"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

“My mind isn’t going – so far as I can tell – but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy…Now my concentration starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do…The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle”

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement because I have personally experienced many of the same symptoms. Over the course of reading, or attempting to read, Carr’s article I found myself responding to seven text messages and checking twitter twice. As I read on, I became starkly aware that I was proving Carr’s point. I was unable to get through a seven page article without my attention straying. Perhaps this is our new way of thinking, which is not necessarily a bad thing; it is simply a way of thinking that is very well-suited to today’s society. However, this sort of neural programming makes it difficult for me to complete an the assignment in, say, a history course, where there are lengthy reading assignments each night. I agree with Carr’s stance that technology is changing us, however the provocative title, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” might be too strong of a statement. In fact, if anything, our new way of thinking proves the tremendous adaptability of the human race; a trait that I don’t believe that this equates with stupidity, but rather elevates us.