Technological Take Over

Finally someone has written a piece that criticizes the over-use of the internet! I have been waiting for someone to point out the problems this causes and here Nicholas Carr is! The beginning of the piece was a little rocky in my perspective, for I couldn't completely grasp what Carr was trying to say, but the rest of the article was truly eye-opening and quite easily relatable.


"My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose". When I can sit down and read an entire book in one sitting, I always feel accomplished, and this usually only happens in the summer with a book that truly captures my interest. More common however, I find myself struggling to pay attention to long stories or articles. More often than not I'm on the internet browsing Facebook, checking my emails, looking at my club volleyball website for updates, using Pinterest, and so on. The tool that has made all of this Net use possible is my smart phone. Without that I strongly believe my internet use would be much, much less. These computers are being capable of having in the palm of our hands and that in itself is quite a threat.


Carr states within the article that the Net is used for convenience instead of someone thinking through an issue on their own. It's become a way to cheat the brain, just to save a little struggle or a little time. Is that honestly what our world has come to? The world used to be dominated by great, high-achieving minds without reliance on the Net and now all of that has ceased because of the easy use of the internet. He also goes on to say that people change with the way they read. I'm sure many can agree that reading has simply now just become skimming; really reading something would be a crazy request. Since the internet has evolved to be so popular across the world, I'm a firm believer that it is a big reason as to why there are so many cases of mental disorders today. We are relying on the Net so much that our brain erases the neural circuits we once heavily relied on but don't utilize any longer. Those circuits are hugely important and with the removal of them, the brain becomes way less dense, which is unhealthy.


I remember many years ago when we were little and our parents and teachers taught us how to read and how difficult it was at first. Nowadays, people have to learn not only how to read, but also how to interpret the internet and the biases as well as false information it presents. It's double the work and quite the hassle. 


As a young group I think it important to try and rely less on the web. Our brains are the most important part of who we are and when we mess with it, we are actually messing with the rest of our body as the brain is the control center. Also as students that still have a ways left to go, if we're having problems concentrating now, it won't get any easier if we don't do something about it. This isn't just a problem we can will away. The technology we use will continue to take over and have a negative impact if we let it.