In their essay “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now,” Gary Small and Gigi Voran consider many of the same issues that came up in our discussion of Carr’s essay—questions of how immersion in a digital environment changes the ways in which we read, think, and construct ourselves as human individuals. But while Carr’s article is largely skeptical about these changes, Small and Voran offer a perspective that also sees possibilities for productive change and development through digital activity.
In order to explore the tensions between these authors’ arguments more thoroughly, in class on Monday we’ll approach our discussion as a mock debate between supporters of Carr’s argument and supporters of Small and Voran’s argument. Here’s how it will work: If your last name begins with A-N, you are on the side of Carr, and if your last name begins with O-Z, you are on the side of Small and Voran. Among other things, this mock debate is an exercise in roleplaying and in understanding an argument by taking it on—so you must adopt your assigned position and support it in class, even if you don’t actually agree with it in your own real mind.
I’ll give you time in class to prepare as teams before we start debating. In order to start preparing now, for this blog post I’d like you to do a little initial work with putting these two essay in conversation. In your post, you should
- Lay out an argument or claim on behalf of your side, using quotations from both authors—if you’re on the Carr side, you should quote and cite him to critique or disagree with another passage you quote from Small and Voran, and if you’re on the Small and Voran side, you should quote and cite them to critique or disagree with another passage you quote from Carr.
- In addition to quoting passages from both articles, you should explain in your own writing how the two relate or connect and why “your” side’s argument is more valid and valuable than that of the other side—what is your essay saying in the piece you quote that counters or goes beyond the other side you quote, and how/why? Think of this post as playing out a little miniature debate in writing before you participate in our in-person debate in class.
- Keep in mind that although the required minimum length for this post is 150 words, you’re quoting two passages and still have to make connections and do thinking of your own in what you write, so I encourage you to go beyond that length however you need to.
Reminder: your response should go in the comments section for this post. It is due by midnight on Sunday, January 29th, the night before our Monday class, and should be at least 150 words (although note the third bullet point above in relation to this). If you have any questions, let me know via email.
Debates in Digital Culture Section 18 
In Nicholas Carr’ article “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he states that he “was once a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” (pg 65) In other words, in times before the Internet, Carr would read massive amounts of books and articles but now he finds it hard to concentrate on long passages and stories. Carr believes that this is due to the Internet and this statement is valid. The Internet is having a negative impact on the way people are thinking. Rather than read a whole text even on the Internet people have started a skimming technique to receive information more quickly. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan believe that the Internet is a form of technology that is helping society move in the right direction. Nonetheless, in their article “Your brain is evolving right now.” It is mentioned that the Internet and other new technological devises are making people less comfortable talking face to face. “Although having our pals online from moment to moment seems intimate, we risk losing personal touch with our real life relationships and may experience artificial sense of intimacy…”
(pg. 92) More and more people are hiding behind a computer screen and their devices but in the long run that is not going to get passed an interview or make public speeches in the near future. The Internet is making it to easy to obtain information and hopefully we don’t into the obese people in the Disney Pixar movie Wall-E, be sitting next to each other and only communicate through the screen directly in front of us.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 63-75. Print.
Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your brain is evolving right now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 77-96 Print.
Nicholas Carr, Gary Small, and Gigi Vorgan agree that our brains are changing. Small and Vorgan say, “today’s Technological and digital process is likely causing our brains to evolve at an unpredicted pace…” (88) but is it really for the better? Carr says, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think.. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration starts to drift after two or three pages.”(64). Just because our brains are evolving doesn’t mean we are better off. In Small and Vorgan’s Essay they say, “By adolescence, these synapses trim themselves down by 60 and then level off for adulthood” (82-83). The brain keeps the synapses, or brain pathways, that are used most and trims off ones it no longer needs. So let’s suppose you are in this highly digital culture, and majority of the text you read comes from the Internet. This means that the synapses that allow your brain to skim the Internet are very strong. While the synapses that allow your brain to read long, in depth text are very weak. According to Small and Vorgan, this means that the synapses that allow you to read in depth text are being diminished. Not to mention, this all happens during adolescence and, according to Small and Vorgan, “Young minds tend to be most exposed, as well as the most sensitive, to the impact of digital technology”(78). So even though our ability to surf the web is evolving, we are potentially losing our ability to read, interpret and analyze tangible text.
