The Effect Of Becoming Too Smart

Technology nowadays always use to have so much information at our fingertips, but is this a good thing? That is what Jamais Cascio’s “Get Smarter” and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” both discuss; they specifically address the effects that new technology, such as the internet, has on the way humans think. The difference is that Carr argues that this new technology is making us stupid while Cascio argues that it is making us smarter. Nicholas Carr’s article discusses the negative effects of the internet and technology like it. It specifically mentions slight changes in the way people do things because of the influence of technology and gives many historical and anecdotal examples. Jamais Cascio’s article is about the advancements of technology and how it is makes people smarter. Cascio talks about Twitter, mental enhancement drugs and AIs, focusing a lot on the benefits of the advancements.

Anything but non-existent, the parallel suggests that technology is having a definite change on our “plastic” brains. New technologies mold us to their likings whether we adhere to them or not. And as “mechanical clocks were not manufactured to spur the adoption of a more scientific mode of thinking”, the internet is not intended to create more adverted, shallow thinking humans. But all behaviors prevailing show that it is. Acknowledging this fact, readers can either begin to challenge that their life is being changed or affirm the conclusion. This parallel is exactly the strategy needed to convince readers that it’s an “invention’s intellectual ethic that has the most profound effect on us.”

Clive Thompson’s “Smarter Than You Think” reflects upon the idea that technology is her to help us more than we think, rather than the popular belief that technology is ruining the way we think. Thompson believes that the pair between human and technology is making us smarter. Along with that, our minds are slowly adapting to the use of technology, advancing our thinking. Lastly, the relationship between technology and human, has brought humanity closer than ever with the ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Clive Thomason believes the stronger the bond between humans and technology, the smarter we can become; I also alongside with Thompson believe this is true, and if so us as humans need to embrace the use of

Over history technology has changed mankind’s overall culture. From clocks to computers the use of electronics and tools is occurring every day in almost all situations. In Carr’s article “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he introduces the idea how the internet is changing our lives by making us mentally process information differently from the past, based off previous changes in history. Carr explains how we think less deeply and rely on quick facts, versus using critical thinking and research. Also he explains how our brain is malleable, and may be changed by the internet’s impression. Lastly Carr talks about what the

Humans are becoming more technologically-efficient every day. New inventions and innovations are constantly being made. The Internet is becoming more “reliable” every day. However, how much do we really get from the constant advancement of Internet use and smarter technology? Should we look at their contributions to the world as a benefactor or a curse? The common effect of “artificial intelligence” in the technology we use every day is examined by two brilliant authors, Nicholas Carr and Jamias Cascio. In Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, he explains the effects of the Internet and technology in our society and claims that the overuse of technology is dangerous and can affect how our mind operates. Jamias Cascio, on the other

There is no denying the incredible library of knowledge the internet has made readily available for all to use. Having such a resource is transforming modern society in many ways, as it brings insight and news across the world at a moment’s notice, all the while enhancing educational and technological advancements. However, according to Sven Birkets, an American essayist and literacy critic, in his essay, “The Owl Has Flown”, it is not without fault as observations are to be made on how this new resource has transformed people’s intelligence and wisdom. The author theorizes that the large, almost unlimited, library that is now being offered by services such as the internet, reshapes the public’s knowledge. Knowledge is transformed to be horizontal or insubstantial compared to the much deeper lateral understanding pertaining to older generations because of the amount of time they spent dwelling on a much smaller set of resources. This observation made by Birkets in the late 90’s is expanded upon, and modernized by Nicholas Carr, an American writer and author, in a more inflicting and self-reflecting article for The Atlantic magazine entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains”. Carr does not just blame the Google search engine in this claim, but the internet as a whole on how it impacts concentration and our ability to contemplate. These cognitive impacts are observed and explained in more scientific terms by Eric Jaffe, a regular Observer

