The Internet has created super-fast flowing streams of information. Human as a biological being does not change its input/output parameters of information. When the streams accelerated dramatically, the long texts had to give way to the short texts. This has affected not only the volume but also the content. We have become people of both short texts and simple content.
Information technologies do not repeat each other at a new level, but begin to differ, not in terms of channels or media, but in terms of their fundamental characteristics, different from others. If the book was a carrier of knowledge, the Internet has become a different speed, that is, where a more important component is not knowledge, but transportation.
To recall the sensational article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr in the Atlantic magazine, which was followed by the book, he touches on the topic much more extensively (2008). Interestingly, after Gutenberg invented the printing press, Italian humanists talked about the future “intellectual laziness” that would come with books, that people’s brains would weaken (Winston & Edelbach, 1998). Now we hear the same words in relation to the Internet.
Our fear of the disappearance of the book under the pressure of the coming Internet is not yet justified. However, people are reading less, particularly children Naomi Baron believes that digital media is changing even language (2009). First, it’s a shift toward changing the rules. Second, it changes the control of our communication. And this is understandable since SMS messages do not have editors, only authors who do not always own the rules. By the way, spelling changes are clearly visible even to the naked eye. Baron surveys have shown that while reading online, students are more likely to be engaged in other tasks, it is easier for them to concentrate when reading printed publications. 91% chose the book for the case of concentration rather than other platforms. 43% reported problems with concentration and complained of eye fatigue (2017).
The Internet has created super-fast flowing streams of information. On them, as on fast rivers, built analogs of power plants-information search systems. They began to generate new energy — information, creating its potentially infinite variety, to which the human brain has not yet grown. A human being is essentially very inertial. But in the case of electronic communication, he was suddenly ahead of the rest. And now this result cannot be unambiguously estimated, either as a positive nor as a negative.
References:
Baron, N. (2009, March). Are Digital Media Changing Language? ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are-Digital-Media-Changing-Language¢.aspx
Baron, N. (2017, December 6). Why Reading On A Screen Is Bad For Critical Thinking. Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/read-on-screen-learning_b_6681500?guccounter=1
Carr, N. (2008, August). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
Winston, M., Edelbach, R. (1998). Society, Ethics, and Technology. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=g9g-MTzCIJ0C&pg=PA282&lpg=PA282&dq=Italian+humanists+talked+about+the+future+intellectual+laziness&source=bl&ots=QMRO8wbLj8&sig=ACfU3U1-XLc19l6WFm24sDL-45MLv3g-mQ&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj50KfevKjlAhXLZd8KHWHaDZsQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Italian%20humanists%20talked%20about%20the%20future%20intellectual%20laziness&f=false
Tags: internet, media, media influence