Bauerlein, Mark. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide: Arguments for and against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011. Print.
Bauerlein, Mark. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide: Arguments for and against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011. Print.
Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and Gary Small’s and Gigi Vorgan’s article “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now” both speak about how the internet is changing out lives and they way we think. Carr’s states that “The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data processing machines is not only built into the working of the Internet, it is the network’s reigning business model as well”(73). As the Internet progresses so do our minds. Our minds are minds are now able to do many tasks at one time. Whether these tasks are done efficiently is the question. However Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan believe that “Upon signing off, they notice feeling spaced out, fatigued, irritable and distracted, as if they are in a “digital fog.” This is the new form of mental stress, what I term techno-brain burnout, is threatening to become an epidemic” (93). This is the belief that after surfing the Internet or “googling” for long periods causes techno-burnout. I feel as if by doing any task for a long period of time will cause you to become tried and mentally drained. For instance a person who working six days a week sixteen hours a day will cause them to be mentally stressed after a few days. Mental stress and stress in general is different for every person and can be caused by anything. There are a lot more serious epidemics that we will face other that techno-burnout.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 73. Print. Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 93. Print.
Nicholas Carr argues that the internet is making us stupid, lazy, dumb, etc. He states, “They [internet] supply stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (64-65). His argument seems to be based on observation and not on actual research. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan have a much better argument that has an actual biological basis. They state, “ Daily exposure to high technology-computers, smartphones, video games, search engines like Google and Yahoo –stimulates brain cell alteration and neurotransmitter release, gradually strengthening new neural pathways in our brain while weakening old ones” (77). The internet and technology give us infinite knowledge at our fingertips, and it because of it our brain is evolving as a pace never seen before (77). This means that we have to let the past go and embrace the future. It is a good thing, if you let it be. Our brains are actually growing from all this stimulation (87). In Carr’s essay, “Is Google making us stupid” he points out the minuscule negative effects that have not been proved in many scientific experiments. Small and Vorgan discuss many experiments and observations that prove that our brains are creating new pathways, the average IQ score is rising and multitasking without errors is also rising; all due to the digital culture (96).
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 63-75. Print.
Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your brain is evolving right now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 77-96 Print.
The articles that we read on how the internet changes us and the way we organize and live our lives offer an insight on a very current topic. Are the changes that occur in our lives due to the increasing exposure to internet and everything it has to offer an issue or on the contrary a beneficial advantage? In his article Carr skeptically regards the influence the internet has on its users. He says ” the internet supplies the stuff of thought,but it also shapes the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation”(69). He tends to believe that that by replacing the leisure book reading with the internet we are not able to concentrate and truly enjoy the content of our reading. The immediacy promoted by internet tends to shape our behavior from a slow paced rational behavior to a “want it now” behavior. As a result we multitask but we loose the quality of the activity performed. As opposed to the skeptical view Carr offered in his article, Gary Small and Gigi Vogan explain this issue using the concept of natural selection. They say that” the day-in day-out brain morphing in response to our environment will eventually have an impact on future generations through evolutionary change”(87). That means that the changes that we are subject of are a result of our adaptation to the changes of our environment. Natural selection works by favoring the best genes for the best adaptation to this environment. So, in a way we can treat the changes caused by internet as an unavoidable or even more indispensable for our best survival in this environment.
The scientific argument expressed in the article “your brain is evolving right now” explains and in a way gives reason for the abandon of certain habits and the formation of new ones. If we think it through we would not be able to live in isolation from our environment so we have to evolve and pace along with the changes it has to offer.
