the moving finger

Is the internet changing the way we think?

There's a very interesting article over at the Atlantic Online, Is Google Making Us Stupid? which raises some questions about how our interaction with, and use of technology can not only change the way we work with information, but also how we process it - in essence changing the way we think. This isn't actually a new phenomenon - When we began to use written texts much more heavily for information transference, over the spoken word - it freed the audience to begin to use the information in non-linear ways. In essence it became much easier to see that B did not have to follow A. The article rang a bell with me for two reasons, firstly, like the author and many of the people he interviewed I was a voracious reader who quite happily devoured long, complicated books, or articles in a single totally absorbed session. The difference is - despite spending at least as much time online enmeshed in the internet as any of the people in the article - I still read that way. So *I* haven't experienced the sense of losing that ability to concentrate he describes. The second reason is to do with that fact that - as a professional writer - I know how much the internet has changed my work, and to some extent my life - I don't have to remember the pithy quote, the fun fact, or the relevant statistic - I can look it up, anywhere, anytime. That means I have much more time for actually constructing an interesting and well written piece... But - I no longer rely on my own ability to remember things - and how can I tell if the information I find is right? What do you think - is the internet changing the way you think? Is it better or worse? Is Google making us stupid?

Posted

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo.

the moving finger

Sites I Like

Tags

Archive

Is the internet changing the way we think?