Internet and the Brain

In August 2007 (On Becoming a Blogger) I wrote about my joys of discovering all that the Internet could do for me. I also expressed some concerns about the effects of the rapid fire responses of Google, Wickopedia, etc. My concern was and is the impact of instant information on real learning. Being an old Geezer I wondered, does learning require some hard work on the learners part or can it be just a few strokes of the keyboard away? I continue to worry about that. Now comes a very revealing article in the July-August issue of the Atlantic Monthly titled “ Is Google making us Stoop-id? Subtitle “What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.” by Nicholas Carr.

As I have enjoyed my journey into the cyberspace world I have also had an underneath queasy feeling that I was losing something. I could not be more specific but there it was. Maybe it was just missing those seemingly endless hours in the library stacks looking for some obscure article about work in the 14 century Manchester England. A successful hunt in the stacks for some obscure piece of knowledge seemed to be a victory of learning over ignorance.

Carr relates his Internet experience, “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone or something has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry reprogramming the memory.” Further he says, “I am not thinking the way I used to think.” Carr is concerned that he has lost the art of reading a serious long book and thinking about what it has to say. My experience has been a far less effort to read understand, and make my own critical judgments. It is now so easy to get all the answers off the Internet, No need to read the whole thing just go to Wikopedia and Bingo you can get the answer to anything. Yes, just about anything. So what’s the matter with that? I am not sure. But let me guess.

I use to tackle big books as an adventure of discovery of learning and critical judgement. Most important was the latter as it was an exercise in thinking. That’s what made you wade through a bunch of ideas, facts, notions, hypothesis, and the authors conclusions. If I were to pick out the single most important exercise it was critical thinking. You were forced to figure out your own analysis of what was presented. Therein lies the great divide between now and before the Internet BTI. The internet is our new knowledge source as against the old musty smelling library stacks with their independent thinking and conclusions.( I really do miss that musty smell.)

Carr quotes Maryanne Wolf a developmental psychologist at Tufts. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the Internet is a style that puts ”efficiency” and immediacy” above all else. It may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex prose commonplace. When we read on line, she says we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Finally she suggests that, “Our ability to interpret text to make the the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.”

There is much more in the Carr article of interest. Like the impact of the invention of the clock on our lives. How that machine made us slaves to the clock that told us exactly what to do and when. For those of you who are concerned, puzzled or just curious, I suggest reading the whole piece.

I will certainly continue to use the Internet, but with more suspect regarding the information I am given. That at least might send me into my own little stacks of reference sources in my home or the local library. The all engrossing affect of the spin factor may be how we got to where we are in the information explosion. Stop and think how does your mind processes information as a result of the Internet experience? A good exercise might be to take a little time to comment on this blog.

Thank you Kate N.H.W.Y. (especially on your birthday.)