I found this article particularly interesting because it discusses how people cannot focus on a long reading, by fault of the Internet. It was not necessarily interesting to me because of the subject matter, it is the fact that what was being mentioned was happening to me at that moment. I had a hard time staying interested and not skimming through. I was being very cautious to make sure I did not just 'scan' the words on the page. Nicholas Carr was attempting to decode why this was happening to him. I came to one conclusion: that this sensation he was feeling is not familiar to people my age. We have grown up with the Internet at our fingertips. People his age had to adapt to the online phenomenon, and that is why he feels its effects.
I also found it interesting how Carr mentioned that "we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s..." "But it's a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking..." A way of thinking where the creative aspect is done for us. Words are defined automatically and not by our own processing. He says we have become "mere decoders of information," which actually, I agree with. People have become lazy and rely too much on the Internet to think for them. The reason I feel this way is because I have felt these effects myself. I may have grown up with the Internet always in reach, but that doesn't mean I want to use it all of the time. If I can't come up with an answer in my own way and I have to rely on a computer, I feel helpless-- but maybe that's just me.
The connections Carr made in this article were great. The first one I liked in particular was the comparison of the Internet to a method of how our brain decodes information. We decode information in several different ways: deep decoding-- thinking of all the details, shallow decoding-- letting the basic details become apparent to us, and automatic decoding-- the Internet. It is as if the Internet is taking over a part of our brain. The other main part of his article I enjoyed reading involved him using examples in human history when we try to be the most efficient. For example: using the steam engine as a faster mode of transportation. He makes this seem like a inevitable change. It is just how people work. We try to make everything faster and more efficient.
My favorite quote in this reading was "The ultimate search engine is something as smart as people-- or smarter." I immediately thought of how kids act in school. We all look to the smart kids to do the most work. It is assumed they will figure it out and help the rest out. The Internet seems to be the smartest kid in school.
I thought the exact same thing while reading this article. That is, I thought it was interesting because I was doing the exact same thing that the article was talking about. Its true that people his age have had to adapt to the internet, rather than grow up with it. So I guess that is why we aren’t feeling the total affects like he is. We definitely rely on the internet way too much sometimes. And not just for information, but also for entertainment and communication. I don’t think it is much of a problem as long as we control it. I agree that the internet is very helpful, but I don’t like using the word “smart” with it. It just doesn’t seem right with a machine.
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