Reading Response 5

Maria Gasacao

February 11, 2010

English 100 A

Reading Response 5

In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nick Carr suggests that the use of the internet (such as searching, emailing, blogging and watching videos) is one of the reason why people have difficulty concentrating, comprehending and reading lengthy written or online text. Nick Carr states that, “I’m not thinking the way that I used to think. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something to do. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle”. Carr’s statement shows how he changed from a bookworm into someone that cant even concentrate in reading two pages of text. He believes that his use of the internet affected his concentration and comprehension because his mind is so used to taking in information the way that the internet distributes them. On the other hand, Carr is not the only one that feels this change. Carr shares that, “when I mention my troubles with reading to my friends and acquaintances. . . most of them – many say they are having similar experiences. The more they use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” A blogger named Bruce Friedman, who blogs about computers in medicine, shares, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print”. All of these personal experiences that Nick Carr shared were all related and all connected back to the use of the internet. They all suggested that their gradual use of the web have decreased their ability to absorb all of the information that they are reading. One evidence that supports Carr’s claim is an experiment that was organized by the scholars from the University of London. They examined the behaviors of online visitors on two popular research websites. The scholars states that, “It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of reading are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for the quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.” In this statement the scholars reported that the visitors showed that most of them didn’t read thoroughly the articles that they searched; instead they just skimmed through the article and just looked for the important information. Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University says, “We are not only what we read, we are how we read.” Wolf shares that she is afraid that our reading style in the internet will decrease our capability to interpret and absorb text.

I admit that I too demonstrates this kind of reading since I find it easier to distinguish which is the important information through out the whole text. I agree to what Carr said and also Maryanne Wolf, that our constant use of the internet is affecting our comprehension and concentration when reading a written or online text because my experience with reading some articles online and also written confirms it. For example, when I have to study my Psychology book which I have to take notes and instead of reading the whole text, I would only skim though it and look for the important ideas. I think that I got used to the availability, accurateness and the quickness of information that the net offers. Just one search and it gives me everything that is related to my search which is very efficient and is not time consuming. These days it is hard to do all of my work without surfing the internet since especially doing my homework. I believe that it is not bad to use the net all the time but I think that people today should balance their use of the internet and reading a book traditionally. I guess that the internet gives us the facts that we want easily, and we don’t have to really interpret what that information really meant. Although the web gives me comfort to get all the articles or information that I want without leaving my room or with just one search it still doesn’t replace a traditional reading.