One of the first things I do when I wake up in the morning—after showering and brushing my teeth of course—is hop on the Internet. I absolutely have to check my email and see if there are any big headlines in the news. However, when I do find some news that interests me, I try to find the shortest, most concise article as possible.
I find myself skimming through articles that are more than two or three pages. I convince myself that any important information should be contained in a paragraph or two. These days it is rare for me to sit down with the Sunday edition of my local paper. And curling up on the couch with a novel has become a thing of the past.
In his July 2008 article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr, whose writings follow technology and culture, argues that the problem with our everyday online search for high-speed information has re-circuited our brains to take in information in a seemingly more efficient way, but it at the cost of our ability to engage in deep thinking. All of the “bouncing” around from link to link does not give us a chance to really take in words and process the information a hand. And the way we take in information online—in short, quick snippets—is dictating how we take in information in all sorts of different media.
Carr cites media theorist Marchall McLuhan, who in he 1960’s said that media do not simply supply information, but instead “shape the process of thought.” So as Carr and the rest of us fly through the information we gather online, our brain processes are adapting—or devolving.
“And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it: in a swift moving stream of particles.” -Carr
The practicality of, and our ability to sit down with a novel has diminished, as long blocks of text have become an impenetrable wall for our minds. We need short, informative sentences to relay information. Our brains are becoming machines that go into overload when asked to dive deep into a text and extract meaning.
Carr explains that in order to appease our minds’ want for information snippets, media all over the place are changing format.
“Television programs as text crawls and pop-u ads, and magazines and newspapers shorten their articles, introduce capsule summaries, and crowd their pages with easy-to-browse info-snippets.” -Carr
He looks at The New York Times’ decision in March 2008 to have two full pages in every edition filled with short, “abstract” article. The explanation given by The Times was that these articles would serve as a more efficient way of relating the day’s news than going through the motions of turning each page and reading every article. Carr says that old media, like newspapers, have no choice but to start emulating their more modern counterparts.
According to The Newspapers Designer’s Handbook, sixth edition, by Tim Harrower, the four key elements to a modern looking paper are modular layout, color, packaging and, of course, informational graphics. These graphics are meant to “make complex issues easier for readers to grasp.” And a reader’s favorite type of graphic is a fast-facts side bar, one that summarizes important information in the story. Like the “abstract article,” these graphics make information available in a short snippet so the reader does not have to dig into the text.
But by continuing to give into this new type of information gathering, reading and thinking, Carr argues we are missing out on the most important factor of reading: exercising the mind. The beauty of sitting down with a novel is the solitary time spent by one’s self, mulling over the imagery and ideas presented so eloquently. Sitting down with a piece of literature, working through arguments and counter-arguments, is the greatest way to expand the mind with knowledge.
“In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking. If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them up with ‘content,’ we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture.”
The country may be on its way to a cultural dis-enlightenment. The ability to have the patience--and the drive--to read in depth novels, journal entries, and other literary works means the ability to process information and leads to creativity. If we continue down this path of "hurry up and tell me what I want to know" reading, we will slowly deteriorate into beings that need to be hand fed information.
Students will no longer be able to read the scholarly articles necessary for writing a clear argument in their class papers. They will rely on short, easy to read blurbs authored by questionable sources. Wikipedia will become a main source of information, not a background source to help give a basic understanding of materials. Ideas will be unfounded and lack crucial details that only texts written by experts can give.
Carr does concede that, like opponents of the written word and the printing press, he may be over thinking the evils of online reading, and that “from our hyperactive, data-soaked minds will spring a golden age of intellectual discovery and universal wisdom.” It may be true that Google-ing—being able to gather small bits of information, piecing them together in a spider web of information—shows our brains ability to sort out information. We are able to evaluate what is presented in front of us to get rid of non-reputable sources and to retrieve precisely what we are looking for
But what it really comes down to is exercising the brain, and not rewiring it to think like a computer. We should be striving to be intellectuals—to be making inferences and about the things we are reading—not just minute-experts.
Carr’s argument that all the Internet reading and gathering of information is having an effect on how we think is very true. We rely so heavily on quick sources of information that we are beginning to lose are abilities to make our own inferences about the words we are reading. It is important for the “reading to expand the mind” way of thinking to not be forgotten.
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