Carr said “What if I do all my readings on the web not so much because the way I read has changed. i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?” (Carr, pg 7). Since the internet has come into play people have stooped reading books because is easier to just google what they are wanting to know. The internet can change the way someone can process the information on a screen than in a book and how much is actually being consumed by the person. Not only is it changing the way we understand but every technology is an expression of the human will. This allows us to reshape nature to better serve our needs and desires. The internet has the greatest power over how and what we think

The Italian humanist Hieronimo Squarciafico worried that the easy availability of books would lead to intellectual laziness, making men “less studious” and weakening their minds. Others argued that cheaply printed books and broadsheets would undermine religious authority, demean the work of scholars and scribes, and spread sedition and debauchery. The change in technology seems to have had a lasting effect on human beings. Carr goes back as far as the 19th century to back his argument of the internet affecting the brain. He strategically states all the negatives aspects but none of the

Author Neil Postman’s main argument in his book “Technopoly: A Surrender of Culture to Technology” is not between humanists and scientists but between technology and people. In today’s society technology has become accepted as a friend, a helper, something needed. Postman argues that “the uncontrolled growth of technology destroys the vital sources of our humanity. It creates a culture without a moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living Postman XII).” Technology according to Postman, creates a culture with no moral foundation, a culture that undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life interactive. Technology is a friend but, it can also be

Throughout history, across time and space, there have been many thinkers whose teachings and ideas have inspired significant changes in the world around them. From Socrates and Sir Isaac Newton to Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, certain individuals throughout history have had both the brainpower and the motivation to essentially change the future, using their new ideas and beliefs to shape the world's next generations into individuals who were, and continue to be, more informed than the last. Who could imagine modern life without the knowledge that these individuals provided us? As with all worldly change, many of these thinkers' views and methods were challenged, but in never backing down, many of these teachings, and certainly the names of the individuals behind them, have stood the test of time, as seen in viewing two of history's most noted thinkers, Immanuel Kant and Martin Luther King, Jr.

What does a light bulb and Immanuel Kant have in common? They both have to do with light—Kant moreso with Enlightenment, the era where reason and logic took place of tradition and religion. In his essay entitled “What is Enlightenment?” he drew a distinction of reason, splitting it into a binary of public and private. How this philosophical view impacts humanity, as well as relates to my own personal life, is ever more abundant as time goes on.

The enlightenment and the internet were both a major change culture. Both actually took time to take off in time, the enlightenment after coming from quill to paper went to print to paper then to the printing press. Which over a period of time evolved into their published works and getting those works out to people who wanted to become part of this movement in ways of wanting to share ideas. Now with the internet which we’ve had for a while has become so popular because nearly everyone has a phone or computer connected to the internet to published any thought process that pops into their head. So therefore the internet and the enlightenment differences are in the 18th century it was more important for published works to be factual and now

     Moving on we now reach the birth of modernity with the philosopher Francis Bacon. Bacon felt that he needed to totally disregard everything he had previously learned in order to arrive at the truth. He said that the only way to learn something was by experience. He also made an important transition in the way he formed logic. Philosophers in ancient times used inductive logic, and Bacon used deductive logic. Bacon was followed by Descartes who once ventured into a cave to find what truth really was on his own. He once said, “I think therefore, I am.” This statement sums up the entire theme of modernity. He doubted everything but the self, even the existence of God. After “discovering” the self, he concluded that since he could think

People are adapting, and changing their approach of how they seek knowledge: From hours, and hours of researching in the library to find information, to a five-second research on the internet with a click of a button? In an ever-changing world, humans are evolving with the ease of technology. The google search engine allows the users to search anything with the tip of their fingers. The World Wide Web has billions of website with information. People can search anything they want to know about. The innovation of the Google search engine surpassed its competitors because of its sophisticated algorithm. Is the Google search engine changing the way we think? Some people believe Google is making people stupid because

With the developing of the computers and telephones, people spend more and more time on typing letters and watching responses on Internet. Some parents always argue with their children just because children spend so much time on the Internet. Some couples separates just because they consider that their lovers spend too much on the Internet. Some people believe that the developing of alphabet and technology lets people separate from the nature, for example, David Abram. Although I disagree with some parts of his opinion, I have the same opinion with the most part of his idea.