A World Gone Digital

In reading his article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" from the July/August 2008 edition of the Atlantic magazine, I gradually began to resent author Nicholas Carr for his comments on today's generation's inability to focus on dense works of literature, as well as their failure make in depth connections about that which they read. As a Communications major with a focus on rhetoric, I took great personal offense to these statements. Patronizing, illegitimate, cynical were all words that came to mind as I read his case about the affects of the Internet on the brain. In the same breath as my disapproval, I had already disengaged from the article and begun to browse Pinterest for recipes while composing a text to my roommates about our dinner plans. In that moment, I was struck by just how true his statements were. Something has assuredly changed in the way my brain, and other's brains, operates.

It is irrefutable that the Internet has revolutionized society, but I had never before considered the effect that it would have on the human brain. According to Carr, the Internet has the tendency "to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration," and since people today are shifting much of their reading to the Internet, this greatly affects the manner in which the brain operates. When I got over my initial qualms with Carr's argument and reflected on my personal habits, I could see how much his argument rings true. I cannot maintain focus on an article or a book or an argument as long as I feel I am supposed to. My brain is not conditioned to handle large amounts of thick argument or intricate wording. Since much of my literate life is centered around the web, my "intellectual technologies" have been reprogrammed accordingly. I expect clear, concise snippets of information.

However, I would not be quick to claim that the Internet is making us stupid. Socrates feared the effect of the written word would stunt intellectual growth, because "he couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information, spur fresh ideas, and expand human knowledge (if not wisdom)." In the same way, the Internet has begun a whole new sphere of intellectual activity and creativity which will undoubtedly flourish in the coming years. This brings into play the concept of "electracy" which "is to digital media what literacy is to alphabetic writing: an apparatus, or social machine, partly technological, partly institutional." Our intellectual technologies have been reprogrammed due to the Internet, and the ability to collect and decode information from digital media and contribute to the web becomes a skill set necessary for any member of the modern generation.

As someone who is relatively unversed in the ways of technology, my biggest aversion to electracy and the Internet is the thought that it can sometimes give precedence to the calculable over that which is beyond calculation, and I see it reflected in my own life--I expect clear, quick, and simple answers to my questions, which has often discouraged me from curiosity. Carr recognizes this shift in attitude, and notes that in the digital age, "ambiguity is not an opening for insight but a bug to be fixed." If the world can reach a healthy equilibrium between the concrete objectivity of the Internet and the stimulating relativity of thought and debate, than electracy will be of great benefit to the modern world.