The Idiocy of the Internet Age

I think that Carr's metahpor, "Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.", sums up the idea of his article. I see his answer to the title as a very ambiguous one. In one sense he feels as if the internet is taking away from our ability to read deeply and forcing us to skim across the surface of multiple sources of information. By doing the the internet doesn't necessarily makes us stupid, but it does in fact limit our ability to interpret the deeper meaning of some readings. Even so he doesn't believe that the way we read has changed so much as the way we "think" has changed. We now take all of our readings at face value. We don't delve into the deeper meanings. We simply take the facts (or fiction) as the are without stopping to say (or think), "Wait, what does this really mean?" Through this change in our thought process we may limit our abilities to see deeper meanings, which in turn limit our abilities to think newer and better thoughts. Now not only do we judge a book by its cover, we judge it by its length. We don't necessarily care how it looks, rather how long it looks. If the book or whatever it is we may be reading seems too long we blow it off, by either skmming it or not reading it at all. By doing this we miss many important ideas and points of view.


In relation to our internet activities I think this trend to only skim is quite apparent. Most people visited many websites but only spent a few minutes on each. At most we may have spent fifteen minutes reading an article. But even we do that, we also have many other windows open and surf around, never giving our full attention to any one of the websites or articles that are pulled up. Therefore I believe that this "change" in our thought process due to the internet is a valid concern. I myself often have trouble focusing on one piece of literature for a long period of time. Much like Carr said I can only read a few pages before my mind begins to wander.

With that being said, I think it is our duty as future intellectuals to fight this change and to think more deeply about what we read. To look past the initial meaning and search for the deeper meaning, the one that must be worked for. If we don't, we as society will eventually, in my opinion, forget what it is to think deeply, and lose all intellectuality that is left in us.