Are we stupid?

In the article Is Google Making Us Stupid, Niccholas Carr argues that the Internet had changed us but not necessarily made us stupid. Google has and will continue to make us stupid by association but not intrinsically more stupid. Carr explains to the reader how he has recently had trouble focusing on reading a book or getting involved in an article or text. He states that his “concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages” (1).  Carr said that in the past, becoming deeply involved with a text came natural to him, but as the computer age had thrived he is no longer able to stay concentrated and his mind often “drifts.” Carr never seems to answer the question directly but uses implication to lead the reader to the answer.  Throughout the entire article it is evident that Carr believes that the human mind is changing but not necessarily becoming more stupid. Carr’s loss in ability to stay focused is not unique, he states the opinions of his friends and how “the more they use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (2). The web had changed us. There is no arguing that, data and information are immediately available to us. There is no longer a need to focus for long periods of time because the Internet is constantly changing and we receive information almost instantaneously. There is no need to sit a read for long periods of time and because of this our environment has to constantly change to entertain our mind. Again, this does not make us stupid just different.

The web has made our minds less easily entertained but Google itself, Carr argues, has made us stupid by association. Google has steadily become more intelligent then the human mind, a sort of artificial intelligence that has the ability “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (6). The creation of Google is fascinating, but as Carr argues has made the human mind peril in comparison “as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world” (8). The human mind isn’t more stupid, but instead is no longer the most intelligent entity in the world.

There is an evident correlation between our use of the Internet and Carr’s argument of the changing mind. Viewing the Internet logs of the students in our class the constant need for a changing in our environment is evident. Students were constantly changing and returning to websites. Sites like stumbleupon are the epitome of Carr’s argument, the need for short, entertaining, and ever changing substances in ones life.