Monday, June 16, 2008

Is Google making us stupid?

GREAT thought-provoking article in The Atlantic recently. . .

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

Warning: Its long and you're going to feel tempted to skim it or skip it, which will prove the author's point!

The pull of the electronic is so, so strong. This summer discipline yourself and your family to sit down and read some good books. We've got to put limits on this stuff. . .

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent article! I agree with the author that it has become more and more difficult to read and write long articles of prose.

But I don't think Google alone can be blamed for our "stupidness." I'm sure there are other factors; Google just happens to be the scapegoat with the largest presence.

Larissa said...

I don't buy it. I have no problem reading long articles in print, but I don't like to read long articles on the computer (I didn't finish this one). I don't think it generalizes.
I do think I may be less patient when trying to find answers to my questions because of the internet. But more stupid, no.

Jeannett said...

I agree with Lara. My eyes don't like reading on the screen...I "waste" a lot of paper at work printing out long documents because it just bugs me. I think that the internet has made us a lot of things, but I'm not so sure about stupider...(is that a word?...maybe I should google it and find out?)