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  • Essay / Is Google making us stupid: the impact of the Internet on people

    In the article “Is Google making us stupid? » Nicholas Carr briefly explained how information on the Internet harms us and our state of mind. He did a great job explaining how the internet is harming us these days and what are the downsides of heavy internet use. Carr Perfectly described to us that where we find it very easy to search for and obtain information, we at the same time pay a high price for it. Basically, Carr's argument was that the computer and the Internet affect our ability to create our own associations and develop our own ideas. He does this by using many different methods, playing on the audience's emotions by using his own observations, different research and anecdotes to try to convince the audience that the Internet has been detrimental to our thinking and learning processes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In his article, Carr discussed how the Internet has affected him. He pointed out that after he started using the Internet, he was no longer able to read long informational texts without getting distracted and he was no longer firmly connected to what he was reading. Carr isn't the only person to notice these changes; other researchers and academics share similar concerns. Bruce Friedman, a blogger whom Carr used as an example, pointed out that blog posts longer than three pages are too much to absorb and this is what Carr and other researchers have experienced. According to Carr, the reason is that people spend a lot of time on the Internet. Carr argued that spending a lot of time on the Internet and switching from one website to another has changed the way he reads information. He added that he had stopped thinking like he used to. He also added that in the beginning, delving into a long article was very easy. His mind was absorbed in the story and he spent hours going through long extracts of prose. However, since he started using the Internet, he has had more difficulty reading long books. His concentration usually begins to drift after reading two or three pages. These feelings of the author are not unique to him since this is what other people experience. Our web addiction also has a dark side. More and more scientific research points out that the Web, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is transforming human beings into scattered and superficial thinkers. According to Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, the common thread among these disabilities is the division of our attention. He went on to point out that the richness of a person's thoughts, memories and personality depends on their ability to focus their brain and maintain concentration. It is only when we pay attention to more recent information that we are able to relate to it “in a meaningful and systematic way with information already well anchored in memory”. These associations are crucial when it comes to mastering complex ideas and developing critical thinking skills. The deep dependence on the Internet also has a negative impact on students' performance in their school work. In a single research experiment conducted at an American university, half of a class of students were allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during their classes, while the other half were asked to turn off their computers. At the end of this experiment, it was established that students who were allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during their classes performed significantly worse on a test.