Chapter 10--"Is Google Making Us Stupid"

I printed out the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” because I like to read printed matter I can hold rather than trying to read on a computer screen. I find I tend to skim over articles when I read them on the computer, and I think part of the problem with not being able to concentrate on what we are reading when we read something on the computer is the fact that it is on the computer.

What do we generally do when we are on the Internet? We jump from web site to web site searching for information as quickly as we can. At work I have a T-1 connection and can download and jump from web site to web site very quickly. At home, I have a slower connection and become frustrated because the Internet is slower than what I am used to working with all day.

Leisurely reading went hand-in-hand with a more leisurely lifestyle. Today we live in a fast pace society. We rush to drop the kids off at school, then we rush to work, take a quick lunch, rush back to work and at the end of the day rush to pick up kids and hurry home to make dinner. I find myself rushing so much during the week that the few times I don’t have something I have to hurry to do I don’t know how to slow down and not feel stressed about having to do something by a certain time.While the author of the article writes about how much easier the Internet has made his work as a writer, he also blames the Internet for making us unable to concentrate for any length of time reading. His article was written in a weak sense and was one-sided. He only focused on what his opinion and feelings of the downside of using the Internet and not the positive side of being able to access tons of information in minutes that would have taken days if we were doing it the old-fashioned way in a library.