Is Google Making People Stupid - Coursework Example

Is Google Making People stupid? Introduction People have for long, said that computers are making people dumber since the computers existed. Then, internet was introduced, thus bringing Google into existence. For a while till now, Google has been the heart of the internet. Does Google make people stupid? It is a subject for discussion and debate for many people and even researchers and scientists. None among the people involved has proven a straight answer regardless of all the experiments and researches done over time. Google does not make people stupid. In fact, it makes them smart. First, the easy and fast access to important information on the internet maximizes the productivity of an individuals’ intelligence. Secondly, quick internet scans and answers to almost every question enhance human intelligence because of the availability of the needed information. It makes people smarter and also enables them in making better choices. Thirdly, Google improves people’s creativity when it comes to approaching problems, and also improves certain aspects of memory. Analysis Paragraph 1 The first reason Google does not make people stupid is: a survey of 895 experts showed that the internet has enhanced human intelligence. That comes as a result of unlimited access to more information that makes people smarter and improves their decision-making. This is an article called “experts say google does not make people stupid” by David Weir. Secondly, the easy and fast access to important information on the internet maximizes the productivity of an individuals’ intelligence. To prove this point, Carl Knerr wrote on his article: No, google is not making people stupid. Thirdly, Google improves people’s creativity when it comes to approaching problems and also improves the human memory. The above point is according to an article by Adam Clark Estes called Is Google making people stupid and smarter at the same time? Paragraph 2 First reason: Among the leading reasons why Google does not make people stupid is the amount of researches and surveys done over time to prove a point. Pew internet researchers once conducted a study to determine the effects of the internet over the brilliance and memory of people. Surprisingly, the results came out as follows: among 895 experts questioned in the research’ 76% agreed that internet use has enhanced humans intelligence- as people are given unprecedented gate pass to more information that makes them smarter and make better choices. Weir goes ahead to answer the article by Nicholas Carr that quotes: “is Google making us stupid?” Among the conclusions summed up by the survey, is that Google allows people to be “more creative when approaching problems” and also makes people “more integrative in thinking” (Weir 6). The internet is likely to be all-over in any developments related to any improvements in social cognition research and neuroscience. While stressing on the subject of creative thinking and improved problem solving, a student in the university of says, “people spend less time trying to remember and more time generating the solutions” (Weir 7). The concept of the shifting nature of human’s intelligence as a result of the internet makes the elderly as highly relevant in the current age when humans are transforming the way they go about acquiring information. Thinking about this leads to the conclusion that, in many ways, people are adapting to Google while, in return, it is adapting to them, as well. Thanks to Google (as well as other search engines): people are letting go of some behaviors that suited them better in the time of deficiency of information, and embracing behaviors that work better in their new information environment. Paragraph 3 Second reason: The easy and fast access to important information on the internet maximizes the productivity of an individuals’ intelligence. In his article, “No, Google is not making people stupid,” Carl puts more emphasis to this point by stating that there is research that states that one’s attention span declines more as the person ages. This was a point directed to another writer, Carr. In his article, Carr states that he “loses concentration while reading large texts of documents as a result of the brain causing rewiring in his brain” (Carr 2). The article “No, Google is not making people stupid,” tends to hit back at him and stated that this lack of concentration might be due to aging. The article also points out that Google does not profit from rearranging how a reader makes breakfast in the morning but rather by what the reader reads while eating the eggs, which gives room for advertisement to maximize Google’s profit. He goes ahead to state “Google is after profit through advertising." While it is true, his main point is that Google makes people smarter in many ways. For example, a group of scientists from the University of California reported that new internet users aged 55-78 show an improvement in their scores on matters concerning decision making as well as complex reasoning. The researchers say that surfing the web stimulates neural activity and probably enhance cognitive functioning in the mature internet beginners. Just a couple of weeks online increased the brain activity in the eldest internet users studied. Paragraph 4 Thirdly, Google improves people’s creativity when it comes to approaching problems and also improves the human memory. This is according to an article by Adam Clark Estes called Is Google making people stupid and smarter at the same time? While Google hampers the human ability to remember information, Google also improves certain memory retention areas of the brain, as methods of retrieving information. While differing to Carr’s proposals that the internet is reducing individual’s ability to remember things, Clark reinstates that the internet does not reduce the ability to think, but rather, it “changes how people remember” things (Clark 3). As a classic example to bring the point home, Clark says, “people recall stored information less, but instead they remember where to find the important information that they have forgotten” (Clark 4). When the brain reroutes how people remember information, it develops certain types of memory capabilities. For example, if a teacher asks his/her students how many flags have got one color? The brain of the students does not jump straight to flags, but to how to find the information. By this point, a student who is an active Google user already thinks about the keywords to use while posting the question. The more he/she thinks about how to phrase the question, the better he gets at it! “The brain is very specialized in the working ways and if a person repeats mental tasks over and again, it strengthens certain neural circuits and ignores others too” (Clark 6). The same article also reveals that not using Google makes people stupid, as well. In the article, a 200 study looked at how internet usage affected memory and cognition. People between the ages of 55-76 years were grouped based on their experience on internet browsing. Then, they used scans to see how the brains worked when searching the web or reading books. Paragraph 5 The experienced internet users showed increased brain activity with more improved decision making skills and also the complexity in terms of reasoning. It is fair to conclude that the inexperienced internet browsers lagged behind. Conclusion The internet seems to chip away human capacity for concentration and contemplation. People have also become dependent and over-reliant on the internet so that it seems like a must-have component in a human’s life. In fact, most people say that the internet is a must-have commodity. While it has many dark sides, it also has daylight: research that one day required days in the stacks or even periodical rooms of libraries and archives can now be done in a few minutes. Likewise, Google, together with the larger Internet allows people to see further and clearer than those before the current generation. While the internet makes people dumber, it also makes them smarter and there is not much for them to do about it but accept the bitter-sweet truth. Works cited: Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008: n.p. The Atlantic. Web. 19 June 2012. Read More