The Internet

Eyes glued to the iPod screen in your hands, you pry away for a couple minutes to watch the episode that’s running on HBO. Behind you, your mom is typing away on her computer and a couple steps away, your sister is texting her friends with her earphones in, blasting the awful music she has on her own iPod. Upstairs your dad is attending to a conference call on his computer. It’s the average Saturday morning. Nobody even gives it a second thought; that’s the way it works in the digital world we live in today.

Nicholas Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” expresses his concern for the future of the digitalizing human race. The fast-moving, vast pool of information that is the internet offers knowledge at its users’ fingertips, but with convenience comes consequence. The internet simplifies this knowledge to make it faster for the reader to consume at a glances. The way this type of information is presented – in short pieces – is what causes Carr’s worry. As internet users become more and more used to the idea of quick and easy information, the way they think becomes affected. When reading the traditional ink and paper, their ability to process the excess details on the page and interpret the deeper meaning is hindered. In Carr’s case and most of his other colleagues’ cases, the internet also affects their attention span. Concentration becomes difficult. Memory deteriorates. The Net has taken over the way they think in the real world.

Jamais Cascio holds the exact opposite view. In his article “Get Smarter”, he explains that the internet is simply a convenience we must take advantage of as humans, and it is our key to becoming smarter in the future. If we decide not to use it, we are at a loss. Ask yourself, what’s the point of suffering through the painstaking hours of traditional research when you can just access the information you want at the click of a mouse? Technology is constantly developing, and our knowledge is constantly expanding. What happens when the bandwagon of the future gets rolling and you’re not on it? Well, good luck catching up.

Although I agree with Nicholas Carr up to a point, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the internet is affecting the minds of its users to the point that their ability to interpret and understand something is weakened. I mean sure, the internet tends to “dumb down” its users a bit, especially the constant users that glue themselves to the screen. But it definitely doesn’t have that mind-changing effect. Take me for example. I would say I use the internet a lot but I definitely don’t see the effects that Carr points out; my attention span is fine, my memory isn’t all that different from the average kid my age, and my ability to understand and comprehend the meaning behind an article or a reading is still pretty sharp. The extremity of his argument describes the internet as a brainwashing, overwhelming consumer of our minds. When really, it’s nothing like that. The internet is helpful and convenient, it’s not the harmful thought killer that Carr says it is. Would you rather go back to the times without the internet? Without computers? Who would want to do that?

I acknowledge that the internet does have its downsides, as Carr describes, but they definitely aren’t as extreme as he makes them out to be. On the complete other side of the spectrum, Cascio points out that the internet is the key to the future of our human race. He argues that in order to survive in the ever-changing world of today we must utilize the latest tools like the internet to, as he puts it, “get smarter”. Falling behind is not an option. If we don’t smarten up, it’s over. Cascio is an avid technology supporter, a believer in the forward progression of humans. The internet is simply a way to keep up and keep going. With him as well, I agree only to a certain extent. Technology and the Net are definitely useful and convenient for almost anything, if used in moderation. Research especially. The distribution of knowledge and information is important these days, and without the speed that the Net provides, it would be hard to get moving anywhere. It should be used especially for its convenience, and it would quite simply be a waste not to use it.

My personal opinion about the Web is that it is a tool that should be taken advantage of. Why not? If you didn’t grasp the opportunity, it would be wasted. Slipping away into obsolescence is not an option in modern-day society. Clay Shirky, in his article “Does the Internet Make You Smarter or Dumber?” poses the idea that perhaps the internet is not fully developed yet. At the moment, there is some pretty dumb stuff out there, and some pretty dumb people. The internet is what provided them the ability to spread that stupidity. Now obviously, this is a flaw. But this is all part of the process. There will be dumb people, and there will be smart people. Filtering out the bad stuff and leaving the good stuff is all part of the development. Without the internet, the dumb ideas wouldn’t be out there, but neither would the smart ideas. This is a perspective that I share completely. The internet is a way to express ourselves and establish our position in the society. It is a medium that allows the sharing of all kinds of opinions, and gives the common people the capability to fully utilize their freedom of speech. The internet, as Shirky states, is somewhat similar to the introduction of the printing press back then. The printing press allowed for the circulation of propoganda, mockeries of the Bible, and other unworthy pieces of literature. But without it, we wouldn’t have been able to spread information and most likely would never have been able to distribute the books, newspapers, etc. that resulted in an intellectual flourishment at the time. I fully support the idea that what we have now – the internet – is similar in that it is crucial to the forward movement of human intelligence, but it is still a work in progress.

Essentially, I feel that we need the internet to progress. Just like science would take forever or wouldn’t even be possible without the latest technology, learning and innovation wouldn’t be able to take place fast enough in our modern age without the internet. Using the internet should be encouraged, but not so much that we abandon the books and sources of the past. The internet should not replace the world we live in, but rather, it should complement it. As a supplement, the internet can keep us from falling behind. But once addicted, take caution or you will find yourself plummeting into the virtual world.