English 100
1/14/2011
Summary
In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google making us stupid?” he states that with technology changing, our ways of reading and thinking are changing. We don’t want to take the time to read a twelve page article online so we skim through it hoping to catch the context. If you look at it from a psychology stand point you can say that our brains are changing the way we process things. James old, in Carr’s article says, “The adult mind is very plastic. Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones.” Later on in Carr’s article, he says “the process of adapting to new intellectual technologies is reflected in the changing metaphors we use to explain ourselves to ourselves.” For example the idea of the mechanical clock changing how we think about things like when is it time to eat, sleep, drink, study etc. We are now relying on the clock that represents time to tell us these things instead of allowing our body and our brain to tell us.
I think there is some value to what Carr is saying. He is just making an argument that basically says technology is changing and as a result we are changing. I believe that technology can be a beneficial tool but it can also be destructive and time consuming. We rely so much on technology that we almost forget how to do the basic things. We tend to “freak out” if the computer crashes or our phones quit working. But back in the early centuries the people didn’t worry about computers or cell phones because they weren’t even invented yet. Life seemed to be so much simpler before technology came to be a huge part of how we think and do things.
i like how you brought in the idea of psychology's point of view on this idea. In many ways, psychology is revelant because our minds function depending on our actions. You also helped me better understand that as information comes easier and easier to us, we forget how to do basic things without the assistance from computers, clocks, cell phones, etc.
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