The Internet is changing the way you think:
The Difference Engine: Rewiring the brain
What is the internet doing to our brains? Are we getting dumber as a result of the increasing amount of technology at our disposal? According to an article in The Economist, the answer is thus:
Not necessarily.
Simple enough answer to such a big question. As a country, we enjoy the simple things. Of course, when I say ‘simple’, I don’t mean the little things. I mean consumer-friendly and fast things. The kind of things technological advancements have provided and that we now been groomed to expect. Most of us are too busy multitasking to take a break and smell the roses, curl up with a book and have a cup of coffee. Sure, someone may have some time to read… via Amazon Kindle on the train as they commute to work, sipping on coffee a machine made for them. Now, common sense-wise, sure, some technologies have dulled our knowledge a little bit- because if you put the Keurig generation in front of a coffee pot and handed them a filter, I doubt half of them would know what to do. The ones that do are the ones that sought out that extra knowledge. Maybe they Googled it. Maybe they Youtubed it. Either way, some sort of search engine made it possible to gain that information. Don’t blame the search engine, blame the person choosing what, and if, they are searching.
Search engines may take the grudge work out of finding information, but I can’t see that as a bad things. In a faced-paced nownownow world, like the one we live in, this sort of technology should not be seen as an intelligence-duller. Guaranteed, many of the authors who are coming up with the theories that they are, had to Google some articles from psychologists across the country to make their point. Do you think search engines are damaging our brains? If they were to suddenly disappear, how do you think the public would react?
What would you do if you couldn’t Google: ‘What happened to Google?’
I think the citizens of the first world countries would throw a mega bitch-fit. I myself would resort to “mass junction” sites like Reddit. Multiple engaged communities pointing those with fellow interests in the right direction. Maybe Google becomes self aware, realizes how arrogant humans are when it finds Rick Ross in its top trending searches, and commits suicide!