Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Interesting perspective on how the mind is evolving to match the "intellectual technology" developments of the internet. Does reading the surface, jumping from page to page, and cutting back on in-depth, long readings hurt our language or cognative development?

Does the internet, with its large amounts of available information and many distractions, make us think differently? Does it discourage "deep" reading and thinking?

It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense... Taylor’s system is still very much with us; it remains the ethic of industrial manufacturing. And now, thanks to the growing power that computer engineers and software coders wield over our intellectual lives, Taylor’s ethic is beginning to govern the realm of the mind as well... The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds... But,...the doomsayers were unable to imagine the myriad blessings...(?)

I find it ironic that I could only skim this article though I skimmed it several times.

De stelling van dit artikel is dat onze manier van denken verandert door internet. We zijn nauwelijks meer in staat om een boek te lezen, maar zijn voortdurend titels aan 't scannen en 'power browsen'. Onze gedachten kunnen niet rustig meer bij één onderwerp blijven hangen, we moeten verder met het volgende onderwerp. Speciale aandacht is er voor de rol die Google hierbij speelt.