“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The short answer, quite possibly yes, at least in the sense of memorization and such, but the more important question for me would be, is it worth it? Are there benefits to having a wealth of human information at our fingertips that makes losing the ability to retain it all worthwhile? Before humans began writing information down, people had herculean memories. In comparison, the brains of today are rather puny in their ability to recall facts. Studies have shown that when people believe that a piece of information will be available to them later, they are more likely to forget this bit of human knowledge. Nicolas Carr’s aforementioned question raises issues of minimal memorization, lack of concentration, and technological dependence. It is the last line of Nicolas Carr’s article that is especially unnerving: “as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence” (Carr).
By now, many of us must realize what we are losing through Google, through the internet, through 24/7 distraction, but we are still plugged in. We therefore continue because we believe the damage to be worth it, so what do we gain? In terms of essay-writing, we stand to gain much from the advancements in technology. Hyperlinks, in particular, help to facilitate the creative mind. Adam Kenney’s digital interactive cyberdrama, The Museum, is composed of text and hyperlinks, leading the reader in whichever direction he wishes to go, much like a real museum. Kenney’s choice of media works to simulate the actual experience of a museum, making this particular medium far more effective than pen and paper for this particular message. These elements of choice and interaction in The Museum work to push the limits of the traditional reading experience. Janet Murray, author of Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, notes that her electronic fiction students are becoming more and more comfortable with the electronic medium and she expresses excitement at the implications that this knowledge will have on the future of electronic writing. She writes that “every year [her] students arrive feeling more at home with electronic environments and are more prepared to elicit something with the tone of a human voice out of the silent circuitry of the machine” (Murray 9). For Murray, the increase in electronic advancements is thrilling in that it allows one to test the boundaries of creativity. Hypertexts, video, audio, images are all available to a writer working in the electronic medium.
If Google is making us stupid, at least the rest of the internet is making up for it. Although yes, our memories are not what they used to be, and yes we are more easily distracted, these are inevitable byproducts of the changing times. We keep using the internet because it is useful. The internet is a powerful tool for the writer and provides a medium for creative expression that would not be possible with mere pen and paper. Learning to tune out the distractions of the internet seems to me to be a more realist and useful objective than unplugging oneself completely. Stop using Google. Grab a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a novel. Turn off the computer and focus. It will not be easy. The internet has a lot to offer for the writer, but just like any tool, he must learn how to use it productively.
Archive for the ‘writing’ Tag
Techno-Speak
Friday, April 12th, 2013The Electronic Medium
Thursday, April 4th, 2013“All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage.”
-Marshal McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage
The way in which a story is told is often as deeply influential, if not more so, than its meaning, at least according to Marshal McLuhan, author of The Medium is the Massage. In the tradition of oral storytelling of the past, modern campers crowd around camp fires, eager to hear the ghost stories the make their blood run cold. The camp counselor’s voice softens and then becomes loud at the climax of the story, causing the children to jump in fear in the dark, surrounded by the imagined monsters of the story. Consider reading one of these stories in front of a bright computer screen, in the middle of the day. Then imagine hearing it read in front of a warm fire that is the only light in the midst of the pitch black forest with the reader’s voice inflecting to show fear and excitement. Which presentation would render the more desired effect? Similarly, the way in which an argument is presented has a great impact on the way it is perceived.
Counter to the views of McLuhan, critic Sven Birkerts describes the way in which electronic media negatively impact today’s generation of readers and writers, while he instead prefers pen and paper, pages and ink to be a universal medium of creation. Birkerts writes in his book The Gutenberg Elegies that “may educators say that our students are less and less able to read, or analyze, or write with clarity and purpose” (119) due to the changes inherent in the electronic age. Opponents of pen and paper may have argued that the ability to memorize would be lost, and opponents of the telegraph may have argued that the ability to speak in full sentences would be lost. One has to take the bad with the good. Invention is not new. Only a relatively few people can say that they have lived the same way for decades. It has changed much about everyday life, but humans have always learned to adapt to it because it is all an extension of the familiar. As McLuhan points out, ever new invention is an extension of what has come before it which is itself an extension of the human body. He writes that “the wheel is an extension of the foot” (30, 31) and “the book is an extension of the eye” (33-36). Every new technology builds upon the old. New technology, such as the computer I sit in front of after I retype this line, is an extension of old technology, such as the pen I would throw across the room after scribbling out line after line. Some forms of media are just better for a certain purpose, and others are better for another. One should foster the diversity of our means for expressing ourselves instead of imposing one medium for all expressive pieces. To do such a thing would be like limiting a multimedia artist to paint alone.
New technology merely represents an extension of what has always been a natural human desire, to communicate our desires and thoughts with other people. As McLuhan points out, “we have become irrevocably involved with, and responsible for, one another” (24). Reading represents one of the most social forms of interaction, whether this be online, in print, or otherwise. The words permeate our very being, and we form connections and draw on experiences as we carry on imagined conversations with the text. The medium of our interaction thus becomes important in that it impacts how we digest and process the message behind the medium. Consider the difference with this versus this. As technology changes the way we view writing and makes the writing of others more available, the world becomes a freer exchange of ideas, widening one’s choices of expression and his potential audience.