Neil Sharma

Persuasive Writing

Cheryl Clark

28 July 2011

Carr vs. Cascio vs. Shirkey

In discussion of the internet, one controversial issue has been whether or not if it makes people intelligent or not. On the one hand, Richard Carr who wrote the article Is Google Making Us Stupid argues that the internet makes people regress in their ability to think deeply and be more intelligent. On the other hand, James Cascio who wrote the article Get Smarter contends that the internet makes people intelligent and serves as “intelligence augmentation”. Others even maintain that the internet when used correctly makes people intelligent, but when it is not used correctly it makes people intelligent, such as Clay Shirky who wrote the article Does the Internet Make You Smarter or Dumber?. My own view is that the internet is useful and can make one intelligent, but only when used the right way.

I agree with Shirky that the internet can be harnessed the right way and be used to make people smarter, and when harnessed correctly it can make people smarter, and when harnessed incorrectly it can make people regress in their thought process, because my experience with people is that when using internet sites such as Google to research they gain a lot of information. And when one gains more knowledge the more intelligent they become. But with that advantage comes the detriment of having websites that don’t induce a gain in knowledge. Shirkey agrees when he writes, “Whenever media becomes more abundant, average quality falls quickly, while new instituted models of quality arise slowly. Today we have The World Funniest Home Videos as running 24/7 on YouTube,” this demonstrates Shirkey’s distaste in YouTube and sites just like it, and it implies that he finds YouTube useless and therefore it gives no information. This in turn means that it makes a person less intelligent. So in conclusion, the internet is powerful tool and when it is used correctly it is advantageous in terms of knowledge, but when misused is detrimental.