In the excerpt from their book, “iBrain”, Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan cite various scientific studies and give thorough explanations to describe how the human brain evolves in order to adapt to our new, technologically influenced process of thought. Both Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, and Small and Vorgan’s passage agree that as a result of the plasticity of the brain, we are learning from new technologies. Where they differ is on whether this learning is making us “smarter”. Small and Vorgan argue that our intelligence is increasing and that through our use of technologies we are developing “a better ability to sift through large amounts of information rapidly, and decide what’s important and what isn’t.” (95-96). Nicholas Carr admits that thanks to the internet, and various other new technologies, it is possible that people are reading more today than ever before, but he warns that it is a “different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking.” He goes on to say that when we read in this new fashion, “Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.” (67). So although this new “efficient” way of reading has taught us new skills, it has essentially diminished our prior skills of deep reading and thought. Small and Vorgan admit to this, briefly stating that by exercising this new ability “the neutral circuits that control the more traditional learning methods are neglected and gradually diminished.” (96). Car concludes by stating that by losing the skill of deep reading, and filling the “quiet spaces” of our minds with filtered “content”, we are essentially losing the ability to “make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas.” (74). So yes, we may be learning how to acquire more information in less time, but we may also be losing the ability to fully understand it.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 67-74. Print. Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95-96. Print.
Nicholas Carr, along with Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan, all make valid arguments as to why or why not technology is strengthening our minds. However, after analyzing both sides of the situation, I can honestly support Carr’s stand on the ever growing situation. In the article, “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now,” Small and Vorgan point out that yes, technology has made the social aspect of our lives more convenient, but admit that the effects have not all been all so positive. “Although having all our pals online from moment to moment seems intimate, we risk losing personal touch with our real-life relationships and may experience an artificial sense of intimacy compared with when we shut down our devices and devote our attention to one individual at a time” (89). Much of their essay focuses on the positive aspects of social networking, but the results of the negative cause much more trouble than they express. The younger generation is becoming less comfortable with face to face interactions, because they are simply able to hide behind a either a computer or phone screen, and not see another person’s true reaction. With Kids relying on their devices to communicate more and more, many serious issues have risen, including the fear of public speaking, and cyber bullying. With that being said, Carr has found in his essay that the internet not only dimities communication skills, but also the ability to work. “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (68). I can personally attest to this. When I get on a computer to do schoolwork, I always find myself opening up more tabs of distractions. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or even Pandora Radio that I am distracting myself with, I am rarely ever able to concentrate on one simple thing. Nicholas Carr believes we need to eliminate this problem by putting less stress on the internet, and going back to our old ways of using books for knowledge.
Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your Brain is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 76-96 Print.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 62-75. Print.
After reviewing both Nicholas Carr’s passage “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and Gary Small/Gigi Vorgan’s “Your Brain is Evolving Right Now”, I was able to see many similarities as well as differences in these authors opinion on the effects that the digital culture is having on the way we live, function, and think today. Although Small/Vorgan do a good job pointing out the positive effects as well as the negative effects, Carr’s passage did a better job of explaining in detail the harmful effects search engines using “artificial intelligence” have on the way our brains are wired.
“What the net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.”
(Carr, p. 65)
“As the modern brain continues to evolve, some attention skills improve, mental response times sharpen, and the performance of many brain tasks become more efficient. These new brain proficiencies will be even greater in future generations and alter our current understanding and definition of intelligence.”
(Small/Vorgan, p. 96)
In Small/Vorgans article, they state that as the modern brain evolves in the digital culture, mental skills and responses sharpen and these will only become greater and more efficient, while Carr’s article says that the digital culture is causing the modern brain to be more efficient, but at a higher cost. I agree with Carr when he says the Net makes peoples brains interpret things as a “swiftly moving stream of particles” because although I think Google, Social Media, and the Net are causing our culture to be enhanced in many great ways, it is also causing peoples brains to look for short cuts and immediate answers. Today people don’t want to search and understand the meaning of things, they just want the answer to be in front of them. This “I WANT” culture thats results negatively effect our culture.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 67-74. Print.
Small, Gary and Vorgan, Gigi. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95-96. Print.
