In his article, Is Google Making us Stupid, Nicholas Carr describes the main traps people can fall into actively using the Internet. The world web gives countless opportunities; however, it damages people’s perception of the world and brings inconveniences. Carr is correct, the Internet causes users’ multiple problems: it affects their attention, cognitive abilities, personal life, ability to choose something, makes everyday tasks harder, and it is highly addictive due to its algorithms.
Carr in Is Google Making us Stupid, step by step explores the Internet’s influence on its users, showing all its aspects. He states, that one of the most extensive consequences of using the Internet regularly is problems with attention. Due to an enormous amount of information online, perpetual pictures, links, and chunks of data, the human brain got used to consuming information this way. It is hard to believe, that Google, made for educating people reduces their cognitive abilities, but the author explains elaborately how it happens. He shows how it affects culture, behavior, and even way of thinking. Throughout the article, Carr emotionally engages a reader in his thoughts, conceiving a new way of thinking in their minds. At the end of his writing, the author reveals a very crucial issue: how companies make their users addicted. Carr assumes, that all the collected data about people can be used for developing artificial intelligence. To sum up, this article is extremely relevant today, it makes a reader change their attitude toward the Internet.
Due to affected cognitive abilities, people cannot read books, or considerable articles, it is hard to concentrate on one thing: the brain seeks small, insightful, and bright chunks of information, especially if it is printed on a colorful background or has amusing animations. Carr (2008) claims that due to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not even mentioning the popularity of texting on phones, people may be reading more today than they did in previous decades when television was the primary source of information. However, it is a different kind of reading that we implement now, and behind it probably lies a different type of thinking, perhaps even a new perception of the self (Carr, 2008, p. 3). Likely, neuronal paths in human brains look different now too. Lack of concentration can lead to deplorable consequences: learning something new can become a challenge, hearing somebody out –a tedious burden, and driving – lethal.
The human brain has an essential ability: neuronal plasticity, which means that a person can and will adjust to everything surrounding them. The same thing happens with users’ interaction with technologies: people start behaving like computers. Carr (2008) states that “we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” (p. 4). For instance, comparing the past century and nowadays relationships and marriages, an interesting observation appears: one hundred years ago, people used to start a relationship and make it last for the rest of their lives. However, now almost every person tends to have many partners during life. Such psychological factors as a bias toward divorced people or other stereotypes, which forced people to stay together even if they suffer from it, have to be considered, however, it is not the main reason. There are endless options for everything on the Internet: including data, goods, offers, movies, and people. Scrolling any social media, a person can notice multiple gorgeous people who may look much better than their partner. This effect is called choice overload: the more significant number of options is, the harder it is to choose something, and the more overwhelmed a person feels. Thus, observing hundreds, or even thousands of people online every day, it starts misleading a person, making them devalue their partner, desire somebody else, and great confusion. A human starts trying as many options as they can, hurting themselves and others, in the end, ending up with nothing.
Data is the most valuable resource in the world: knowing something can rescue somebody’s life, or it can destroy it. Surfing the Internet, liking some posts, reacting to something, writing comments, or searching on Google, people give companies significant opportunities to collect such valuable data about them. Carr (2008) notes that: “Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link—the more crumbs, the better” (p. 7). Then, companies analyze the collected information, and Internet algorithms are adjusted to the user’s priorities. That is why it is so addictive to scroll through the news, social media, and feed: everything that user sees is exactly what they love. For companies, it is nothing personal, just business, for a user – addiction, problems with cognitive abilities, giving away personal information, and many other consequences.
In conclusion, the Internet causes users’ multiple problems: it affects their attention, cognitive abilities, personal life, ability to choose something, makes everyday tasks harder, and it is highly addictive due to its algorithms that are adjusted to a person’s preferences. Users struggle to perform such duties as extended reading, watching a movie or series; they can no longer concentrate on a specific task. The brain always strives to multi-tasking, which requires constantly switching from one object to another, does not allow to consume any material consequently, only taking small chunks of information. Such type of perceiving information is dangerous: it does not allow to take a rest when it is needed, information will not be adequately learned, and it can lead to burnout or other mental health problems.
Furthermore, in personal life, users suffer from inconsistency, and difficulties with making a choice, because of the brain’s neuronal plasticity, which characterizes adjusting behavior and habits to new circumstances: people behave like computers. Moreover, the Internet is highly addictive: billions of people cannot imagine their day without technologies. That is regrettably to realize that, especially when companies do everything to make people consume more and more content daily. They do not care about users’ health: they aim to make money and take advantage as much as they can.
Reference
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? The Atlantic.