What is stupidity?
Acording to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the definition of stupid is "lacking in power to absorb ideas or impressions. Stupid implies a slow-witted or dazed state of mind that may be either congenital or temporary."
According to Andrew Keen and Doris Lessing the Internet is making us stupid. And it is...although not in a necessarily bad way.
Just like Nicholas Carr wrote in his infamous article "Is Google Making us Stupid?", the Internet is shaping our brain in how we digest information and knowledge. Before we would be able to read lengthy articles and thick books, understand what Nieztche had written after a few re-reads of his ideas and enjoy Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Now a days we just skim over articles, pinpointing and retaining what we think is the most important part. We read simplified version's of Nieztche's ideas and think of Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" instead of Lewis Carroll's. Does that make us stupid? Not really, it just makes us dependent on a computer. If we need information we will Wikipedia it or Google it. We won't retain details, we retain the main concept.
The way we think is different. We won't be specialized in only one field of knowledge because thanks to the Internet we can be Jacks of all trades!
Actually, I think that now we know MORE than we used to. The only problem is that the way we communicate our knowledge is different. For people like Lessing and Keen, our language has deteriorated, so in the process of communication they might think we are stupid. But we aren't all Shakespears or Jane Austens, our language is more simplistic, but our ideas can be just as sharp.
The only thing I beg of you is please don't use Sparknotes to tell you what a piece of literature meant. Use your brain. Sparknotes is just one opinion and not necessarily the correct one.
The internet doesnt make us stupid exactly!!!!...it does makes things simplified for us..
ReplyDeleteAnd if things are simplified for us, we can get stuff done quicker, which means we can get more stuff done. Everyone wins
ReplyDeleteI agree, the internet does not make us stupid. I feel like people confuse the internet making us stupid with people using the internet in stupid ways.
ReplyDeleteYour comment on Sparknotes is so dead on too. I don't think I've used Sparknotes since high school. They may give a (somewhat) good summary of what happened in Act 2 of Hamlet, but most likely not a good enough one to write a paper about...
I agree that we know more now than we used to. Thanks to technological advances and the simplification of internet sites, I can now look up questions that I may have from my blackberry. And its awesome. It may not be the best way to learn, and it definitely doesn't make me a pro in many subjects, but it is very efficient and does save time!
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