The Affects of Google Has On The Way Learn

The internet and the web has changed the way we lean drastically.  Many students, including myself has rarely if not ever stepped foot into a library to check out and read a book. Most people today rely on internet for their information. And at the heart of the internet is a search engine call Google. According to Nicholas Carr in his article “Is google Making Us Stupid” stated that googles “the company has declared that its mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. For the most part I would have to agree that google has successfully accomplished that mission. Anything you desire more information on can be found on the internet using google. One question you have to ask yourself about the information you find is “How reliable and accurate is it?.” With millions of articles and millions of websites on the web many people reach and learn false or incorrect information.  Though I believe that google has made it much easier for to obtain information, it’s not necessarily the best way to obtain information. I don’t think google makes people stupider but I also don’t think it makes people smarter.

Most people who “google” or search for something on the internet, are just simply skimming a ton of information very quickly. Since there is so much information on the web, I believe that people have a hard time pulling out the relevant and accurate information they desire.  As Carr stated in his article “They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would “bounce” out to another site.” Compared to traditional reading, where people will spend hours if not days reading one source and analyzing it,  people reading online tend to just simply skim an article or source trying to find the easiest way obtain the information. With people not taking the time to think and analyze on their and instead looking for the easy way out, I believe that is harming the way people think.  Overall, I believe that google and the internet is great tool to find information, but if people are not using that information properly it does not help anyone in the long run.

 

References:

 

Carr, N. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 107(2), 89-94. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7984.2008.00172.x

One thought on “The Affects of Google Has On The Way Learn

  1. rmb5661

    I agree with you on this to a point. Particularly I agree that Google has achieved the goal of organizing the worlds information and making it available to everyone. That’s actually pretty amazing. Growing up around it most of my life I can’t even imagine life without it. It is such a useful tool. However, agreeing with what you said, is is it credible? Because almost anyone can post anything on the internet you have to be sure that information is correct. I actually have taken a course in high school and in college about searching the web. In those classes one learns how to spot credible sources allowing the learner to get the most out of their time spent online. In the end, is Google actually making us stupid? I personally can see it both ways. However, one can ask, is it better to be really knowledgeable in a few topics or know a little about everything? With Google statistics showing that people don’t spend long times in one site and they jump from one to another. Knowing a little about everything can be a benefit. One would be able to hold conversations about anything to anyone. There are very good arguments on whether Google is making us stupid. But you probably used Google to do your homework, and you probably learned something in the process.

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