s frustrated because “There isn’t one.” He’s just repeating information. Don’t get me wrong; my husband is one of the most intelligent people I know; he remembers everything he reads. I know he applies the knowledge in several situations, but at first he’s just a gatherer/dispenser of information, not a deep reader.

even the adult mind “is very plastic.” Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. “The brain,” according to Olds, “has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.”

~ James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University

So, you can teach can old dog new tricks. I'm looking forward to continuous learning.

Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking.

I again agree with Mr. Carr that the loss of deep thinking would be a tragedy. This is a lot coming from me. I’m an indecisive person who often gets caught up in too much deep thinking. I also value efficiency above most other things. Efficiency is the key to this new thinking & new technology. But think of the tragedy the loss of deep thinking would create. Yes, we’d do our tasks with greater efficiency, but who would invent to tasks? Would they be lost to the goal of efficiency? Learning something new is not always efficient. Thinking for many hours (days, years) about a concept, philosophy, ideal, may not be efficiency, but it can lead to increased understanding & quality of life.

As we are drained of our “inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance,” Foreman concluded, we risk turning into “‘pancake people’—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”

I see this already in our public schools. The Federal & State mandates require so much content that it cannot be covered in a school year, let alone 18 years of school. If all present content is to be taught, we cannot be k-12 schools, we must become k-22. So what is the solution? Pancake teaching, pancake curriculum. We spread ourselves several miles wide, but only a centimeter thick. We have embraced quantity over quality, & in result, sacrificed knowing knowing very much about a very little, & very little about a very much. Efficiency & productivity are great for machines; this country was built on the Industrial Revolution. But while knowing how to make a cog in a wheel earns a paycheck; knowing how to carve the entire wagon earns time with your family, knowledge of a craft, self-sufficiency, & knowledge you can pass along to others.

Comments to the aforementioned article here.

The original article here.