"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

With the creation of the internet, life has become far more simple by having the answer to all of our questions right at our fingertips. However, even with easy access to every bit of knowledge we need right before us, has the internet influenced our thoughts and mindset in a more negative way than we think? This is a question that author Nicholas Carr addresses in his article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" In the article, Carr discusses how the internet has distracted individuals from deep reading and intellectual thought as we are more tempted to jump from link to link simply scanning through the pages. On the other hand, in a book there are no ads or other interruptions and we are able to become fully invested in what we are reading. Carr writes, "And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles." This form of education that we receive from the internet can be troubling because it ultimately shapes our process of thought. It tempts us to simply "power browse" and avoid the traditional sense of reading. For example, Google, the ultimate source of the internet for many individuals, is trying to "systemize" everything it does. It strives to control how users find information through search engines and influence the way in which we take meaning from it. By aiming to become the world's "perfect" search engine, Google and the rest of the internet are tremendously impacting the way in which we receive and process information and are ultimately guiding us to distraction.