Google's Influence on Access to Information
Google is now the response and solution provider for the majority of questions and inquiries. People are using search engines to find all kinds of stuff. General, personal, basic, fragile, and specialized information are all easily accessible with the click of a button. According to the CEO of the company, "Google's base is built on research and calculation." Google's ambition to become the ideal search engine has given it corporate control of all of the world's content, as well as the duty to make it usable, meaningful, and freely available. The ease of accessing these vast sources of information via Google and other sources on the internet is changing the thought process and reasoning of human beings (Carr, Nicholas).
The Impact of On-Demand Content
As people immerse themselves online, burning through bits of information that they find, claims arise that their ability to concentrate diminishes. Carr says "It is now more difficult for most people to read an actual printed book or a lengthy article and get absorbed in the narrative without losing concentration and drifting off into unrelated thought." Content on demand has made society lose patience; people want what they want when they want it. The thought of going through an entire book to get a single piece of information seems like torture to many, they would rather do a few google searches which will lead to clicking a few hyperlinks which open the doors to boundless sources of information (Carr, Nicholas). Research that would take days or months in a library going through books can now be accomplished in mere minutes with the right keywords, Nicholas Carr claims, "the internet reduces the mind's capacity for contemplation and concentration."
The Influence of Media Channels
Carr's claims were not unprecedented, the internet becoming a broad and extensive tool where one can access audio and visual information that streams directly to the mind and immediately changes perception. Although there are certain advantages such as a great benevolence to thinking, that arise out of having such an incredible source of information, it is all in scrutiny. Media channels are not only sources of information, but they greatly influence and shape the human thought process. Peoples thought patterns and perception are not only changed by the content of a message but also, how the message is shared. The mind is growing accustomed to how we receive information from online sources: brief, to the point and quickly leaving no room nor time for deep thinking or reflection on the information received. Often, people are forced to make quick decisions and deliberations about issues which are on par with the information obtained from the internet or search engine.
Addressing Critiques and Panics
The arrival of new forms of media has always been the subject to panic. Newspapers, television, the radio and the printing at the time of their invention, were thought to be the cause of future moral and intellectual decay. This has been no different when it comes to the internet and the search engine (Pinker, Steven). It is constantly echoed that the search engine lowers the human intelligence by making people adapt to searching on the surface of information, rarely going deeper into more detail. The claims are often untrue, here are a few examples: the upsurge of comic books in the 1950s, and video games in 1990s speculated the rise in crime and juvenile delinquents, but on the contrary, they both coincided with a decline crime levels in America. Television and radio shows were also thought to reduce intellect, but their popularization led to the continuous boost in I.Q levels.
The Role of the Internet in Various Fields
In the world, today, problem-solving in complex fields like science and technology which often steer the fate of humanity, demands tremendous intelligence which is made evident by the benchmarks of discovery and technological advancement. Scientists and educators often use the very tools that supposedly reduce human beings' capacity to think and reason, utilizing the internet, search engines and electronic in their work which by far improves their workflow and the quality of result output. Other fields such as history and philosophy are also experiencing tremendous success due to search engines like Google and the internet in its entirety (Greenhow, Christine).
Impact of Media Consumption and Cognitive Neuroscience
Critiques of the internet and the ease of information access have often used science to sound more convincing heard but the experts in the field of cognitive neuroscience always dismiss these arguments. Neural plasticity exists, it's what causes the mind to slight change when people learn a new skill or a fact, but this does not mean the brain is malleable that learning facts make people less intelligent. Experience does to change the ordinary processing abilities of the human mind even though it might lead to a change of perception and bias.
Managing and Controlling Distractions
Consuming electronic media has far less adverse effects than panic implies. Internet critics base their arguments on the notion that the human mind consumes everything it comes across and immediately acquires the qualities of the information that it has received. The same logical reasoning may arise at the conclusion that listening to passive aggressive music will make a person violent, which is ridiculous. It is true that all the information available online can be addictive or distract people from performing important tasks, especially to people who suffer from certain mental disorders such as attention deficit. But distraction has been around before the internet, it is not a new concept or phenomenon, and the solution is to learn and apply self-control strategies as they do with other vices that surround their daily lives. Self-control solutions can be as simple as turning the phone off or social media when people feel that they are distracted from work.
Intellectual Depth and Human Capacity
Intelligence and intellectual depth are not dependent on Google or internet usage. A person's ability to think vigorously and reflect deeply, although sometimes may be acquired naturally, most of the time are taught and instilled through and education system, constant practice and cognitive reasoning to solve problems (Sparrow, B. et al.). They cannot be acquired by a quick google search or skimming through a browser, and cannot be turned aside by limited access to the internet.
The Role of Information Technologies
Increased access to information, caused by the increased access to new media has undoubtedly led to the increase of human knowledge. The human size and brain processing power remain the same. Luckily, information technologies and the internet are tools utilized to manage, retrieve and search information that would otherwise be overwhelming to the human mind. Looking at history, it is evident that although new media technology is always met with skepticism, sometimes panic and great debates questioning morality and the future of cognitive reasoning, it always turns out that the tools made possible by the availability of the said new media technology, leads to the abundant spread of information, the expansion of human knowledge, and a spur of fresh ideas.
Works Cited
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. The Atlantic, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/.
Greenhow, Christine. “Online Social Networks And Learning.” On The Horizon, vol 19, no. 1, 2011, pp. 4-12. Emerald, doi:10.1108/10748121111107663.
Pinker, Steven. “Mind Over Mass Media”. Nytimes.Com, 2017, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html.
Sparrow, B. et al. “Google Effects On Memory: Cognitive Consequences Of Having Information At Our Fingertips.” Science, vol 333, no. 6043, 2011, pp. 776-778. American Association For The Advancement Of Science (AAAS), doi:10.1126/science.1207745.
