The internet has completely reshaped the way in which people process information, yet is this technical wonder somehow making us “stupid”? As author Nicolas Carr asserts, the internet has conditioned his mind to absorb information “in a swiftly moving stream” resulting in a new inability to focus on lengthy articles. However this loss of concentration is not a sign that the internet is making users dumber, but instead changing the way our minds interpret information. Throughout history, there are examples that demonstrate how new technologies alter the way in which people read and write. After receiving a typewriter, Friedrich Nietzsche’s writing style became “tighter [and] telegraphic”. In response to this change, he later wrote that “’our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts’”. This concept is seen in text messaging. People now send quick bursts of information between one another that are usually no more than a sentence long, yet clear thoughts are communicated. With the way we read and write becoming quicker and shorter, it is understandable why people fear we are losing our “capacity for concentration and contemplation”. Yet skepticism is always attached to revolutionary technologies. Humanist Hieronimo Squarciafico feared Guttenberg’s printing press would lead “to intellectual laziness” because of “the easy availability of books”. Yet, it inspired just the opposite, as books and the knowledge they contain spread throughout the world.
The use of the internet has become so widespread and dominant in our lives it was inevitable that it would change the way people ‘think’. Although healthy skepticism should always accompany technology, it appears that we adapt to the changes successfully. If the way we process our information is changing as well, than society as a whole will also adapt.
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