Theme #5

It amazes me how I can no longer drive in a car for more than 30 minutes without needing guidance as to where I’m going. I no longer know the names of streets or highways, and I cannot remember things unless I email myself a reminder. This wasn’t how it used to be for me. I could remember things off the top of my head in seconds. The only reason I would use a computer or GPS is to look up out of state trips or work on my summer math and English programs. I never used to rely on the Internet so heavily and as a result had somewhat of a photographic memory. I could see the page of a textbook in my head and reread it line for line. Now the pages are blurry and it’s harder for me to focus on remembering things I have read without having notes or some form of search engine for help.
The way we use technology has drastically affected how we think and how developed our minds are. I notice as I look around my classrooms now that people are constantly either texting on their cell phones or looking around the room while the teacher lectures. It’s hard to concentrate on one solitary subject for more than an hour. This was never how it used to be. I could sit for hours upon hours doing homework and not being distracted at all but once I was given the freedom of laptop, that all changed. I was spending more time on social networking sites, email, watching videos on youtube, and searching on Google or youtube. Before I had my own computer, all these sites were a complete mystery to me. I’d never been introduced to Google or to yahoo until I was allowed to explore for myself. Now instead of being able to study for a few hours and be confident about an exam, it takes me days to get done what a few uninterrupted hours could do. I get distracted easily and am lured by the internet to explore its hidden depths.
This happened to me much the same way it happened to Nicholas Carr in his article “Is Google making us stupid?” He would read for hours upon end never being deterred from his original mission and now he can no longer focus for more than a few pages. He began rapidly researched for quotes and information for his articles through Google. Carr would watch video upon video through the various sharing sites and get sidetracked by the numerous links posted to the websites. This trend is not merely a coincidence but something that is affecting our society. Now instead of asking someone to look something up in their textbook, a professor will simply say, “Can someone Google that for me?” the textbook can be right in front of them yet we are trusting our knowledge to an extremely common search engine. Extra Credit is being given in various classes of mine to find out certain facts about different compounds. What the professors fail to realize, is that with a few clicks of my mouse, I can have the answers to all their questions within a few minutes, instead of hours like it used to be.
Even in my quantitative analysis class (which is all math) a girl was able to Google how to do her calculations for one of ours labs, even though the professor had gone into great deal about how to perform them. So to answer Carr’s question, Yes, I think Google is making us more stupid by the day. We no longer rely on our memory or bother to learn when the answer is simply at our fingertips. It’s a disturbing concept but wasn’t that the reason these engines were created in the first place? Aren’t they merely doing their job?
As MacLuhan stated, media can shape our thought processes. They provide the content but in the end, it’s the way we think about things and the way we behave that matters most. In this case, we’re being shaped to rely heavily on the use of the internet, GPS systems, personal PDA’s, etc. I, and many others like me, can no longer focus for more than a few minutes nor can I remember things from a few days ago. It’s a sad truth but can be fixed. With the elimination of Google as my main source of research and disconnecting from many of media outlets, I may be able to regain some of my former intelligence. I may be able to break this hold that the internet and other outlets like it has over me.