Is Google Making Us Stupid?

My answer to this rather controversial question is, no. As was thoroughly pointed out by Carr in the essay, the internet, like many technological breakthroughs before it, is triggering a brain evolution. Since our brains are so "malleable", as he described it, they are extremely susceptible to drastic changes in function. Since our brains are now conforming to a very streamlined source of information, our attention spans are indeed depleting. Not only that, but our patience when it comes to receiving information.

However I believe Carr may have overlooked something when describing our new habits. That being computer screens. You may have noticed how straining it is reading a lengthy Wikipedia article on a glowing box. Our eyes aren't meant to decipher small complicated symbols such as letters on a glowing screen, so we often skim. I don't know the science as to why, but it's much less comfortable for our eyes to read from a digital monitor. I think that is a big reason why texts on the internet are often hard to finish. Of course, brain evolution also being a major point.

I think Carr's fear of us turning into mindless drones can be put to rest though. The human brain, though very prone to change, will always have its creativity component. As long as that's there, we have nothing to worry about. Yes, our thought process is changing, but the essay itself pointed to times this has happened before. There's really no need to cling to the old world, as new generations simply aren't going to care. That's just the way it is.

Skunk Dreams

I have to say, reading this essay re-sparked my obsession with dreams, their meaning, and how they effect our conscious lives. The essay is a strange fusion between a romanticized recollection of the authors teenage transitional phase, and vividly transcribed dream sequences. Because of this innovative format, it is difficult form me to do an analysis of the essay as a whole. Instead I will share a couple of the passages I found particularly interesting and give you my thoughts on them.

"After a few years of living in the country, the impulse to simply get outside hit me, strengthened, and became again a habit of thought, a reason for storytelling, an uneasy impatience with walls and roads. "

Recently in my life I've felt a similar melodramatic lust for adventure; coincidentally, as a result of dreams. Dreams vivid in nature have always effected me more deeply then they probably should, so when I have a dream filled with adventure and fulfillment, I awake wishing to attain that structure in my conscious life. It always seems out of reach, however.

"The obstacles we overcome define us. We are composed of hurdles we set up to pace our headlong needs, to control our desires, or against which to measure our growth. 'Without obstacles,' Phillips writes, 'the notion of development is inconceivable. There would be nothing to master.'"

I like this passage because it's a great wording of my (common) philosophical view that we are mostly shaped by the events in our life. The passage only strengthens this view, explaining that without developing in order to overcome events (obstacles), we are but nothing.

Overall I liked what the author had to say, though I wasn't really feeling the skunk metaphor. I can't like everything I suppose though.