Am I Lazy Already? (Blog #6)

Am I Lazy Already?  (Blog #6)

My thoughts and feelings about what feels like a ‘rapid advancement of technology’ is, perhaps, in line with the article written by Nicholas Carr:  “Is Google Making Us Stupid”.  I’ve read and reread this article at least three additional times, going back and forth between it and the podcast in the hopes of trying to makes some sense of it all.  And, I would have to say that Ms. Jardine’s approach solidified what I was already feeling.  Her reflection said “Too much information; too much to know; too much material; too widely and swiftly disseminated” resonated what with what I was feeling.  So much information makes it hard for us to remember and retain, and allow for our brains to categorize all the information into its proper “bins” for future use. 

This brought me back to a line in Carr’s article, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think.  The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.”

I am speaking as someone born in 1960 and I come from a lifetime when owning and obtaining a library card meant almost as much as getting a Learner’s Permit”.  It was a sense of power and pride.  To other people, it was a visible sign that I knew how to read and that I enjoyed making the effort to find information that would enhance my life.  I am not saying that I learn less when I get information from a website.  But like acquiring the information from a website was easy and quick to do, retaining the information lasted nearly as long for me.  I can only tell you that getting the information meant nearly as much to me as  I would have made the effort to get up and go find it someplace else.

I like the thrill of the hunt.  I like that there is a scavenger hunt-approach to getting information when I do it from book to book.  In some respects you can get the same feeling, I guess, from sifting from one site to the next on the computer.  It just doesn’t feel the same for me.  In her article printed in Erica Bradley makes the point, “Not having to shut off our telephones keeps us connected.  So much so that we hardly need to even get out of bed.” (Page 1) 

I may be scoffed at because my article/report isn’t filled with all the mind-blowing interesting facts that are otherwise at my fingertips because I searched the internet.  To me, that is alright.  I like that I was the one who actually had to do the physical search to find what I was looking for and didn’t have it handed to me.  There is a sense of pride in that. 

As someone who already struggles to remember and retain information due to physiological reasons, the hard copy will always be the way to go for me. 

What my imagination tells me for the future, is that our bodies our minds will be able to think the search and when we sit down at the computer and look at the screen,  the information we thought of  will be there waiting for us. 

At that point, I am afraid that we will have become a very lazy society, if we haven’t already.  According to Erica Bradley and her article “Technology is Making Us Lazy”, she closes with the line, “The downside to the internet is that it is making us lazy.” (Page 1, final line).

-JT

Helium, March 10, 2009, “Technology Is Making Us Lazy” by Erica Bradley.