Is Google making me, or the general population for that matter, stupid? No. At least, I don't think so. Not so much stupid as lazy anyways. If anything, Google is making us all a little smarter. Having all this information at our fingertips is incredibly useful; how we obtain said information says nothing about how smart or how stupid we are. (If anything it's smarter to use Google because you can find the same answer that you would reading pages upon pages of text, but with less energy expended and less time consumed.) Google simply makes gathering information easier and faster. I agree that it has definitely changed the way I think. I seem to suffer some of the same symptoms as Carr-inability to focus for longer amounts of time-now that I rely so much on Google. I believe it has changed the way I think, but not the level at which I think. I may want information faster, and in a more efficient manner, but that doesn't make me any more or less intelligent than I already am. I feel that one can remedy any fears they have about Google changing how they think by simply reverting back to older methods of gathering information. If you're that worried: read more books; type your papers on a type writer. Just don't doubt for one minute that Google itself is a technical advancement in the process of writing itself.
Layni Case
I agree, Layni. I think that access to such a large amount of information, that with the introduction of smart phones and tablets has now become available anywhere at anytime, is an advancement for how we obtain knowledge.
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