Google makes us more and more stupid

Google makes us more and more stupid

New network reading methods:

Massive browsing

Karl is not the only one who has encountered such a problem. Bruce Friedman, who has been teaching at the Michigan Medical School for a long time, wrote on his blog earlier this year how the internet has changed his mindset. "Now I have almost lost the ability to read longer articles, whether online or on paper ." He told Karl on the phone that his thinking presented a "broken reading" feature, derived from the habit of rapidly browsing various essays on the Internet. "I can no longer read War and Peace ." He admitted, "I have lost this skill. Even if a blog contains more than three or four sections, it is hard to swallow. ."

The University of London has studied the habit of studying online for five years. Scholars take two academic websites as objects-they provide online reading of electronic journals, e-books, and other text information, and analyze their browsing records, readers are always busy browsing one article after another, and seldom review the articles they have already visited. They open an article or a book, usually reading one or two pages, and then jump to another place. The report said: "It is obvious that users are not reading online in traditional ways. On the contrary, there are signs of a new 'read' method: users browse the titles, content pages, and summaries in a massive manner to get results quickly. It is almost considered that they are surfing the Internet to avoid reading in the traditional sense ."

Typewriter makes Nietzsche's

Changing writing style

The Internet has changed not only our reading methods, but also our ways of thinking and ourselves. "We are not just defined by what we read, we are also defined by the way we read." She worries that putting "efficiency" and "direct" on the new reading style may reduce our ability to perform deep reading. The print technique, hundreds of years ago, made reading long and complex works a common occurrence. Today's Internet technology does not make it back to the short and simple medieval age? Wolff said that when reading online, we are only an "information decoder" at best ", the ability to understand the text and the rich spiritual associations (enterprise database Forum) formed when we focus on deep reading are largely lost.

Wolf believes that reading is not an inherent human skill, and it is not like talking about our genes. We have to train our brains to learn how to translate the characters we see into languages we can understand.

In 1882, Nietzsche bought a typewriter. At this time, his eyesight dropped sharply. He stared at the paper for a long time and lost his headache. He worried that he would be forced to stop writing. But the typewriter saved him. He finally became familiar with Chinese science and technology, and he was able to type with his eyes closed. However, the style of the new machine has undergone subtle changes. One of his composite friends wrote to him, saying that when he was writing a song, his style often changed because of the different characteristics of paper and pen.

"You are right," Nietzsche replied. "our writing tools have penetrated into the formation of our thoughts ." German media scholar fredrisi Kittler believes that after he switched to a typewriter, Nietzsche's style "has changed from debate to Motto, from thinking to thinking, from tedious argument to Telegraph style ".

Karl cited a neuroscientist's point of view to prove that the adult's brain is still plasticity. The historical invention of mechanical watches and maps also illustrates how humans have changed their thinking about time and space. The Internet is the clock and map of today.

Network impact

Traditional media is also fragmented

When people's ways of thinking adapt to the online media platter paradigm, the traditional media will also change. TV programs include rolling subtitles and small advertisements that keep jumping out. Newspapers and periodicals shorten the length of their articles, introduce a small summary, and pile up various pieces of information that are easy to browse on the layout. In March this year, the New York Times decided to change its 2nd and 3rd versions to the essence of content.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said the company is committed to "systematize everything ". Google also announced its mission to "organize information from all over the world so that it is available everywhere and useful ." By developing a perfect search engine, you can "understand your intentions accurately and give back exactly what you want ." The problem is, will it make us dumb?

"I feel it ." Karl concluded that the essence of the dark predictions of Kubrick is that when we rely on computers as a medium for understanding the world, they will become our own ideas.

When reading online, we are just an "information decoder ".

When we rely on computers as a medium for understanding the world, they will become our own ideas.