Melissa Brown
English 9/4th hour
May 15, 2014
Research paper
Is the Internet Changing the Way Society Thinks?
When is the last time you read a book, looked up a word in the dictionary, or found out where
to go by looking at a map? If you can’t remember ever doing any of those, then you are not
alone. Today’s society is heavily-dependent on the Internet for many reasons, mainly the
thesis
unlimited amount of resources available for working, studying, and entertainment, the tendency to become lazy, distracted, or overwhelmed, and the different ways to communicate.
These reasons and more are why the Internet is changing the way people think.
There is so much information available on the Internet for any subject. This makes it easier to
point 1
work, complete research, study, play games, and find ways to be entertained. According to an
article released by NetSafe Kids, “The Internet is an unprecedented gateway to a vast
wealth of knowledge and information, and its uses are virtually unlimited.”
People use different types of technology to accomplish their work, like computers, games,
point 2
GPS, etc. Without these, most people would feel lost these days. But are all these technologies
making people lazy or causing them to get distracted from what they should really be doing?
NBC News columnist Bob Sullivan said, “Interruptions are the scourge of modern life. Our
days and nights are full of gadgets that ping, buzz and beep their way into our attention,
taking us away from whatever we are doing.”
Some people think that they can multitask while working, which means working on more
than one thing at a time. Research proves that this does not always work.
“Multitasking while doing academic work — which is very, very common among young
people — leads to spottier, shallower, less flexible learning,” brain expert Annie Murphy
Paul said.
So with all the unlimited resources available, are people really able to use them all? Technology analyst Nicholas Carr has written many magazine and newspaper articles on this subject. His
main points included the use of the Internet to complete tasks that ordinarily people would do
other ways, why people are so quick to jump around from page to page instead of reading an entire article, and is the use of Google making people more stupid?
“I became aware of changes in my own thinking a couple of years ago,” Carr, author of
new book, “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains,” told CNN. “Like
many people, I've spent a lot of time using the net and other digital technologies over the
past ten or fifteen years, and I’ve enjoyed the many benefits those technologies provide.
Mind control: Is the internet changing how we think? by Matt Ford. “Other people -- and I'm
one of them -- believe that while it's important to be able to skim and scan and multitask,
our deepest and most valuable thinking requires a calm and attentive mind. If you exist in a
perpetual state of distractedness, you'll never tap into the deepest sources of human insight
and creativity.”
Communication has greatly been improved because of the Internet. People rely on the Interpoint 3
net to think for them, talk for them, and work for them. When asked a question, instead of think-
ing about the answer for a long time, it’s quicker to Google the answer. Instead of writing someone a letter and waiting a long time for it to arrive, it’s faster to text, email, or chat.
In an article printed in The Atlantic, Former Vice-President Al Gore said, “The implication is that many of us use the Internet -- and the devices, programs, and databases connected to it -- as an extension of our brains. This is not a metaphor; the studies indicate that
it is a literal reallocation of mental energy.”
So one would think that having all this extra information and more ways to communicate and
restating the thesis
use it would make people smarter, right? It’s not. People are becoming more lazy, distracted, and
less involved in activities. “Our societies, culture, politics, commerce, educational systems,
ways of relating to one another -- and our ways of thinking -- are all being profoundly reorganized with the emergence of the Global Mind and the growth of digital information at
exponential rates,” Gore said. Maybe one day people will be more responsible with what they
do with all the information found on the Web, pay attention so not to become distracted, and
think about how they communicate to be more personal and effective.
Works Cited
Ford, Matt. "Mind Control: Is the Internet Changing How We Think?" CNN. Cable News
Network, 17 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 May 2014.
Gore, Al. "Al Gore on How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 May 2014.
"The Internet Today." The National Academies. Web. 19 May 2014.
“Students Can’t Resist Distraction for Two Minutes ... and Neither Can You - NBC News.”
NBC News. Web. 18 May 2014.