“I don’t know…Google it!” These words have become a very big part of our everyday lives it seems. Every time I have a question that I do not know the answer too, I always find myself ‘Google-ing it’. Goggle and other websites have had such a significant impact on our lives that we may not even realize it. Google, E-mail, Instant Messages, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Yahoo and many more websites have seem to be a new source of databanks for numerous types of information. Here we can ask friends questions, look up site pages for information, chat with people, and even our professors for information. These websites have made life easier in a sense but have they made us ‘stupid?’
Although we may not realize, of course the Internet changes the way we think. It affects us in many ways. It affects are abilities to the way we think, write, process information and much more. The Internet plays an important factor in our present day lives, but even up to 50 years ago these things did not exist, and somehow we still made it.
The article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, had a lot of great points and made me think a lot about how the Internet affects me personally and others as well. But, as to answer the question if it is really making us stupid, I believe that it is not. Google and other websites are only changing the process in the way we do things in life, and in fact can make us smarter. These resources can make life easier or more difficult, depending on the situation. Of course there are positive and negative benefits to the reliance of Internet information and for own personal time, such as browsing. People have such a significant reliance of the Internet for information that they are losing skills of having to seek other resources to achieve their objective, but also have gained more skills that are needed in the world today. To say that it is making us stupid, is quite bold.
Our minds hardwired to create and process information in an elaborate way. Everything we do all links together by our brains. Because of our brains, we have the ability to adapt to new ways of doing things and create new ideas on how to improve our current situations. For example, the Internet has had such a significant effect, that, according to the article, “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” This means because our thoughts are changing by the way we use technologies; we express it though the way we write, but does not make us stupid.
I don’t believe that it has made us stupid but just enhanced a new way of life that people back before us would only dream about. It’s an easy, efficient and time shortening way of life that accompanies our busy lives. Although many people spend significant amounts of time on the Internet, there is reason to believe that it can help us become smarter because of the wide variety of resources that are available to us.
So, I guess what the question is "Is Google really the enemy here or are we just victims of our own Internet world that we have essentially created?"
Google does NOT make us stupid.
http://www.bnet.com/blog/media/experts-say-google-does-not-make-us-stupid/6712
We are not a victim of Google. Period. We may be the victim of technology and revolution, but Google has done nothing but help us adjust and access the information we need in today's age.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Google works to help sort this information for us and help us find what we want to find faster. In fact, learning to use Google is in fact a skill in itself and will make you smarter. Sure, basic usage is simple, but there are definitely experiences Googlers and beginners.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea that learning to use Google is in fact a skill in itself - though I wonder if anyone actually teaching anyone else how to use it?
ReplyDeleteTo cut and paste from another comment I left, Google is now raising interesting questions about how we sort through this now-enormous glut of information:
How do we know what is a credible or reliable source online? How do we determine what to believe as true?
Photoshop, and a lack of credit to the creators of images and stories, has made this especially difficult. See this recent instance: http://tinyurl.com/4rhoj2b
Or rumors and lies about recent events in Egypt:
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/30/egypt-lies-i-read-on.html
So how do we sift through all this new information at our fingertips? Do we need to be even more critical consumers now?
Josh and Slapshot6819: Gooogle is a great tool and can make us smarter. I dont think it makes us stupid byt it helps us gain differnt types of skills and information. I agree with you both.
ReplyDeleteJen great links! I agree with you that Google is a skill in itself. It would only seem right in todays society for people to be learning how to use Google to their advantage.
To answer some of your questions,I believe that knowing what a credible source through the online system is easy to identify in most cases. The more credible sources usually have lots of information with other sources they have got their information form. Not saying that shorter pages with smaller chunks of information are not reliable, but these more thourrough souces seems more professional and credible.
As for Photoshopped photos, it is quite difficult to tell what is real and what is fake. The link was a great example of this, and it was sort of funny. Technology has made hoaxes and false belief more and more common.
Lots of these articles that contian lies in Egypt are people who take bits and pieces of other articles and create this false belief also with its information and photographs.
Overall, It does seem difficult to pick and choose what is easy to spot out as wrong information, or advertising, and be more smart on the information on what we choose to believe.