How Navigating the Internet has become so Tricky…

Trying to navigate the online world can be just as hard as following direction on an upside down map. Consumers are trying to find a healthy way of using media without harming their minds. Technology critics like Nicholas Carr warn their readers of the dangers of social media and online connection and the effect it has on our brains. Other’s like Jenna Wortham, see the fun and loving side of an online connection across miles brings. While considering both sides of the spectrum, the outcome has overwhelmingly shown that media itself is not harmful, but the way that media is consumed can lead to negative effects on the individual and on society.

Carr’s Fears for the Future

Is Google Making Us Stupid By Nicholas Car

Carr, someone with a large public disdain for how media has affected society wrote his book The Shallows to lay out changes being made to our brain’s through our social media use which will be discussed later in this post. Carr also wrote an essay that was published on The Atlantic, website in 2018. In this essay titled Is Google Making Us Stupid Carr explains that he feels his mind slipping and his memory worsening by the day as he continues to consume media in the way he does, “My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think”. He accounts his change in thinking to the way media is consumed. He speaks on the ease people experience when finding the answer after a search. You type in what you’re looking for and it tells you right away, with no further research on learning done. Carr mentions Marshall McLuhan’s ideas of passive channels, writing “As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought”. Carr feels that the current way media is being consumed will end up being harmful to our brains and thinking in the future. Using McLuhan’s words, Carr demonstrates the internet shapes how a person thinks, or doesn’t think. Relying on the internet to give you the facts you want, makes a person let their guard down and easily forget things, because they have the ability to open up their phone and find the answer right away, with no pressure to remember. Carr does not hate technology all together, he thinks that the way we use technology is what’s harmful, not the technology itself.

The Reason our Brains are Slowing Down

The Juggler’s Brain By Nicholas Carr (chapter 7)

Carr uses this chapter to lay out what a rapid frenzy type of media consumption does to a person’s brain. He talks about the digression that happens when media consumption becomes overwhelming in your head. Dozens of studies by psychologists, neurobiologists, educators, and Web designers point to the same conclusion: when we go online we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning” (116). All of these, are things people usually wish to avoid. In lames terms Carr is saying that Learning on the internet is like trying to study at a rock concert. There are too many distraction that hinder the information from effectively being entered into the brain. He explains that reading online does not transfer knowledge to your long term memory, because it does not have the time to process. Citing study done by a UCLA professor of psychiatry, Carr explains how this study revealed how brain activity of a group of avid net users was very different than someone who does not use the internet often. Continuing on Carr puts much of this up to the many distractions that come along with reading online, “Whenever, we as readers, come upon a link, we have to pause for at least a split second”(122). In this spit second the brain hast to make the decision if we will click on it or keep reading, distracting the mind away from what a person is trying to read. He continues, “it’s been shown to impede comprehension and retention, particularly when it’s repeated frequently”(122). He shows that media and technology do actually have an effect on us, and our consumption habits need to be changed in order to keep our minds healthy. He does not say to swear off technology and media, but just be conscious of your habits and how you spend your time online. Carr is saying don’t replace real literature with the online world. Reading and writing from or on paper strengthens our minds and keeps our bodies alert and ready. Trying to cram online wont help a person, as it never gets the chance to reach long term memory

In Cooperation

Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better By Clive Thompson

Clive Thompson uses his book Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better, to highlight the collaboration between media and man. With his anecdotes about chess, Thompson tells his audience about the advantages of man and technology working as one to get a job done, better than either could do alone. The chess anecdote begins right away as Thompson glides into telling his audience about the strenuous work it takes to be a Chess Master. He shows data and gives facts and examples to help prove his point, which pushes his credibility higher. One example he gives to further his argument came from the winning team of a “freestyle’ chess tournament in which a team could consist of any number of humans or computers”(446). Thompson explains that the winning team did not have any grandmasters, just two amateur chess players, and their computers. He uses this example to promote a very similar message to Carr.

Both Carr and Thompson argue that computers can not replace humans. Thompson stresses this because computers have no sense of intuition, which is why they need a human to operate them. Man still needs to be able to think for himself and use a computer, to further the knowledge he already has inside of him. Thompson acknowledges the great accomplishments made by the human race, and the lengths chess masters went to learn and become the amazing players they are, however he feels that the new use of technology with the human mind can make learning more efficient and take humans beyond what they could do lone. Thomson’s idea of collaboration between machine and man suggest he sees the power that technology has, yet we still need to have a human part to keep control.

A Time of Reflection

How I Learned to Love Snapchat By Jenna Wortham

Jenna Wortham discusses the relaxed, light hearted media of Snapchat in her article from the New York Times. She begins by explaining where online text communication began, and how it evolved. Wortham writes about the findings of a German engineer, saying “most things that needed saying could be done so in an economical 160 characters or fewer”. She explains the moral panic that came with the introduction and rise of texting, explaining that many thought it would push humans to me more asocial and lose our need for face to face contact. Amid the fears and warnings, texting took off as a less formal/awkward form of communication, replacing the frequency of phone calls. When Wortham moves on to talk about Snapchat, she explains that it puts the more intimate vibe back into online conversations. Texting is emotionless and hard to interoperate with out a tone of voice from who is saying it, however snapchat brings in the intimacy of having a face or picture to look at. Wortham goes on to say, “Snapchat is just the latest and most well realized example of the various ways we are regaining the layers of meaning we lost when we began digitizing so many important interactions”. Wortham suggests that adding back a personal touch of seeing another humans face when communicating online, will help to re-strengthening relationships that have been lost on the internet.

To Wortham Snapchat is a medium in which she can let loose and relax, with no rules and freedom to use the app as you please, and most of all puts a personal aspect back into online technology. There are no expectations, just fun. Wortham sees the benefit in a social media allowing users to relax and let their guard down. She sees snapchat as a place to be your real self and allow comfortable conversation to go on in a completely informal, non-stressful way. While Wortham suggests many great things about social media, she also acknowledges the pitfalls that unhealthy amount of social media can create. She stresses the need of face to face relationships, but acknowledges the strides taken by using Snapchat to continue a personal connection online, still being able to see a face.

So What…?

The take away is that being a mindful media user is the safest way to integrate technology into out everyday lives. Remembering what Carr says about the things that have helped our brains become so advanced, like reading a real book improving long term memory. Focusing on one thing at a time, and allowing yourself to let loose and enjoy the fun life of social media, like Jenna Wortham. Working together with technology, to make the world a better place as offered by Clive Thompson. The power is in the users hands, and they are responsible for making the decisions of how they will use media and technology throughout their lives.

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 13 June 2018, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/.

Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains. New York : W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

Thompson, Clive. “Smarter Than You Think.” They Say I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. New York :W.W. Norton & Co., 2018. 500-504

Wortham, Jenna. “How I Learned to Love Snapchat.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 May 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/magazine/how-i-learned-to-love-snapchat.html.