The Importance Of Virtual Communication

In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr explains how the Internet is somewhat removing the way humans tend to concentrate on certain things. He also explains how people think differently then they usually would because of how the Internet may cause them to view things. Even though the Internet may help in a variety of ways, it does influence the way humans may think and learn as a process together. Carr’s argument is effective because he shows the affect the Internet has on humans in ways such as, not being able to read lengthy articles and books, the use of a type writer, and the lack of his own creditability within the article.

The internet has revolutionized the modern world like no other invention has before, except perhaps, electricity. The internet allows sharing and collaboration to take place between people on opposite sides of the globe. Vinton G. Cerf, often called the “Father of the Internet”, admits that when the original idea of an “intranet” was in its infancy, there was no possible way to imagine all of the ways we would come to use it (NDTV, 2013).

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.

Many people are being distracted these days by the overuse of technology. It has become very difficult for people to focus on one task at a time. Also, people are forgetting some old ways of increasing their intelligence and ways of developing skills. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” By Nicholas Carr, he argues that internet restricts the minds from increasing our ability to fully understand what we read online. He also argues that spending “too much” time online causes to lose the focus and train our minds to think more like machines. Also, in the article “Why Gen-Y Johnny Can’t Read Nonverbal Cues” by Mark Bauerlein, he argues that people are less interactive because of the more use of texting and online chatting. He argues that

Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives--or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts--as the Internet does today.

They argue that the way they’re thinking is changing, how their “concentration… starts to drift after two or three pages” and that modern technology doesn’t push them to commit to a certain informational source long enough because “research… can now be done in minutes” (Source 4). The internet seems to have all the answers, which generally shortens the time needed to spend on an activity thus limits the room to think critically. And in this case, not only does it ruin our contemplation but also our concentration and patience because we expect the internet to feed us information. However, this is not all true because the “digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning” (Source 3). There are many “new forms of media” people can explore with and use to carry out their interests, and they become more involved with their peers when they can learn from each other.

In the book The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr he argues how the internet is changing our brains or the worse. With the exception of the alphabets and the number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use. At the very least, it’s the most powerful that has come along since the book. Carr explains how powerful the internet is by its ability to change the development of the brain, how people think, and the ability to remember.

The Flip Side of Technology In his article “From The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” Nicholas Carr argues that the increasing usage of the internet has had a negative impact on the our attention span and the way our brains work. Carr states, “What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr par 5). Carr maintains this idea throughout the article expressing his concerns for how the internet has shortened his attention span and ability to focus.

This leads us to have lower concentration levels and lower retention rate, changing our cognitive process. Some, including Steven Johnson, the author of Everything Bad is Good for You, argues that modern technology, such as the internet, is positively changing our thinking. Defending modern technology, Johnson states, “. . . The rise of the Internet has challenged our minds in three fundamental and related ways: by virtue of being participatory, by forcing users to learn new interfaces, and by creating new channels for social interaction” (118).

Is the internet making us smarter or dumber? People continuously argue whether this rise of electronic use and internet in our lives is a negative or positive aspect. In June 5, 2010 Wall Street Journal article, Nicholas Carr raises and answer the intriguing question,“Does the Internet Make You Dumber?”Nicholas Carr argues that the internet has bad effects on our brain. He says that the internet makes it harder to remember anything, and that is harder to move memories into long term memory. Those who are continually distracted by emails, alerts, and text messages understand less than a person who can concentrate. Nicholas Carr points that the internet can change the way our brain acts. He states that those who use the internet are shallow, and the internet is causing irreversible damage to our thought processes and making us stupid. A week later, Steven Pinker counters Nicholas Carr’s assertions in his own New York Time article,“Mind Over Mass Media.”He argues that electronic technologies are not as horrible as some may make it seem, and he starts his article by addressing how“New forms of media have always caused moral panics”(199). Throughout his article, Pinker explains why critics, who accuse electronic technology as harming to human intelligence, are wrong. He suggests that,“these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart”(200). Through media and social networking, the internet brings people closer together and provides convenience for people’s life.

Carr discusses the effects that the Internet has on our minds and the way we think, as well as the way media has changed. Our minds no longer focus. When in conversation with people we are constantly distracted by the technological advances our era has brought. Text messages, emails, pop culture drama has all taken

The internet is the easier way for people to communicate with each other. It has made the world smaller by bringing people together everywhere and any time. This invention has important tools for people to contact and it has changed their way of communication in today busy world. In fact people are becoming totally dependent on the internet as a way of communication in their daily life, business and work. The limitation of old communication tools has made the use of internet for communication is wider all over the world .

In today’s world Internet has become one of the most important mediums of communication. It has become the lifeline of our survival. It has removed the entire social, economic and physical barrier and has immense effect on our day to day activity.

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

One of the first experiences I have of being deceived by what I was seeing is going to the barbershop. All barbershops have outside the famous barbershop pole which functions as a powerful visual illusion. This visual illusion occurs when a diagonally-striped pole is rotated around its vertical axis horizontally, it appears as though the stripes are moving in the direction of its vertical axis (Seckel, 2005). As a child I believed that the stripes were starting and ending anew in a fascinating infinite pattern. Only later did I learn that the barbershop pole plays on limitations of human perception in relation to vertical motion.