Reading Response #5: Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Gurjot Ram
February 11, 2010
Eng100A- Reading Response 5

In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr discussed the easy access of information due to the Internet’s wide source of databases. He discusses how now we can just, “Google it,” but back when the internet wasn’t around everyone had to do intensive research in order to find the information the person was looking for. Carr thinks that since the Internet has been around people have been reading less because most of the stuff can be found on the Internet. Carr describes this as, “A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. This has replaced when everyone had to dig through books and do more research than everyone does today. Now that everyone is using the Internet, they do not have to worry about intensive research and putting their heads into books because it is easier to use the internet. This is where Carr’s title comes in, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” because these online databases making it easy to access information. Carr described someone who lost his ability to read altogether, his name was Scott Karp who was a major lit in college. The internet has had a lot of negative and positive effects on a community. Karp says that he does his research all on the internet and does not have to read books because there are short and simple summaries that everyone can understand. Carr also describes that we read more today than we did in the 1970s and 1980s because back then television was the medium. We are reading but we are not reading to fit standards of reading because we are just reading summaries.
Although I agree with Carr up to a point, I cannot accept his overall conclusion that our reading is sinking to lower level than what it was. Carr states that, “we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice,” but then he says that our reading is lacking because now we can find summaries or short reads of the books that make it easier than reading the whole book. I agree with Carr that most people avoid reading a book and would rather read a short summary about the book. I also think that there are a lot of people that actually do read books and do not rely on the Internet for their information. In today’s world, students would rather get a summary or a lecture by their teacher about the book rather than read it themselves. The Internet is to be like a resource for information because we cannot use it as a source for the real thing. There is a difference in reading a summary and reading the whole books because you can actually get what the book is about if you read it. Summaries just give you brief overviews of the book which is nothing like the real thing.