I found chapter nine of The Shallows particularly interesting and relevant. It is the chapter regarding memory. I found Carr's words to be true, "The Web is a technology of forgetfulness."
When I was in Eighth Grade, I began to use the internet, creating a Facebook account and email account. Coincidentally, that was the same time when I began to have a lack of focus and memory. I began to have difficulty focusing the entire time while doing homework and also found that I was having trouble remembering the fine details of books. I blew it off, thinking that it was because the schoolwork had gotten harder. Just a few months ago, my family got a laptop. This greatly increased the amount of time I spent on the internet. Since then, I have noticed an even greater decrease in my memory. I'm having trouble remembering names and many details of what I read. Even as I contribute to this blog, I am finding it annoying to read some of the lengthier posts. My point is, this is not a coincidence. I can see Carr's fears coming to reality in myself. As my internet usage increased, my focus and memory decreased proportionally. I see this as all of the evidence I need to agree with Carr in his statement that the internet negatively affecting our brains. My brain has been rotting away right under my nose.
This is true, the internet is "rotting" our brains, like you said "i was having troublbe remembering the fine details of books". The internet is making everything else useless, but you can help yourself, what i mean is reduce the use of internet time, cut back. If you dont need the internet dont use It. your brain will soon start to go back the way it used to be. Yes it will be difficult with all these tweets and facebook updates, but its possible.
ReplyDeleteIt is incredibly sad how this could not be any more true. I received my first laptop when I entered into middle school and since then my procrastination trend began. Honestly, I thought the work load was getting harder by the day, but truth is, is that it was all the internet usage and especially Facebook that created all this. I constantly find myself having to reread the same passage, maybe even same page, numerous times before I realize that I have been on that paragraph or page for the past five minutes. What is even more worse is that even as I am writing this, I have had to constantly reread what I wrote because I can't remember what I was talking about. Why? Because the tab open right next to the blog site is Facebook. Why is it open? As Lionel said, we can help ourselves but are we willing to? Sadly, I too am a victim of the negative aspects of what the internet has brought to our brains.
ReplyDeleteI love how you brought up facebook! Facebook makes studying about a hundred times more difficult. A lot of times people make "groups" for kids in the same class to help eachother study and help eachother. It was like an online contact list that was available to everyone. We thought that this would help us to study, but really we were just shooting ourselves in the foot. I would log on to facebook, then go on the page to get help. What should have been a five minute conversation soon turned into a two-hour long discussion about something not at all relevant to the class. Not only did I waste my time, but I could not even remember what question I needed to be answered. The ability to focus has been robbed of me by the internet. Carr was absolutely correct about the negative impact of the internet.
DeleteI believe why people have such a hard time remebering the fine details from books is because the internet supplies all the answers. If we forget something, we just type in our question and *click* 2,000,000 hits. We browse for the one we want and we get our answer. We don't need to remember anything anymore. Our society has literally brainwashed us.
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