Adam Thierer

Dumb and Dumberer?

Nick Carr tells us that Google and the Net are making us stupid. And, over at Slate, Michael Agger calls us “Lazy Bastards” for how we read online.

So, what do you think? Is the Net destroying our attention spans and turning us in to mindless, robotic sheep?

[My own take... The Net isn't making us stupid, but it is changing the way we process information and, for better or worse, affecting our patience regarding some forms of media / writing. The death of media scarcity and the rise of information abundance was bound to have profound implications for how we read, write and communicate---in most ways for the better, but perhaps in some ways for the worse.  I doubt we'll ever have a Shakespeare arising from the world of Twitter, for example, but I believe we are better off for having technologies and media platforms like it in our lives. We just all struggling to find balance and a sensible middle ground in a world where our senses are being bombarded with an unprecedented number of choices and volume of information. But I'll take that predicament over our miserable past existence any day of the week. Down with scarcity; up with abundance!]

Are you still reading, or have I already lost your attention?!

June 17, 2008 | Comments |

Viewing 2 Comments

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    Interesting, but let me tell you about my perspective as a reference librarian/student. I work in a library, which will remain anonymous. What I see from day to day is a great deal of frustration and anxiety surrounding users that are researching. In general if they cannot find anything useful by searching Google, they are at an end. They have absolutely no idea how to proceed. It is as if releasing a domesticated animal into the wild to fend for themselves. The way I interpret this is that for some, reliance on a single source of information has become an issue. For these few, books and libraries are the LAST resort and unfortunately that means librarians need to come to the rescue. Not a terrible situation, but also not the best situation either.

    On the Net making us stupid. That is just silliness. We make ourselves stupid, or in my observed cases information illiterate, not the technology.

    To some up:

    Net is good.
    People relying solely on the Net for all information is bad, VERY BAD.

    Cheers
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    I read the Atlantic article. It was interesting, but my take away from it was that people need to address their lives a bit more critically and not just let new technologies drag them unthinkingly into new habits that could potentially be negative.

    This is probably my BA in Philosophy talking, but should we ever expect a technology to enter our lives and not cause any negative outcomes if we don't think about it critically? That's an impossible standard.

    I think we should be concerned about our schools not teaching children basic research techniques and the fact that not all useful information is digitized and available on Google. In addition, critical thinking courses and at least some basic philosophy education would help people to evaluate and reflect on the role of technology in their lives and to avoid getting swept up in mindless trends like Twitter-mania.

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