Small and Vorgan while highlight many positives about the internet and its effect on our psyche, such as the ability to filter, multitask and research with fewer errors, I believe that the decay of intensive reading and one-on-one social interactions deteriorating in the ‘digital natives’ remains a somber issue when address the pros and cons of the digital age. In Small and Vorgan’s article a Stanford University study found that: “With the weakening of the brains neural circuitry controlling human contact, our social interactions may become awkward, and we tend to misinterpret, and even miss, subtle, nonverbal messages” (78). This statistic demonstrates how the ‘digital natives’ are decreasingly capable of deciphering and appropriately reacting to basic human interactions. Without the ability to understand each other we will be stuck with our technology wondering why Siri on your IPhone has a better understanding of us then people we wish to share the world with. While this may be a long way off, and may be a doubtful future but the idea that we could start to lose out on traditional human contact would be certainly be a loss. “Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged” (67). This quote in Nicholas Carr’s article from Maryanne Wolf indicates that in the way we are wiring our brains to read based on how we read on the internet, we are squandering what depth we would have gained reading the traditional way. Without depth we cannot hope to truly understand something. While skimming the surface, whether with just texting someone instead of seeing them face-to-face or only speed reading an article we should take time and think about deeply, we can only take away a small tidbit of information as opposed to being immersed in critical and deeper ideas. In my analysis of these texts, I believe we are spreading ourselves too thin, it’s like having 2000 facebook friends and none of them knowing that you bite your lip when you lie, the depth something is what is important.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 67. Print.
Small, Gary and Vorgan, Gigi. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 78. Print.
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr and “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now” by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan both discuss the impact of technology on today’s society. Both articles relate in the sense that they argue digital technology is changing the way our brains operate. Carr believes that digital technology is negatively impacting the way we read where as Small and Vorgan feel that our brains our evolving in a positive direction. Small and Vorgan explain in their article that “initially, the daily blitz of data that bombards us can create a form of attention deficit, but our brains are able to adapt in a way that promotes rapid information processing” (95). In other words, digital technology has evolved our brains to process large amounts of information in a short amount of time. They feel that technological experiences have helped us develop the ability to skim through large amounts of information and decide what is significant and what isn’t. While explaining how the web is chipping away at his capacity for concentration, Carr states that “once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words, now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski” (65). Before the web, Carr was able to fully engage in the text he was reading. However, since the use of digital technology such as the internet he feels like he is skimming through passages and no longer fully grasping what he is reading. I feel that Carr makes a more valid argument because you are more likely to miss important text while skimming than you are if you were to actually read the entire passage. I say this because what the reader thinks is important may have absolutely nothing to do with the writer’s main idea. I understand that skimming through passages can be convenient because it saves time and allows the reader to distinguish what he or she feels is important, but at the same time the reader is depriving his or her self of fully getting a grasp on what they are reading. Carr feels that we are able “to make rich mental connections” when reading more deeply into the text (67). I can honestly say from personal experience that I am able to interpret the text better as well as make personal connections when I take my time and fully read a passage rather than skim through it.
Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 65-67. Print.
Nicholas Carr, who wrote “Is Google Making us Stupid,” argues that the internet is causing some people to think differently. Carr believes that since people are used to a more fast paced life in this digital world people may be losing the ability to read deeply. For instance, he states “Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in a narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.” (64) With this, Carr demonstrates how his reading ability has changed. It’s not that he can’t read, it’s just he no longer can stay focused on his reading for long periods of time. On the other side of the spectrum, Gary Small and Gigi Vogan recognize the same changes, but view them more positively. In their article “Your Brain is Evolving Right Now,” they state “…it may well be increasing our intelligence in the way we currently measure and define IQ. Average IQ scores are steadily rising with the advancing digital culture, and the ability to multitask without errors is improving.”(96) Overall, Vigan and Small feel that the changes have mostly been good for people. On this idea of whether or not the changes are a good or bad thing, I find myself siding with Carr. The internet has made people lazy, especially those who don’t remember a time without it. Carr talked about not being able to read deeply and I think most people can relate to that. With the internet, it’s easy to just get by with skimming. Since so much information is right at a person’s fingertips, they don’t always have a reason to look into something further. Now, one consequence of not doing a lot of heavy reading is that they will lose the ability to do it as effectively when they need to. Carr was right on target with his article, the internet is limiting a person’s ability in certain tasks, one of which is reading.
Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your Brain is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 96. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 64. Print.
In Nicholas Carr’s article titled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas states that due to the Internet, his capacity for concentration and contemplation has been chipped away and that his reading habits have changed from those of a scuba diver into the motions a man on a Jet Ski. (Carr, 65) However, Carr’s article barely skims the surface of the debate on whether the Internet is actually the cause of stupidity amongst Internet natives. In Carr’s article, he states that “people using the sites exhibited ‘a form of skimming activity,’ hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they visited.”(66) Carr blames this method of skimming for such intellectual laziness and stupidity, but he fails to explain the workings of the brain in such conditions of web browsing, which, conversely, is addressed in the article “Your Brain is Evolving Right Now” by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan. On page 95, Small and Vorgan support their claim of brain evolution through the Internet by reporting scientific studies conducted that indicate that “our brains are able to adapt in ways that promote rapid information processing,” and that our brains “learn to swiftly focus attention, analyze information, and almost instantaneously decide on a go or no-go action.” Through such studies, scientists discovered that humans are actually developing neural circuitry that is customized for this directed concentration. (95) Carr’s apprehension of the Internet on society is ill informed due to the lack of concrete scientific analysis to support his claim of Internet induced stupidity. Small and Vorgan use reports that demonstrate that average IQ scores are rising while errors during multi-tasking are decreasing. (96) With scientific evidence to refute Carr’s claim, Carr can be compared to the doomsayer, Socrates. (Carr, 73) Carr was shortsighted in his argument. The Internet, although not perfect in molding society, is not making us stupider.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 65-73. Print.
Small, Gary and Vorgan, Gigi. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95-96. Print.
Both passages referred to the internet changing how we think and the fact that we are altering how we do things because of having the speed of the internet at our fingertips. Small and Voran see this primarily as a good thing and attempt to argue their position using medical information like brain anatomy and results from various studies. The major problem with this is the incorrect information they provide to the reader who, with little understanding of neuropsychology prior to reading this article would be unaware of the errors being provided to them. There were three errors made that are key to the point being made here, the first of which being on page 80 where they discuss the brain being made up of neurons, axons, and dendrites. The problem found with this passage is the fact that axons and dendrites are two of the parts that make up the neuron; they are not different parts exclusive of the neuron. By wording this passage the way it is, they are leading readers uneducated in neuropsychology to believe these are all different parts of the brain structure. Similar to this notion is the second of the major errors that can be noted on page 82 where they state, “In order for us to thin, feel, and move, our neurons or brain cells need to communicate with one another.” This statement makes it appear as though all brain cells are neurons when this, in fact, is incorrect. There are several other types of cells that make up the various structures of the brain, in addition to neurons. The third, and possibly the biggest, error occurs on page 86 where they are talking about Broca’s area. They say this area is located on the left side of the brain for right handed people and on the right side of the brain for left handed people. This is entirely inaccurate. Broca’s area is located in the left hemisphere of the frontal lobe regardless of which hand is dominant. These are not the only three errors that were made, but they certainly are the largest of errors. By providing false information that is so vital to understanding the workings of the brain, it makes the rest of their arguments hard to believe.
