Artifact 3

Nicholas Carr’s book “What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” made me think a lot. Even though I know most of the positive and negative effects that the internet has, I never really thought about how it personally affected me. The good news is that our generation didn’t really start using the internet until middle school rather than my 11 year old brother that has had a Facebook for almost a year now. I thought it was very interesting that he brought up the question “Is Google making us stupid?” When you think about it, people do not necessarily have to do research the way they used too. I speak for most people when I say that whenever I have to do research on a topic, the first thing I do is go to Google to see what kind of articles pop up. It is much more convenient for people to use Google because we are used to doing it so much. Technology is addictive to a point. He began to see correspondence in his technology use to his lack of concentration. He couldn’t even sit to read a book without thinking about his email. I think a lot of people can relate to him because technology is such a huge part of our lives. We take advantage of little things, such as maps, because now we have MapQuest and Google Maps that you can go too rather than mapping out your route on the actual map. We were more abstract thinkers before we decided to rely on the internet for many important and unimportant parts of our life. Whether it is for a class, entertainment, or information, the internet is the technology that makes our lives easier. He compares technology to a clock, because the gears all work together so well. When the gears move and grind together, our lives are going on while using the internet. I found it interesting that he said “we like to be interrupted.” If I am on Facebook and someone chats me, it is an interruption to what I was previously doing, however I don’t mind it because it shows that someone wants to talk to me. Whether I am doing homework or not, I am usually always on Facebook which is very easily distracting. When Carr talked about the guys that checked their email 30-40 times a day, I was shocked at first. After a while I realized that many people probably check their email that often. If I am waiting for a teacher to post a grade, I check BlackBoard and my email quite often. Technology is very distracting, just as Carr says, because it is so overwhelming and there are so many things to do on there. When you forget the reason you got up, your short term memory isn’t working as well. When you are on the internet 40 times a day, there is no way you can obtain all the information and recall it when you need to the information.