Reading Response #2

In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” I believe that Nicholas Carr central claim is that even thought the internet is faster and easier, he questions the fact that it is taking over our brain and the ability to read long books or article anymore. Carr quotes Marshall McLuhan pointed out in 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. Also Carr quotes Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, “I was a lit major in college and used to be a voracious book reader, what happened?” Many people used to read books and enjoyed it, but with the internet today, many people have stopped reading books and started looking online for their information because it is easier to find information that they are looking for within a minute that actually looking in up in the libraries and doing the research. Carr observes that our reading has changed from books to the internet, where we only skim what we are reading and researching. Studies done by students from University College London, found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited. They typically read no more then one or two pages of an article or books before they would “bounce” out to another site. Sometimes they’d save long articles, but there’s no evidence that they ever went back and actually read it. Show that many people would skim over one source and would move onto another source. Some people would save some sources, but there was no proof that they would ever go back and actually read it.
I think that Carr is discussing that computers today has taken over our lives in a way that no one realizes that is has, like when Carr mentioned about the clock and how people began to thinking of their brains as operating “like clockwork” but today people began to think of their brains as operating “like computers.” I believe that Carr is right that computers are taking over our brains and ability to learn. Like now days you can almost do anything online like get the research you need within a minutes, mapping, our printing press, our typewriter, our telephone, shop for clothes or groceries, even now days you can check your bank balance or even pay any bill you like online, and many more. It just proofs that you can almost do anything by a click away.
The asset that Carr uses and explains his personal experience which I can agree with because when growing up I can only remember when I used to go to the library’s and do the research by books and articles then using the computers, and how much time it took and how hard it was sitting there and making your self read pages after pages and trying not to fall asleep because of so much to read and take in. But I also believe that when I did the research and read books and articles was much better understanding and actually learned more that way then today I do by going online and research it. Maybe it was because back then I had to research a lot and actually read it not skimmed it because there was only limited research you could do with the books you had. Today you can do or look up anything or everything online within a minute and there is far more information online then going to library and searching it. This claim is important in way I understand the rest of the article because it shows me that Carr is trying to show people the affect that today’s technology has had. I believe that online reading has changed the way I read things. When I get something to read, I look at the length, if its long then I tend to skim it and really try to push my self to read it, especially when it doesn’t catch my attention from the beginning. It’s just easier to look up online and get the information or do other things when you have that kind of source in front of you.