Carr uses quotes, and examples from real life situations, and respectable well known people to prove his points. On page 73 he mentions how Socrates bemoaned writing because it would make people more reliant on writing things down which would weaken their ability to remember everything they needed to know. His accuracy on this statement went considerably further than he had ever anticipated. We are at a point in our culture where we rely on technology for everything- when we have an appointment, or something to remember, a reminder is set in our phones; similarly, school assignment due dates are constantly being given to students so they do not forget in the forms of syllabi given at the start of a course, a posting on a site like Blackboard, and emails are often sent out as well as a means of reminding students when to finish things. The internet has made us intellectually lazy and has forced us to rely on anything we can find aside from our own mind to remember things for us and even think for us. On page 64 Carr mentions how the internet has helped him tremendously in his research as a writer but has also changed the way he thinks. This is the case with most individuals who have constant access to the internet and use it as their primary source of research. By using websites like Google or Wikipedia to do research instead of spending time in a library and using encyclopedias, the opportunity to learn something new and unexpected is taken away. Using the internet for research, the only things that attention is paid to are those that the researcher needs for a purpose. They lose the opportunity to stumble across information that they may not necessarily need at the moment, but could be useful to them in the future. Another way the internet has made us lazy is in the way we read. Most college students, if they have to read books for an assignment, the chances they will actually read the book are slim to none. From personal experience, I have noticed much of the student population in public high schools and in higher education settings prefer to use sources like SparkNotes and other readers’ opinions prior to reading the text themselves. On page 74, Carr states, “In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking.” He, and Ms. Wolf, are entirely accurate on this observation; by taking the time to read a book without having the distractions of music, Facebook, or television, there are far more opportunities to exercise the mind and come up with ideas without the help of others. It allows readers the ability to make conclusions based on their own thoughts and ideas which allows them to become intellectually stronger and more capable of providing proper analysis to real world situations. By taking the time to work on one thing at a time, and think about nothing else, the human mind is able to expand and reach further depths than if multi-tasking were to be done. As a final point, it is necessary to note a comment on page 96 of Small and Voran’s article where they noted that multitasking without errors is improving considerably. Although this is true, it is not a good thing; by multitasking, the ability to retain information is greatly decreased. Carr makes his ideas very clear by providing accurate factors of comparison whereas Small and Voran attempt to use scientific information to show that there are changes in what the brain can do, but they do not note all of the negative outcomes that result of it; they only show the positive consequences. Carr states both the good and the bad in all of his arguments-yes the internet has made us more efficient overall, but there is no arguing it-the internet has also made us intellectually lazy.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 64-74. Print.
Small, Gary and Vorgan, Gigi. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 80-96. Print.
Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan explained a study from North Umbria University in the United Kingdom about how researchers’ glands at a website within second and can determine whether those sites contain relevant or irrelevant data. Small and Vorgan stated, “this study indicates that our brains learn to swiftly focus attention, analyze information, and almost instantaneously decide on a go or no-go action” (95). Student tends to do this because, they do not have no time to waste because they are probably doing this research paper at the last minutes or they might want to just get it over with. Students do not want to waste their time reading an article online that probably does not have any information they need. Students learns how to gland and quickly skim through articles to find the information they need. In Nicholas Carr’s essay, he stated, “my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles” (65). Carr is stating that these “swiftly moving steam of particles” is a disadvantage to the computer users. However, according to Small’s and Vorgan‘s essay, being able to move fast is a good advantage. It allows the user to gather their information for their research paper quickly and less time consuming.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 65. Print.
Small, Gary and Vorgan, Gigi. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95. Print.
In “Your Brain is Evolving Right Now,” authors Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan make numerous claims supporting the digital revolution. One point they argue is that though the Internet “can create a form of attention deficit … our brains are able to adapt in a way that promotes rapid information processing” (95). Small and Vorgan continue by citing Professor Pam Briggs of Northumbria University [which they incorrectly spell “North Umbria University” (95)]. According to Briggs, people browsing the Internet for health information are able to identify a helpful website from an unhelpful site in two seconds or less. From this statement, Small and Vorgan conclude that “many of us are developing neural circuitry that is customized for rapid and incisive spurts of directed concentration” (95). But how is it possible to make such a broad claim from such a narrow conclusion? What if, for instance, someone searches for what caused World War I? Would s/he be able to discern the quality of a website in two seconds or less? Health information, unlike historical information, is easy to identify. Symptoms and remedies for the common cold, for example, can be listed and read quickly. They’re also not as disputable as a historical account, which can be told and analyzed from hundreds of perspectives.
