"Does the Internet Make You Smarter?"
"Does the Internet Make You Smarter?" is an article that was written by Clay Shirky in 2010. The article covers a short history of inventions made in the world and how they have changed the manner in which individuals solve their problems in the society.
The Impact of the Printing Press
Moreover, the author argues that the contemporary inventions have changed the way people think of things which are normal and how they solve problems. For instance, Clay argues that the advent of the printing press was responsible for the Protestant Reformation in Europe (Clay, 2010).
The Negative Effects of the Internet
Moreover, Clay has illustrated how the internet has affected people by wasting their effort and developing low-quality scholarly works. The article has attracted a heated debate as to whether the internet is making people smarter or dumber. Nicholas Carr is his article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" argues that much interest in the internet is making people dumber as media is growing and thus used frequently (Nicholas, 2008). On the other hand, Clay Shirky tries to illustrate how the internet makes people wiser and thus it should not be thought of as a bad thing in the society.
Dumbing Down Due to Easy Access to Information
Nicholas Carr examines that the internet makes individuals dumber as it grants easy access to uncensored information and thus turning people into superficial thinkers in the society (Nicholas, 2010). On the other hand, the views of Clay Shirky are totally different as he believes that this is the age whereby people are to create and use media to their fullest.
Cognitive Surplus and Positive Effects
Clay believes that the old system had unnecessary restrictions that believe that the current media is making the society stupid. The author of the article builds credibility by examining how the world was almost turned into chaos by early inventions. For instance, the early inventions led to the established unrefined versions of the Bible and confusing secular literature. Indeed, these events fueled civic and religious unrest and thus reaching a conclusion that chaos would erupt if printing press was not controlled (Clay, 2010). Although Shirky agrees that these claims were true, the society establishes new norms and values through the contemporary literature. Ultimately, the cognitive surplus of individuals is huge to a point if people divert even in a small fraction of time from consuming media, the participation can lead to big positive effects in the world.
The Role of Wikipedia and Cultural Institutions
Clay Shirky argues that Wikipedia need to become more credible and thus earn the trust of the users. However, Wikipedia used the element of peer and thus applied to most of the volunteers globally and thereby becoming one of the most remarkable reference point in less than 10 years (Clay, 2010). Indeed, he establishes that the web has been instrumental in the spread of new ideas. For example, the platform PatientsLikeMe which was designed to help share the medical challenges of the patients have has been vital in making medical progress. Ultimately, this is a perfect example that the internet can be a useful platform for sharing important information. On another hand, there are lots of content on the internet which is dumb as is the case to the bookstores. Therefore, the use of the internet requires cultural institutions to ensure that it has a positive change to the society and not just creating new technologies (Rutledge, 2011).
In Conclusion
In a nutshell, both the arguments of Clay Shirky and Nicholas Carr have legitimate points that the internet has a lot of shallow content. It is evident that the society has resorted to dumb media as part of their entertainment to counter boredom. Well-rounded media and literature are required to progress the society. The society is headed to a future that is advanced in terms of technology and thus people cannot avoid the internet (Rutledge, 2011). Ultimately, there is a lot of trash on the internet but it is the responsibility of the people to decide what is fit for them as part of entertainment and source of information.
References
Clay Shirky. (2010). Does the internet make you smarter? The Wall Street, 1-3.
Nicholas Carr. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? The Wall Street.
Nicholas Carr. (2010). Does the internet make you dumber? The Wall Street, 3.
Rutledge, P. (2011). Does the Internet Make You Happy? PsycEXTRA Dataset. Doi: 10.1037/e537762011-001