Nicholas Carr, on the other hand, recognizes that the effects the Internet has on our ability to read and process information delve much deeper than how quickly we can decode information. In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he (correctly) references Tufts University developmental psychologist Maryanne Wolf: “‘We are how we read,'” he quotes. “When we read online … we tend to become ‘mere decoders of information'” (66-67). Carr sees the negative consequences of becoming rapid information processors. We search for simple and straightforward answers, like how to lose weight or signs of skin cancer, rather than researching and questioning the devastating effects Columbus’ discovery had on the Caribbean and South American peoples, or how the Europeans’ exploitation of the eastern trade routes eventually led to imperialism, drug wars, and political upheaval. Small and Vorgan also fail to take various cultures into account, especially eastern cultures who do not read from a set alphabet. “… Readers of ideograms, such as the Chinese,” Carr explains, “develop a mental circuitry for reading that is very different from the circuitry found in those of us whose written language employs an alphabet” (67). How the Internet affects our comprehension skills varies depending on more than just how much time we spend on the Net. Small and Vorgan attempt to make it appear that everyone’s brains behave the same way: human brains are able to be hardwired like computers. Carr understands how untrue that is. “If we lose those quiet spaces (we obtain through contemplation), or fill them up with ‘content,'” he says, “we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture” (75). Unlike Small and Vorgan, Carr realizes that the more we act like our electronics, the less we act like humans.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 66-75. Print.
Small, Gary and Vorgan, Gigi. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95. Print.
Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is a passage that mainly focuses on his research of how the internet is doing more harm than good. He states, “…I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. 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” (67). He makes this statement in the first few pages, and it seems to be what he centers his argument around. He further goes on to mention how technology is continuing to essentially rot our brains. In Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan’s passage, “Your Brain is Evolving Right Now” they are informing their reader about the brain and how technology is stimulating it for the better, but do not neglect to leave out the negative relationship between technology and our brains. However their argument is leaned more towards the positives of technology and our brains. They state, “…altering our neural networks and synaptic connections through activities such as e-mail, video games, Googling, or other technological experiences does sharpen more cognitive abilities. We can learn to react more quickly to visual stimuli and improve many forms of attention…We develop a better ability to sift through large amounts of information rapidly and decide what’s important and what isn’t…(93). Small and Vorgan state here that technology helps improve memory, but why is it that Carr says he feels his memory has been shorten and has less of an attention span? Vorgan and Small and Carr have two different conflicting points of view on technology. With Carr he is talking from a personal experience and even says, “I’m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances…many of them say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (68). The audience knows that Carr isn’t the only one but also people he knows are facing similar problems. Vorgan and Small seem to lack the testimony of people that say that they experience an increase of attention or recollection. They do have scientist tests that mention, but they do not exactly back up their statement on page 93. Until they can fully back their statement it seems to be that Carr’s personal experience is more validating in the debate of memory/attention vs technology.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 67-68. Electronic.
Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 93. Electronic.
I think it’s interesting that these two articles are being used to oppose each other. While Carr’s article clearly suggests that human intelligence is declining from the use or overuse of technology, I can’t say that Small and Voran’s article entirely disagrees. Both assert to some degree that at least some human characteristics are reducing. Small and Voran state early on that “With the weakening of the brain’s circuitry controlling human contact, our social interactions may become awkward…” (78). Carr, towards the end of his article, (partially quotes another article by Richard Foreman), saying “’As we are drained of our ‘inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance,” Foreman concluded, we risk turning into pancake people.” (75) Both seem to argue that our social skills are diminishing to some degree. Small and Voran, however, also put forward that we are improving in other aspects, notably our efficiency in reading, (the effectiveness of which was actually argued against in Jenkins’s article). They state that, in an actual study conducted at North Umbria University in the UK, well-adjusted web-surfers accurately and consistently skipped worthless websites and stayed on those that contained the information they needed (page 95, paragraph 2-3). I think what most makes me support Small and Voran is that their article consists mainly of fact-based assertions backed by research, while Carr’s article is more digital philosophy. Carr in fact acknowledges this, and invites the reader to disagree, saying “So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism.”
Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and Gary Small’s and Gigi Vorgan’s article “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now” speak of the influence digital technology has had on our history, present and future. The authors of both articles give attention to the mental development of human beings. Carr mentions that people’s inability to concentrate on long books or articles is hindering their intellectuality and overall knowledge. Small and Vorgan concentrate more on the biological factors of digital culture like Darwin’s theories of natural selection and the power of genetics. Although I find both articles very interesting there are some arguments I do not agree with. Carr quotes a developmental psychologist and writes, “the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of development that emerged when earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose common place.” While reading this and Carr’s opinion I see that digital culture is not changing what we read but how we read. Understanding this makes me disagree with Carr and listen more closely to Small’s and Vorgan’s ideas. As times change so does human development and I do not think this is a necessarily bad thing. Reading about the movement of past digital creations like the digital clock mentioned in Carr’s article proves to me that mankind can gain a lot of improvement from digital makings. In “Your Brain is Evolving Right Now” the final words left a big impression on me. The author’s state “As the modern brain continues to evolve, some attention skills improve, mental response times sharpen, and the performance of many brain tasks become more efficient.” So this makes me ask myself, if human brains are changing in development and the technology around us is too, why are we not embracing the changes and moving with time as well?
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 65. Print.
Small, Gary and Vorgan, Gigi. “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95. Print.
As Small Voran’s article title suggests, “Your Brain is Evolving Right Now”, and there is nothing you or I can do about it. While this may be a difficult concept to grasp, this is not something that we should shy away from or condemn. Instead, we should embrace the way our brains are naturally evolving to the world around us. Much of the article comes from a specific scientific perspective, analyzing exactly what happens to our brain as we are interacting with technology. After multiple tests, researchers at UCLA found that the technology savvy, or digital natives are developing specific, “neural circuitry that is customized for rapid and incisive spurts of directed concentration (95).” This is happening in direct correlation with the rapidly evolving world around us. As Small and Voran put it, “even if it’s only to survive in the ever-changing professional world (94),” then we are simply, exercising Charles Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest,” adapting to the ever-accelerating technological environment. Small and Voran continue to note that, “as the next few decades pass, the workforce will be made up of mostly digital natives (94).” Ultimately, in order to put a roof over your head, one must become familiar with tools that the digital natives are accustomed to.
Small and Voran also made several strong points arguing that increased exposure to technology, “sharpens cognitive abilities…react more quickly to visual stimuli and gives the ability to sift through large amounts of information rapidly and decide what is important (95).” However in, Nicholas Carr’ article “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he reminisces back to a time when he, “was once a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” (Carr, 65). Essentially, Carr strongly feels that because we are constantly surrounded and bombarded with information and technology that we can no longer put our focus into one thing. Instead, we skim along the top of the water, quickly collecting small details as we move to the next task at hand. In essence, he believes that with the emergences of the digital culture, our brains have been dumbed down as we now have the ability to solve any problem with the technology at our finger tips. Resulting in our brains not properly knowing how to solve any problem and instead having a tiny machine solve all of life’s problems. I on the other hand, feel as if Carr has not yet begun to emerge himself in the digital world and strongly disagree with what Carr has to say. From an outsiders perspective, the way a younger generation would typically solve a problem could be viewed as the lazy way out. When in reality, it could just as easily be seen as the efficient way of handling things. Allowing more time to soak up any other important information. Carr strongly believes that when books were the dominant way to gather information, people were better off. However, in my opinion the internet provides much more depth than any book could provide. In conclusion I think Small and Voran put it best when they said, “During this pivotal point in brain evolution…we don’t all need to become techno-zombies, nor dose need to trash our computers and go back to writing longhand. Instead, we all should help our brains adapt and succeed in this ever-accelerating technological environment (80).”
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 67-74. Print. Small, Gary and Gigi Vorgan.“Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now.” The Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. The Penguin Group, 2011. 95-96. Print.